How to Install Landscape Lighting (w/ Monica from The Weekender)

[Music] feeling in the dark on how to light the outside of your home well i'm here to show you the light the landscape flight that is done correctly it can completely change the look and feel of your home by highlighting key features making it safer at night and adding some major curb appeal i'm going to take you through the basics of landscape lighting design show you the different lighting options and then actually walk you through how to install them and all the products that i use throughout this video will be linked in the description below we're going to cover two general categories of lighting in this video up lighting and path lighting up lighting refers to lights that are mounted on the ground and shine their light upward path lights are used to line walkways and direct foot traffic basically they make it easy to see where you're going good landscape lighting design is all about balance we want evenly distributed light so your home doesn't look lopsided one thing to remember is that not every feature of your home needs to be lit or it could end up looking like a carnival at night now some people do want a more dramatic effect that's awesome some want more of a subtle effect that works too for this home we're going with a softer more subtle style start by taking a look at your exterior and picking out key focal points you want to feature as well as where you may need functional lighting for this house we're going to add lighting around the front flower beds the walkway and the trees on either side of the house to create a nice balance it's helpful to think of your landscape lighting in zones each zone will have a main power source wire that will run from the lights to a main transformer now that we have our lighting design plan we need to actually get installing and no matter what your design plan is there's a couple things everybody's gonna need the first thing is working outdoor power and guys this seems super obvious but it would be a major bummer to completely light your home make it look amazing all to realize that your outlet isn't working so it's worth a very simple check plug it in the lights up you are good to go all right that's working and i should mention that this is just a standard 120 volt outlet now throughout this process my friend steve is going to be helping me along the way he is an expert landscape lighting artist if i can call you that i'm going to be helping with a lot of the technical things throughout the process first up is going to be installing our transformer now why do we need a transformer it's going to convert 120 volts from the outlet to 12 volts for the landscape lights okay because if we went with the high 120 volt we'd need a licensed electrician and contractors this kind of makes it diy homeowner friendly right absolutely okay everything that we do all the lights are going to run through this one transformer yeah all right so our first step is going to be actually installing the transformer it's very simple we're just going to plug it in but we need to mount this somewhere now this house is stucco so we don't really want to attach it directly onto the house it's really a preference thing but we're going to add ours onto a cedar post that's going to be mounted right next to it so we went down about 18 inches and then we have plenty up top because we want at least 12 inches off the ground all right so i'm just putting on a post leveler so that we can make sure this is nice and straight and then we will backfill it we want it to be level left and right and front to back we're just back filling with the same dirt that we pulled out you want to make sure that you're tamping the dirt down as you backfill because you don't want it to be loose dirt around the post we want to keep it immobile all right so now we're just putting in a screw to mount the transformer onto what's really great about this transformer is that it has a photocell and basically that's a sensor that's going to turn the lights on when it gets dark and then we'll have them programmed to stay on a certain amount of time so in the morning they'll shut off all right so this transformer is all installed but before we plug it in we've got to install some lights we've covered the basics and now it's time to start installing we're going to focus on the right side of the house closest to the transformer we're choosing up lights for this spruce tree which is a pretty common choice for a tree of this size before we can install the lights for this spruce tree we actually need a place to put them right now the bed doesn't have enough space in there this tree has been growing and clearly filling up the bed a bit now you don't really want to put your lights just out into the grass with kids and pets and mowers they're sure to get damaged so we're going to extend our bed out so that there's a place to put the lights to do that we're gonna mark out the new beds so that we're sure we like the design of it then we'll use a shovel to edge the whole thing remove the grass and add some mulch [Music] to extend our bed we're using a spade to create a clean edge then going through and removing the grass making sure that we go down about three inches deep you just want to make sure that you're getting below the roots of the grass before we mulch this new area we're going to place our lights and run our wires all right now we're actually going to go about adding our lights and i mentioned that these are up lights