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Landscape lighting, wired into the build.

Low-voltage and architectural lighting across San Diego County since 1984 — conduit and runs buried before the hardscape, transformers sized to the load, fixtures rated for the salt air.

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Blue-hour landscape lighting washing up a canyon-edge property in San Diego County, runs buried before the hardscape went down

Lighting is infrastructure, not an afterthought.

Most yards get lit last. The patio is poured, the walls are capped, the planting is in, and then someone runs a wire along the surface and stakes a few fixtures into the bed. It works for a season. Then the wire gets nicked by a shovel, the run trips a connection, and the layout is whatever was easy to reach instead of what the property needed.

We plan lighting while the ground is still open. Conduit and the buried runs go in before the hardscape and the planting, on a layout drawn to the property — up-lighting on the architecture, grazing on the stone, path and step lighting where people walk in the dark. We size the transformer to the full load with headroom to add later, set the zones, and route everything where a future shovel will not find it.

Near the coast we spec corrosion-rated fixtures and sealed connections, because salt air eats builder-grade hardware in a few seasons. Wired into the build, the system is cleaner, safer, and outlasts anything stapled on after. We have wired it this way since 1984, and we stand behind the work.

What’s included.

  • Low-voltage path and step lighting routed where people actually walk after dark
  • Architectural up-lighting and grazing on walls, columns, and entry features
  • Tree and canopy lighting, moonlighting downward from height for soft cover light
  • Hardscape and pool-area lighting integrated into walls, steps, coping, and seat ledges
  • Transformer sizing and zoning set to the full load with headroom to expand
  • Smart and timer control, dusk-to-dawn photocells, app and zone scheduling
  • Corrosion-rated brass and copper fixtures with sealed connections for coastal salt air
  • Conduit and wiring buried during the build — before the hardscape and planting go in

Our process.

01 · Discovery

Site & layout

We walk the property after dark, find what is worth lighting and what should stay dark, and map the paths, steps, and features. We flag where conduit and buried runs need to go before anything is paved.

02 · Design

Zones & load

You see the lighting plan before we trench. Fixture placement and beam type get drawn alongside the electrical: transformer sizing, zoning, and the wire runs the layout requires, with headroom to add later.

03 · Build

Conduit to fixture

Conduit, buried runs, transformer, zones, fixtures, controls. The runs go in before the hardscape when we are building it. Every phase runs in-house, in order, with one crew accountable for the one before it.

04 · Handoff

Aiming & warranty

We aim every fixture at night, set the timers and scenes, and walk you through running it. Then our workmanship warranty is ours — on the wiring, the connections, and the fixtures we set.

Selected lighting projects.

Blue-hour lit stone steps on a San Diego property, step lighting and path runs wired into the hardscape
Path & step lighting
Blue-hour stone steps, runs in the build
Architectural up-lighting on a canyon-edge spa and ridge property in San Diego's backcountry
Architectural · canyon edge
Ridge-edge up-lighting, zoned controls
Landscape and hardscape lighting integrated into a graded San Diego lot, transformer sized to the full layout
Hardscape lighting
Full-property layout, transformer sized to load
See the full gallery →

Why bring us your lighting.

Forty years, same owner

Darren Earl has been wiring outdoor lighting in San Diego County since 1984. He has watched which fixtures hold up on coastal lots and which seize in three seasons, and which buried runs survive the years. The owner prices the job and has carried the ten-year structural liability on it for four decades. His in-house crew, not a rotating cast of subs, builds it.

One team, no subcontractors

Because we run the whole build, the lighting is designed into it — the conduit goes in while we have the ground open, not after a separate sub shows up to a finished yard with a trencher. One contract, one crew, no wire stapled across a wall because the paving was already down.

Clean record, workmanship behind it

Forty years, zero structural complaints on record, and we carry the same standard into the wiring. Sealed connections, properly sized transformers, corrosion-rated fixtures, and a workmanship warranty on what we install. One company is responsible for all of it — you call us.

Lighting questions, answered straight.

A quality LED landscape fixture is rated for roughly 40,000 to 50,000 hours. Run a few hours a night on a timer, that is fifteen to twenty years before the diode dims noticeably. The LED is rarely what fails first. What fails is cheap hardware in the ground and at the connections, which is why we spec corrosion-rated fixtures and seal every splice. We use integrated LED fixtures so the light source and the housing are engineered as one unit, and we size the system so it is not run hot, which is what shortens diode life faster than age does.
Yes, and most of our lighting goes into yards that are already built. The honest part is the trenching. Where there is no conduit, we cut clean channels for the buried runs, route under hardscape where we can, and restore the surface so it reads finished, not patched. It is more careful work than wiring during a build, but it is routine for us. We size the transformer for the full layout, set the zones, and leave room to add later. If you are planning a future patio or pool, tell us, and we will sleeve conduit now so the next phase does not mean digging twice.
Low-voltage is the safe choice, and it is what we install. A transformer steps household 120-volt power down to 12 volts before it ever reaches a fixture or a buried run, so the wire in your soil and the fixture by the pool are not carrying a dangerous charge. That is what makes it safe around water, children, and pets. The 120-volt side stays sealed in a code-rated transformer on a GFCI circuit, wired by our in-house crew and inspected. Done right, low-voltage lighting is both safer and easier to live with than line-voltage, and it is far simpler to extend or adjust down the road.
Cost tracks fixture count, fixture quality, and how much trenching the layout needs. A focused plan lighting an entry, a few trees, and a path is a smaller number than a full property with architectural up-lighting, step lighting, pool-area lighting, and security zones. Wiring during a build costs less than retrofitting a finished yard, because the runs go in before the hardscape. We quote a fixed price after we walk the property and lay out the zones, and we tell you which choices move the number. We do not pad the count to inflate the job, and we do not under-light to win it.
It does, and fast. Within a mile of the ocean, cheap aluminum and steel fixtures pit, seize, and fail within a few seasons. On coastal lots from Carlsbad to La Jolla we spec corrosion-rated fixtures, brass and copper that patina instead of rusting, marine-grade stainless hardware, and sealed waterproof connections rather than the crimp caps that let salt moisture in. The transformer is rated and mounted for the environment too. It costs more up front than builder-grade fixtures, and it is the difference between lighting that holds for fifteen years near the water and lighting you replace in three.

Tell us about the lighting.

Bring us the property — a finished yard that needs light, or a build where the runs should go in now. We come look at it after dark if it helps, lay out the zones, and give you a fixed-price concept. No charge for the visit.

Call
(858) 603-7842
Studio
20808 Thyme Way, Jamul, CA 91935
Hours
Mon–Fri · 8:00am – 5:00pm
Saturday · By appointment
Sunday · Closed
License
CSLB #523467 · Licensed & insured

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