Landscape Lighting Install Checklist
Why landscape lighting fails around here
Low-voltage lighting looks simple, and that is exactly why it gets installed badly. A 12-volt system will happily run for a season while three separate problems build up under the mulch. Along the Wasatch Front, these are the failures we get called out for most:
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Voltage drop over long runsFixtures at the far end of a run dim out or shift color because the wire is too small for the distance. On a 12V system, a run that would be fine at 40 feet can be badly under-volted at 150 feet on the same gauge.
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Connections that are not rated for burialTwist-on nuts and electrical tape wick water. Once moisture reaches the copper, the joint corrodes, resistance climbs, and the circuit either dims or drops out. Direct-burial connectors and proper gel-filled or crimp joints are the fix.
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Cable buried too shallowWire run just under the sod gets cut by aeration, edging, and sprinkler repairs. In Roy, where irrigation work and lawn aeration are routine, shallow cable is a guaranteed future service call.
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Freeze–thaw and snow-load damageOur winters cycle above and below freezing repeatedly. Water that gets into a fixture housing or a cheap socket expands, cracks lenses, and lifts fixtures out of alignment. Sealed, gasketed fixtures and proper drainage matter more here than in a mild climate.
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An overloaded or undersized transformerAdding fixtures to a transformer that was already near its rating starves the whole system. Sizing should leave real headroom, not just barely clear the current load.
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No GFCI protection at the sourceThe 120V outlet feeding the transformer is an outdoor receptacle and must be GFCI protected and in a weather-resistant, in-use cover. On older Roy homes, that outlet is often neither.
The install checklist, step by step
This is the order we actually work in. Skipping ahead to fixture selection is the single most common mistake homeowners make — the layout dictates the load, and the load dictates the transformer and the wire.
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Walk the property after dark
Decide what you are lighting and why: the path to the front door, the architecture of the house, a mature tree, or a retaining wall. Light the thing, not the yard. Daytime planning almost always produces too many fixtures.
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Mark the obstacles before you dig
Sprinkler lines, drip zones, gas line to the grill, and any existing low-voltage runs. In Utah, call Blue Stakes at 811 before excavating so utilities are located. Even shallow trenching near a service lateral deserves a locate.
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Add up the total fixture wattage
Sum the wattage of every fixture on the plan. LED fixtures typically pull a fraction of what old halogen units did, which is why so many older transformers are now oversized relative to their load — and why a like-for-like retrofit is often a straight upgrade.
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Size the transformer with headroom
Pick a transformer comfortably above the connected load so there is room to add fixtures later without starting over. A multi-tap transformer also lets you compensate for voltage drop on longer runs by feeding them from a higher tap.
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Choose wire gauge by run length, not by habit
Longer runs and heavier loads need heavier cable. Splitting one long daisy-chain into two shorter runs from the transformer, or using a hub-and-spoke layout, is often cheaper than upsizing the wire across the whole yard.
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Confirm a GFCI-protected outdoor source
The transformer plugs into a 120V exterior receptacle. It needs GFCI protection and a weather-resistant in-use cover. If there is no suitable outlet where the transformer should live, that outlet gets installed as part of the job — that is licensed electrical work.
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Trench and route the cable properly
Bury cable deep enough to survive aeration and edging, and route it along bed lines and hardscape edges rather than straight across the lawn. Sleeve anything crossing under a walk or driveway so it can be pulled and replaced later.
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Make every connection waterproof
Direct-burial rated connectors at the fixture leads, nothing taped, nothing left sitting in a low spot where water collects. This is the step that determines whether the system lasts five years or fifteen.
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Set fixtures, then aim them at night
Fixtures get their final aim after dark, with the system energized. Shield anything that would throw glare at a window, a driver's eye on the street, or a neighbor's front room.
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Program the timer and document the system
Use an astronomic timer or photocell so the lights track sunset year-round instead of drifting with the seasons. Note the transformer size, tap settings, run layout, and lamp types so future changes are simple.
What it costs in Northern Utah
Prices swing on fixture quality, trenching difficulty, and how much 120V work is needed at the source. These are the ranges that hold across Utah installations:
| Scope | What it usually covers | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Basic system | Roughly 8–12 fixtures — a lit walkway, a couple of uplights, transformer and timer. | from $1,500 |
| Front of house | A designed front elevation: path lighting, uplighting on the facade and trees, sized transformer. | $3,000–$6,000 |
| Extensive design | Front and back, multiple zones, hardscape and tree lighting, longer runs and heavier cable. | $8,000+ |
Where budgets get blown: not the fixtures — the source. If there is no GFCI-protected exterior receptacle near where the transformer needs to mount, that circuit has to be run and terminated properly. Find that out during the walkthrough, not on install day.
Questions we get in Roy
Do I need an electrician for low-voltage landscape lighting?
The 12V side downstream of the transformer is low risk. The part that needs a licensed electrician is the 120V side: the exterior receptacle, its GFCI protection, and the circuit feeding it. Most Roy homes we visit either lack a suitable outdoor outlet where the transformer belongs, or have one that is not GFCI protected or not in a proper in-use cover. That work is where the permit and the license actually apply.
Half my lights are dim. What's wrong?
Nearly always voltage drop or a corroded connection. If the dim fixtures are all at the far end of one run, it's a wire-length and gauge problem — the fix is re-tapping the transformer, splitting the run, or upsizing the cable. If dim fixtures are scattered randomly, suspect the connectors: water has reached the copper somewhere. We meter voltage at the fixture, not at the transformer, because the transformer will read fine while the far end starves.
Can you add to a system I already have?
Often, yes — but only after we check the connected load against the transformer's rating. If your existing system is halogen, converting to LED frees up a large amount of capacity on the same transformer, which usually means you can add fixtures without replacing anything upstream. We measure before we promise.
What's the best time of year to install in Roy?
Anything from spring through fall is straightforward. Once the ground is frozen, trenching gets slow and expensive, so mid-winter installs are usually limited to fixture swaps, transformer replacement, or repairs rather than new cable runs. If you want lights on for the holidays, plan the trenching before the ground hardens.
Will the lights bother my neighbors?
Not if they're aimed properly. Glare comes from unshielded fixtures pointed toward eye level. We use shielded fixtures near property lines and set the final aim at night, standing where a neighbor or a driver would actually be standing.
Schedule your landscape lighting install
We'll walk the property with you, mark the runs, check the source outlet, and give you a fixed number before anything gets dug. Serving Roy and the surrounding Weber County area.