Start With Specialization
Landscape lighting is a specialty. The best results come from companies that do lighting as their core business — not landscapers who sell lights on the side, not electricians who occasionally wire a yard. Specialists think in design: beam angles, color temperature, layering, night aiming. Everyone else thinks in fixtures. Ask directly: "Is lighting your main business?" The answer matters more than anything else on this list.
Seven Questions to Ask
1. "Do you do a night demo?" The best contractors show you the design in your yard after dark before you commit. If they will not, you are buying blind.
2. "Do you come back to aim at night?" Fixtures set by day are guesses. Night aiming is the mark of a real lighting designer. No night aiming, no deal.
3. "What fixtures do you install?" Listen for solid brass, copper, or stainless — materials that last decades. Vague answers or "whatever the supplier has" are red flags.
4. "Can I see your work at night?" Portfolio photos should show finished projects after dark. Daylight photos of fixtures prove nothing.
5. "What is your service policy?" Who fixes it when a mower hits a fixture in year three? Companies that service what they install stand behind their work.
6. "Is the proposal itemized?" Fixture count by type, transformer, zones, controls — line by line. Lump-sum quotes hide padding and cheap materials.
7. "What color temperature do you use?" The right answer for homes: 2700K–3000K warm white. Anyone pushing cool white for a residence does not understand residential design.
Red Flags
Door-to-door lighting sales. Same-day-signing discounts. Quotes given over the phone without a site visit. No night portfolio. "We can start tomorrow" (good contractors are booked out). And the biggest one: no mention of design at all — just fixtures and prices.
Our Answers
Lighting is all we do. Yes to night demos, yes to night aiming, brass and copper fixtures, itemized proposals, 2700K standard, and we service everything we install. More about how we work — then judge us by the seven questions above.
Call (301) 679-9193 or send the form below for your free on-site lighting consultation.