According to the University of Florida, landscaping the environment around your home can have a number of beneficial effects, both for your pocketbook and Mother Nature. Did you know that, for example, a home with great landscaping will command as much as 13% more when it comes time to sell? Natural landscaping also provides a home and shelter to many plants, bugs, and animals.
Of course, beyond these benefits, landscaping also makes your home look amazing, which is why so many homeowners take the extra step of installing outdoor sconce lighting fixtures and other features to help show off their homes. If you’ve been thinking it’s time to show off the landscaping you put so much time and money into, you need to be careful. Many is the homeowner who has made simple mistakes that cost them everything when setting up their outdoor pole lighting fixtures. Here are just a few of the most common you should be sure to avoid.
Three of the Biggest Blunders People Make When Installing Their Outdoor Hanging Lighting Fixtures
- Failing to Consider Light Pollution
- Putting Too Much Light on Your Steps
- Not Burying the Wiring Deep Enough
For the San Francisco-based online newspaper SF Gate, one of the most common mistakes homeowners make when setting up their outdoor hanging lighting fixtures is failing to consider the effect their lighting will have on the environment. Now, when I say environment, I mean that in a truly encompassing way. Is the light so bright that it affects your neighbor’s ability to live his or her life comfortably? Is the light going to ruin the little ecosystem you’ve built with your landscaping? Will you be able to sleep with the light shining through your window? Take all of these things into consideration before installing your lighting.
Lighting the steps and walkways that run through your landscaping can be a great way to add some whimsy to your landscaping, while simultaneously helping to improve the safety of you and your guests. As the home improvement site Houzz.com suggests, however, there is such a thing as too much lighting. Putting too much lighting on your steps or walkways can actually have the effect of drowning them out, making it a lot harder to see where you’re walking. In short, lighting in this case can actually be dangerous. As a general rule, less is more when it comes to lighting your walkways and steps.
Most home improvement and landscaping professionals recommend burying the wiring for your outdoor hanging lighting fixtures between three and six inches deep. The idea is to bury the wiring deep enough so that you won’t hit it with a shovel or pull it up with your lawn mower, without putting it under so much soil that it’s a huge pain to get to when you need to perform maintenance. Burying your wires deep enough can be a lot of work, but if they’re pulled up because they weren’t buried deep enough, they become an electrical and tripping hazard. Protect yourself and your guests — put in the extra work.
What are some of the worst mistakes you’ve made when setting up your outdoor tower clocks, outdoor post lighting fixtures, and other outdoor lighting hardware? Share your mishaps in the comment section. See this reference for more: www.ristreetclocks.com
