Landscape light fixture maintenance: the yearly checklist

Why landscape fixtures need more attention than roofline

Everything about a landscape fixture's location works against it. It is at ground level where the mower and the trimmer run. It is in a bed that gets fresh mulch dumped on it every spring. It is in soil that freezes and thaws a dozen times between December and March, and every one of those cycles nudges the stake. It gets buried by leaves in October and by snow in January.

The fixtures themselves are built for it. What drifts is the aim, the depth and the surroundings. An uplight that pointed perfectly at the trunk of a maple in September points at a branch by April. A path light that stood upright in the fall leans ten degrees after a winter of heave. None of it is broken. All of it looks wrong at night.

One residential install we feature ran 3 zones, 68 fixtures and 330 watts across more than 1,000 feet of run. Sixty-eight fixtures is sixty-eight things that can drift. That is why preventive maintenance is a line item on landscape systems and not just an option.

The spring checklist, fixture by fixture

Start at the transformer and walk the runs in order. At each fixture, clear anything piled against the body, straighten the stake if it leans, and push it back down if frost lifted it. Wipe the lens with a damp cloth. Look at the lead where it enters the ground for cuts from a trimmer or a shovel. Then, at dusk, aim.

Aiming is the part that makes the difference. An uplight should hit the trunk and catch the canopy, not blast a wall behind the tree or throw glare at the street. A path light should light the walk, not the sky. If you re-aim nothing else, re-aim the uplights on your feature trees, because those are the ones guests notice.

• Clear mulch, leaves and grass clippings off the fixture body and lens
• Straighten leaning stakes and reseat any fixture that heaved up
• Wipe lenses with a damp cloth, no solvents, no pressure washer
• Inspect the lead wire at ground entry for trimmer and shovel damage
• Re-aim uplights and path lights at dusk with the system on
• Confirm each zone responds in the app and colors match across fixtures

Mulch, mowers and the string trimmer

The single most common cause of a dead landscape fixture in our service area is not weather. It is a string trimmer. The line catches the lead wire an inch above the soil and chews through the jacket, and a week later the fixture is out or the whole run is flickering. If you have a lawn crew, show them where the fixtures are and ask for a mulch ring around each one.

Fresh mulch is the second. A landscaper spreads three inches of new bark in April and buries the path lights to the lens. The fixture still runs, but it lights the mulch. Pull it back to the fixture body after any mulching. Mulch piled over a fixture also holds moisture against it, which is not what the housing was designed for.

Dogs and kids are third. A knocked-over path light is a two-second fix if you catch it, and a cracked lens if the mower catches it first. Walk the beds once a month in season. It takes five minutes.

Timers, seasons and doing nothing

We install astronomical timers on landscape systems. Instead of a fixed on-time you adjust every few weeks, the timer knows the sunset time for your latitude on every day of the year and follows it. The lights come on at dusk in June and at dusk in December without anyone touching it. That removes the most tedious piece of landscape lighting upkeep entirely.

For color-changing landscape systems on the same controller as the roofline, the same schedules and scenes apply. Warm white through the week, a wash of color for a party, Christmas in December. The scene side is the easy part. thraxel.com/blog/what-are-astronomical-timers/ goes into how the timer works and why we would not install a system without one.

What is a service call and what is not

A fixture that is dark after you have cleared it, straightened it and confirmed the zone is on in the app is a service call. So is a whole run that flickers, which usually points to a damaged lead or a connection that took on water. So is a transformer that trips or hums. Text a photo and a description to 724-859-4390 and Tyson will tell you what it is and when we can be there.

A leaning fixture, a buried fixture, a fixture pointed the wrong way, those are not service calls. They are the five-minute walk. We are happy to handle them on a preventive visit, but you should know the difference so you are not waiting on us for something you can fix with your foot.

Parts are covered for 3 years and labor for 1, and freeze-thaw movement is expected rather than a defect. Trimmer damage is physical damage and is repaired at service-call cost. thraxel.com/blog/freeze-thaw-cycles-and-landscape-lights/ covers what the ground does to a fixture over a Western PA winter and how we install to account for it.

Service plans, or the do-it-yourself version

If you would rather never think about any of this, we offer service plans for landscape systems that put a spring preventive visit on the calendar every year: clear, straighten, clean, re-aim, check every connection, test every zone. Larger properties add a fall visit before the leaves come down. It is the same crew that installed the system, and it is the only reason a 68-fixture install still looks like install night five years later.

If you would rather do it yourself, the checklist above is the whole job. Either way, walk the yard at dusk once a month, and text us the moment a fixture goes dark. What we install is at thraxel.com/landscape/, and thraxel.com/blog/landscape-lighting-maintenance-plans/ lays out how the plans are structured.