but these specifically are led flood lights and what we're going to do is place these kind of on the ground make sure we're happy with their placement and the design and then we'll run our wire from the transformer so that we know we have enough lighting this tree with three flood lights is going to add a good amount of illumination to it and really make it noticeable from all different sides when you're approaching it's going to be a real statement piece on the home while also balancing out the light that i've planned over on the left side garage so we have our spacing figured out in our general placement but now within the bed where do we want to put it we're going to want to keep them about three to four inches inside the bed edge okay and that's important because if you were to edge your bed again next season the last thing you want is to hit your wire or to damage your light all right so now what we need to do is get our wire here from the transformer out and around to each of our lights we're using 12 gauge wire for our entire project that will be sufficient for the amount of lights we're adding and the distance we need to run depending on your lighting design you may need to bump it up to a 10 gauge wire but that would really depend on how far you need to run your wire and how many lights you plan to install so this whole step is really about dry fitting everything we're dry fitting the lights and now we're dry fitting the wire above the ground so that we're sure that we have enough in the end we're probably going to end up having about a foot or two of excess but we'd much rather have that than have too little okay now we are going to connect our lights to the wire and we're going to start at the end of the wire where we just made our cut so the wire on the light and the wire that we're running the 12 gauge we need to split those apart and we need to strip the wire down a bit see how much are you uh stripping off at the end there about a half inch so now we have the wire that's going to be going to the main power source at the transformer and we have the wire for the light and now we need to combine these two now important thing to notice is that on your wire one side is going to have some writing or numbers on it we want to make sure that we connect the wires with the writing to the wires with the writing and the wires with the ridge to the wires with the ridge all right so i have my two wires that i want i'm just going to give them a little hand twist to make it convenient and i'm going to take my wire connector pop it on these wire connectors have silicone in them and it's going to make it waterproof now that we are all connected we're actually going to remove our stake so now we're going to use a rubber mallet so we can hit the face from the light fixture without breaking it so we're going to leave the stake about an inch and a half above the ground so after we mulch it doesn't cover too much of the fixture now that we have it in the ground we need to position the actual light so we're just using the screw on the side to loosen it and then position and tighten it back up we mentioned we left extra wire here so we're gonna actually coil this up a bit so that if we ever change the placement of the light we have this a little bit of extra in here at each light and we're gonna use sod staples to hold these in place all right so this one is all connected and we're going to move down to the next one we're going to cut the wire there and then wire that up and just keep moving along so i have three wires now i have the wire from the first light i have the wire for my light and then i have the wire that continues along to the power source that will take me to light number three i need to connect all three of these together and it will be the exact same process all right now that that is connected i'm going to install my stake here in the ground now i have my wire i need to make sure i coil my excess all right this one's good to go move ourselves down the line all right so now we're going to focus our efforts on this bed here we're going to add three lights to this area because remember it's all about balance we're going to light the boulder and the grasses because on the opposite side of the yard on the other side of the driveway we're going to be lighting a tree there we're going to place our lights first get them in place dry fit everything and then we'll do some digging a couple things to keep in mind as you're running your wire throughout the yard the first is that you want to keep your wire as low profile as possible so whenever we can we're going to hide it in a bed put it along the edge of the house but we also want to remember that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line basically i am running my wire straight along the house and i'm using the bed here to hide this wire as well so that i don't have to do any digging then we're going to make a straight line from the bed with the spruce to this bed and we're going to have to dig a trench there we have a wire connecting these two beds and right now it's just running directly on the grass obviously we're not gonna leave it that way it will be destroyed in about two seconds flat so what we're going to do is dig a very small trench that the wire can drop down into we're going to pull the wire taut and then we're going to use the pickaxe and the spade to dig our very small trench and put the wire down into it so we want to be about five to six inches down a lot of people get their lawn