Custom Outdoor Lighting Solutions on Long Island

At Above All Masonry, our experienced landscape lighting contractors can help you choose the best outdoor lighting for your home’s unique needs. We can also install most outdoor lighting fixtures, and when landscape lighting requires hard-wiring, we can recommend trusted Long Island electricians to lend their special expertise.

What does a landscape lighting system actually include?

A low voltage landscape lighting system is four things: a transformer plugged into a GFCI protected exterior receptacle with a weatherproof in-use cover, buried cable running out to the fixtures, the fixtures themselves, and a control that decides when it all comes on.

The transformer steps 120 volt household power down to about 12 volts. Most transformers have several output taps, so a long run can be fed slightly higher to make up for what the wire loses along the way. Transformer size and how the runs are split are what keep the far fixtures as bright as the near ones.

Low voltage is why the cable can be buried in the yard instead of run in conduit, and why most of the work is landscaping rather than electrical. It still has to be cable listed for direct burial, set at the depth the code calls for, with connections made to stay watertight.

The part people underestimate is the layout. Ten fixtures placed well will make a yard look better than thirty placed evenly, because what you notice at night is contrast: a lit tree against a dark fence, a bright doorway at the end of a dim walk. Lighting everything at once flattens a yard out.

Who handles the electrical work?

We design and install the lighting, and when a job needs hard wiring we bring in a licensed Long Island electrician. That split matters. A 120 volt outdoor receptacle, a new circuit or a line voltage fixture is electrician work, and in most Nassau and Suffolk towns it needs a permit and an inspection. The specifics vary by town and village, so the electrician confirms what your address requires. The low voltage side downstream of the transformer is ours.

Sort the receptacle out early. If there’s no exterior outlet near where the transformer should go, or the one that’s there is old, not GFCI protected, or missing a weatherproof in-use cover, it gets corrected before a transformer goes on the wall. That’s a small job for an electrician when it’s scheduled with everything else and an annoying one when it turns up the week of installation.

Where does lighting go first?

If the budget only covers part of the yard, the front of the house is where it does the most work. An illuminated entry, a walkway you can read the footing on, and a driveway that doesn’t disappear at the curb cut all change how the house presents itself, and they’re the areas people use every single day rather than only in July.

After that, priorities usually run: steps and grade changes, because that’s where people trip; the patio and any outdoor kitchen, so the space works after dinner; the pool and any water feature, which is where lighting looks the most dramatic; and finally specimen trees and planting beds for depth.

For the techniques behind those choices, our posts on lighting trees and plants, on which areas to light first, and on the safety side of outdoor lighting go deeper than a service page should.

Which fixtures last on Long Island?

Fixture material is the difference between a system that looks right in ten years and one that’s weeping rust in three. Solid brass and copper are the durable choices. They don’t rust, they develop a patina instead of failing, and they’re what we specify on jobs near the water. Cast aluminum is the mid tier and works inland if the finish is good. Thin stamped metal and plastic fixtures from a big box store are the ones that go cloudy, crack at the stake and get replaced.

Salt air matters more than most people expect. On the South Shore, near the bays and anywhere with real exposure on the North Shore, corrosion is the thing that ends a fixture’s life, not the LED inside it. We frequently use Kichler fixtures and can work with any brand or style you prefer.

Ask about the warranty on both the fixture and the LED module before you buy, because they’re often different lengths, and ask whether the module is replaceable. An integrated LED that can’t be changed means replacing the whole fixture when it eventually dims.

LED, color temperature and controls

Everything is LED now, and that’s a genuine improvement: a fraction of the power for the same light, rated for tens of thousands of hours, and far less heat near planting.

Color temperature is the setting that decides whether the result looks like a home or a parking lot. Warm white around 2700K flatters brick, stone and wood and reads as inviting. Cooler light can suit a modern facade or make green foliage pop, but used across a whole yard it goes cold fast. Keep it consistent, because mixing temperatures in one sight line is the most common reason a system looks amateur.

Brightness is measured in lumens, not watts. A well lit walkway needs much less output than people assume, and glare is the real enemy: a fixture you can see the source of is a fixture that’s aimed wrong.

For control, a timer that tracks sunset through the year beats a fixed schedule, and a photocell picks up sunset with no programming at all. On its own, though, a photocell runs until sunrise, so most systems pair it with a shutoff time. Smart transformers add app control, zones and dimming, and the dimming only works if the fixtures and drivers are rated for it, so that gets decided when fixtures are selected rather than bolted on later.

One more thing worth aiming carefully: light that crosses a property line is a common neighbor complaint, and some villages have exterior lighting provisions of their own. Shielding and aim solve it.

What goes wrong with landscape lighting systems?

Most service calls come down to the same handful of things. Worth knowing whether we installed your system or you inherited it with the house.

Fixtures dimmer at the end of a run. Voltage drops as it travels along the cable, so the last fixture on a long run gets less than the first. The fix is design and wiring: the right cable gauge, runs split into zones, and the correct transformer tap. Brighter bulbs don’t solve it.

