Laurel Highlands, PA
Lighting in the Laurel Highlands: mountain houses, ski cabins and long winters
The Laurel Highlands sit between about 45 and 90 minutes from our shop, close enough for Greensburg and Latrobe to feel like home turf and far enough that Somerset and the ski areas get batched. Here is how we light stone, timber and log homes in the mountains.
Where the Highlands fall on our map
The Laurel Highlands are the one regional market that is not really regional. Greensburg is 45 miles from Kittanning and Latrobe is 48, about an hour either way, which is the same trip as Cranberry Township. Johnstown is 70 miles and closer to ninety minutes. Ligonier, Somerset and the ski-area townships sit in between, up on the ridge.
The near side of the Highlands rides on our normal schedule. The far side, out past Ligonier toward Somerset and the resorts, gets grouped into runs of a few days so the crew can work several mountain properties without commuting over the ridge twice a day. The page at thraxel.com/areas/latrobe/ gives a good picture of how the near side is handled.
Mountain weather is a different weather
The Highlands hold the highest ground in Western Pennsylvania, and the ski areas are up there for a reason. Snow arrives earlier, stays longer and comes in heavier loads than it does on the Allegheny at Kittanning. Ice on a north eave in Somerset County in February is not a maybe.
That is the environment the system is built for. Pixels are sealed in IP67 marine-grade silicone on 16-gauge wire, and the color-matched aluminum track is fastened to the fascia rather than hung from the gutter, so a slab of roof snow sliding off does not take the lights with it.
We also install seasonal lights only when the weather permits, and on the ridge that shortens the November window. Mountain homes that want traditional C9 for Christmas should book by early fall so the install lands before the first real storm.
Stone, timber and log: the Highlands look
Most Highlands houses do not want a color show. They want the stone chimney, the timber beams and the log walls to read at night the way they read at four in the afternoon in October. That is a warm-white job, and it is why the dedicated 2700K warm-white diode in our RGBWW pixels matters more here than anywhere else we work. Color is there when you want it. Warm white is what runs most nights.
On log and timber homes we match the track to the stain rather than to a paint chip, which takes a little more care but keeps the track invisible by day. On stone we lean on uplighting: a few warm fixtures at the base of a chimney or a fieldstone wall do more than any amount of roofline. Zones and fixture types are on thraxel.com/landscape/.
- Warm white as the everyday scene, color on demand
- Track matched to stain on log and timber
- Uplighting on stone chimneys and walls
- Path and step lights for sloped lots
Firepits, pavilions and the long evenings
Highlands evenings are long, cool and worth sitting outside for, from May through leaf season. A firepit ring, a pavilion, a covered porch and the path between them are the zones that get used, and they are lit as a set: enough to walk safely and see faces, not enough to kill the stars.
Every landscape system runs on astronomical timers that track sunset as it moves through the year, so the pavilion comes on at the right time in June and the right time in November without a schedule change. Annual preventive maintenance is available for owners who would rather not think about it.
Ski cabins and houses you are not always in
A lot of the ridge is second homes: ski cabins near the resorts, hunting camps, weekend places on a few acres. For those, the app is the whole point. You can put the house on Everyday Warm from a couch in Pittsburgh, run the Christmas scene the weekend the family is up, and turn it all off from the car on the way home. The post at thraxel.com/blog/lighting-second-homes-and-cabins/ covers the rest of the region.
Rental cabins get a bonus: a lit exterior in the listing photos, and a house that looks occupied when it is not.
A word about restraint
This is the region with Fallingwater in it and the Diamond in Ligonier at its center, and the taste runs toward understated. We design for that. A mountain house should look like a mountain house at night, not a casino. When you want the Fourth in red, white and blue, it is one tap. The rest of the year, warm light on stone and timber is the whole design.
Quotes are free and start with Tyson at 724-859-4390. He will measure, set the demo case on the driveway, and return a render of your actual house within 48 hours. Parts are covered for 3 years and labor for 1, and 0% APR financing up to 24 months is available for qualifying buyers.