aerated or overseeded that has equipment that could damage the lighting wire so getting it down five six inches is going to prevent that from happening in the future our trench is fully dug and so we're going to start placing the wire into the trench and i'm going to lay it in and steve you're just going to kind of open it and prep the area for me okay our trench is about an inch and a half wide and five to six inches down so we want to make sure that the wire is all the way down at the deepest point pretty good pretty good pretty good okay okay our wire is fully laid and now we're going to start to backfill but remembering if you see big rocks to kind of pull those out when we dug the trench we kind of curled back the two edges if you notice it's loose here it's loose on this side so that helped us get a little deeper right because of all the rocks and everything and how hard the soil was so then after you put the soil in i'm kind of punching punching the sod back into place to kind of flatten it out and this is also why we did such a thin trench so that we can fill it right back up the grass will close up and you're really not going to see it [Music] all right now in this zone of the house all the lighting that we're installing is going to go into this flower bed here we're going to have a combination of path lighting and some spots that are going to go up on the house but they're all going to be in this flower bed we have a little bit of a complication that's fine just we need to work around it the transformer is over in that back corner but we have a walkway so we're going to have to go underneath the walkway and you have to be strategic when you're choosing where to go underneath you obviously want to choose the thinnest spot that will require the least amount of work but i would normally take it right across here that would be a nice straight shot however this home has a little crack in the sidewalk here so we don't want to go underneath here that could put stress on the concrete and damage it further so we're going to go behind the box woods out and a straight shot right here so steve is digging two holes one on the flower bed side and then one on the grass side and then this galvanized pipe is gonna go underneath the walkway and one thing about cement walkways is generally when they're installed there's a layer of gravel put down first and then the cement is poured on top that gravel is our sweet spot once we have our two holes dug it should be fairly simple for this pipe to go underneath through the gravel and now we're actually going to lift the sod in this area similarly to how we did around the spruce tree so that we can replace it right back in all right so what i have here is a section of sod you can see that we pretty much got the roots all out and i'm gonna save this when we're done with our hole we're going to replace it so i'm just going to put it off to the side all right so we have our holes dug on both sides and i bet you're wondering how we're going to get the pipe underneath so steve we're going to hammer it through we're going to hammer it through only thing to mention is that you want to make sure that you have a cap on the one end of the pipe that's going to be doing most of the work for you if you used an end that was open it would fill with dirt and rock and just be a whole lot harder than it needs to be all right all right you're good you're good you got about two inches here cool okay all right so we have access to this bed now so let me show you the layout we're gonna do a combination of spotlights and path lights we're gonna start with four path lights and the first one is gonna go on the other side of the walkway again remember it's all about balance so we want to make sure that's balanced the next path light is going to be on this side but at the corner and then along this stretch we want them evenly spaced so the middle one will go right in front of this magnolia and then this last one will go all the way down at the corner additionally we're adding spotlights and what these will do is actually these are going to be directional up on the house they're going to illuminate the garage now that all of our lights are placed we need to run our wire over from the transformer and get them all hooked up so we're taking the wire keeping it tight along the edge of the porch all right now you'll notice that for this trench we're actually staying right along the edge of the walkway this is for a couple reasons it's very low profile we're disturbing hardly anything and again it's going to be away from the traffic area it's going to be buried down in here along it's the easiest way and also the most direct way that we can do it then going to our pipe which takes us underneath the sidewalk once we're in the flower bed we're going to keep the wire close to the house rather than along the front of the bed and then just branch off to each path light [Music] [Music] all right we're on to our last zone and this is here on the left side of the yard and what we're going to do is illuminate this tree here i've gone with a different lighting option this is a well light for this area reason i'm choosing this is because it's going to light the tree from the bottom up and i don't have a ton of space in this bed and it's not one that we're really looking to extend either now you've probably guessed it we need to start by digging a hole so we're gonna dig this hole and to do it we're gonna use a post hole digger it's just about the perfect circumference that