Failed connections. This is the most common cause of a section going dark. Connections buried in the ground need proper waterproof connectors, and the cheap twist-on kind corrode until the circuit opens, usually a year or two after the install.

Fixtures knocked out of aim. Mowers, plows, dogs and frost heave all move a staked fixture. A light aimed at the sky instead of the tree is the single most common reason a system stops looking designed.

Overgrowth. Planting keeps growing after the install, and eventually it swallows the fixture that was lighting it.

Controls drifting out of season. A timer set in June has the lights coming on an hour late by October. A photocell solves that, as long as a shrub or a snow drift isn’t covering it.

Cheap fixtures failing. Clouded lenses, cracked stakes and corroded housings. This is where the brass and copper argument stops being about looks.

What affects the cost of a lighting system?

Every yard is priced on its own layout. These are the factors that move the number:

• How many fixtures, and how many zones
• Fixture material and quality, brass and copper against aluminum
• Transformer size and whether smart control is included
• Cable runs and how much trenching the layout needs
• Whether cable has to cross finished hardscape or lawn
• New electrical work, if there’s no suitable outdoor outlet
• Retrofitting an established landscape against wiring during a build

The cheapest time to run lighting is while the patio, driveway or planting is already open. Sleeves and conduit under new hardscape cost very little during construction and a lot afterward, so if you’re planning a paver patio, a driveway or front entrance or a fire feature, decide about lighting before the base goes in.

What does the process look like?

We walk the property with you, look at the architecture, the planting, the sight lines from inside the house and where the power is. You get a 3D design so you can see the plan before anything is installed.

Installation starts with a call to Dig Safely New York so utilities get marked, then setting the transformer, running and burying cable, and placing fixtures. Then comes the part that separates a good system from a mediocre one: final aiming, done after dark. A fixture set perfectly at two in the afternoon is a guess. Aiming at night, with you there to look at it, is how the system ends up doing what you pictured.

Stephen Bono, the owner, is on every job site, and Above All Masonry Design is family-owned, BBB accredited with an A plus rating since 2012. We also offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

If you inherited a system someone else installed, ask us. Whether we take it on depends on what’s in the ground.

How much maintenance does outdoor lighting need?

Less than it used to, but it isn’t install and forget.

Plants grow, which is the biggest one. A fixture aimed at a three foot shrub is aimed at the inside of a six foot shrub two seasons later, so lenses need clearing and fixtures need re-aiming as the landscape fills in. Beyond that: wipe lenses so output doesn’t drop, check that stakes haven’t been knocked loose by a mower or a plow, and have the connections and the transformer looked over once a year. If you check the transformer yourself, unplug it first and leave anything behind the cover to us or to an electrician.

Going into winter, reset the timer for the longer nights, or pair a photocell with a shutoff time so the system isn’t burning until dawn, and give the walkway and step lights a look before the first ice. Freeze and thaw, road salt and wet ground are hard on outdoor fittings, so catching moisture in a fixture in the fall beats finding a dead run in January.

Outdoor lighting FAQs for Nassau and Suffolk County homeowners

Do I need an electrician for landscape lighting?

For the low voltage system itself, no. That’s what we install. You need a licensed electrician if there’s no suitable GFCI protected outdoor receptacle for the transformer, or if the design includes any 120 volt fixtures or a new circuit, and in most towns here that work is permitted and inspected. We coordinate it rather than doing it ourselves.

Can lighting be added to a patio or driveway that’s already finished?

Usually, yes. Cable can often be routed through planting beds and along edges instead of cutting hardscape, and there are fixtures made to retrofit into existing steps and walls. It takes longer and costs more than doing it during construction, which is the argument for deciding early if a project is already planned.

Will landscape lighting raise my electric bill much?

A low voltage LED system is a small load, which is one of the real advantages of the switch from halogen. The bigger variable is how many hours a night it runs, which is what the timer or photocell controls.

How long do LED landscape fixtures last?

The LEDs are rated for tens of thousands of hours, so in practice the fixture housing usually fails before the light does, and on a coastal property corrosion is what gets it. That’s the argument for brass or copper over thin metal, and for asking whether the LED module can be replaced on its own.

What’s the difference between path lights and downlighting?

Path lights sit low and throw light down and out in a circle, which marks a walkway and its edges. Downlighting mounts high, in a tree or on the house, and washes a broader area from above, which looks more like natural light and hides the source. Most good plans use both: path lights where footing matters, downlighting for the wider picture.

Do you light pools and water features?

Yes, and it’s some of the most dramatic lighting in a yard. One caveat worth knowing: anything in or near pool water falls under Article 680 of the electrical code, which covers listed fixtures, GFCI protection, minimum clearances from the water, and bonding of metal parts close to the pool. That includes low voltage fixtures, so a 12 volt path light near a pool is not automatically in the clear. We plan that part with the electrician rather than treating it as landscape lighting.

Planning lighting for your property?

Whether it’s a full plan or lighting added to a project already in motion, the design starts with walking the property after dark. Contact us to set one up, or see our portfolio for lighting work across Nassau and Suffolk County.