we need for this well light steve how far down do we need to dig about five to six inches because we want this lip to sit at the top of the mulch another reason why this tree is a good candidate for a well light is that the canopy of the tree is raised up a bit whereas with the spruce the greenery starts basically at the ground another thing to note is that a well light is probably the softest most subtle light that you can choose all right now that we have our hole for our well light dug and that's placed now you guessed it we need to dig some trenches so we're gonna do a small trench from the edge of the driveway over to the bed and then we're gonna dig another trench from this side of the driveway over to the walkway so our trenches are dug on both sides and now we need to deal with how to get the power from this light across the driveway over to the transformer and in this case it doesn't make sense to go under it we can't go over it so we've got to go through it so we're going to use a chalk line and snap a straight line from each edge of the trench and then we're going to use a circular saw with a masonry blade and cut down into it to create a channel for the wire to drop down into and then we'll patch it on up safety is really important with this so we need eyewear ear wear and a ventilator mask we're going to adjust the depth of the blade so we do this cut in a couple different passes and the reason for that is it's it's easier on the saw it's easier on the blade and it's a safety aspect is for kickback and the masonry blade is the most important part all right so now we have a clear path from our light all the way over to our transformer and for this one we're going to do it a little bit differently we're going to start with our wire at the light and run it towards the transformer since this is the only light that's going to be on this wire all right now in order to get our wire down into the driveway it's a very nice snug fit which is great but if you have a five in one tool it's helpful to make sure that you push the wire down now i know some of you out there are freaking out that i just cut into this driveway but i'm going to show you how easy it is to fix it right now so what i have here is speed fill crack filler and i'm going to drop this down into the crack i'm going to make a couple passes through and this is going to harden right up and fill the driveway right in and now this product is totally fine to have direct contact with the wire so we're in good shape there and i'm filling it in and just kind of letting it drip down i'm going to do another pass afterwards because it's going to settle a bit all right so now we need to cover up any of the wire that we have laid within the flower beds and that's pretty simple process all we need to do is bury it below the mulch this mulch is nice and soft it's so much easier to hide wire in a flower bed than it is to have to dig trenches and rocky soil so we have placed all of our lights we've wired all of our lights and now we're at the point where we can actually wire up our transformer and get power to our lights so what i have here are the four different wires from my four different zones and what i need to do is combine all of those together and then attach it into the transformer so we're gonna stick with our same rule of thumb that we've been using that the wires that have writing on them stay together and the blank wires stay together as well so i'm gonna make sure that my coatings are kind of all lined up i'm gonna give them a little twist with my hand all right now that i have these all twisted together i'm going to be dealing with my common and my 12 volt and honestly as long as you have like wires combined it doesn't matter if i went in common or 12 volts so i'm going to go in right here it's going to be a little bit of a tight fit and that's okay now i'm going to repeat the exact same process with the other side so the other one goes into the common so now i'm going to reattach it to the wall here and now i'm going to pop my photocell back in all you have to do is plug her in okay all right so we're all good to go here we have power and the lights are working now all we have to do is wait for the sun to go down and we can check out our handiwork [Music] our landscape lighting is complete and this house has never looked better by emphasizing several key features and adding secondary lighting to well-trafficked areas this home is just bursting with curb appeal there's such great balance with nice lighting on both sides of the home the garage lights highlight the house and our pathway is perfectly lit so that everyone can see where they're going now that i've shown you the light i hope that you feel confident to tackle this project in your own home as always you can find links to all the products i use throughout the video in the description below [Music]

Channel: Lowe's Home Improvement

Views: 1,451,606

Keywords: how-to, how to, lowes, lowe's, how to install landscape lighting, how to install lighting, how to install outdoor lighting, how to install lights, how to install lights outside, how to install floodlights, how to install flood lights, how to light your house, outdoor lighting, outdoor lighting ideas, outdoor lighting how to, installing outdoor lights, installing lights outside, installing lights outdoors, how to install tree lights, installing lights in a tree, landscape lights

Id: kVh68--pSp0

Length: 19min 33sec (1173 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 10 2019