Hi all. I am a lighting novice looking for assistance in trying to figure out a couple things as we look to add some landscape lighting to our ranch home, shown below. I have kind of sketched out what I think might look best, but I am humbly coming to you experts for assistance. A few questions: 1. Does the location (in yellow) of soffit lights look adequate/make sense? I have gathered that we don't want lighting above windows, so I felt like this was a good arrangement. 2. I think this is my biggest question: What fixtures should I use in the soffits? I have looked but can't seem to find a good recommendation for a Volt product to use here. If at all possible, I don't want something a few inches long sticking down from the soffit, but rather something that just barely protrudes from the soffit. I was thinking something like the BuddyPro puck with a Beacon glare guard to direct the light--but again I am a newbie and I'm unsure if this makes sense. 3. I have nothing sketched out in the image below for lighting in the flower beds. What location and fixture recommendations would you make here? 4. Any tips on running the wiring into the attic? I understand the basics of what I need to do, but if you have any hacks to make things simpler while fishing wire, etc., I am all ears. Thanks for any and all help you guys can provide!
Hi, daheld. I'm a landscape lighting enthusiast like yourself. I think your plan looks great. And you've selected the appropriate fixture. I'd recommend the shielded or the grated glare guards. Both guards would hide the light source but I think when viewed from a distance, the shielded guard might work better. If your flower beds are at the foundation m(or did you mean somewhere else?), bear in mind that your soffit lights will illuminate the ground below and to some extent your path. If you wanted to get creative, you could also do something like, soffit lights flanking the doors only and then uplight the other sections. If you're at all worried about damaging your soffits, I highly recommend you either consult a roofer for advice on how to secure the lights. In fact, a roofer or general contractor would be able to do core drill the holes for the soffit lights so that they were less pronounced. Hope this helps.
Thanks so much for this. Sounds like I'm sort of on the right path. Your idea to soffit light only on either side of the doors is an interesting one, and would certainly simplify things in terms of fishing wires. Is there a particular uplight fixture you'd recommend for our installation?
Glad to help.The thing to keep in mind is that with ground mounted fixtures, you can more easily reposition them, if you want to make any changes to your foundation garden beds. I think either the All-Star or the Top Dog would work great. In fact, because you're lighting a single story, you could conceivably get away with the All-Star mini. The most important difference (imo) between the two models is that the Top Dog's angle adjustment knuckle is indexed (allows you to make incremental adjustments) and can be tightened with a thumbscrew and the All-Star allows you to make slightly finer adjustments when aiming your fixture. Its knuckle is tightened with a hex. HTH
If I go with the all star in our landscape/flower beds in front of the house, approximately how far from the house should they be positioned? I want to keep them in the flower bed if at all possible. Is there a recommended distance from the house they should be to cast an appropriate beam? Thanks!
All depends on the effect you’re trying to create. If you want to highlight the texture of the walls (oka grazing), about a foot away from your foundation is as far as you want to stake your fixture. If your goal is to show off more of the color of your walls you’d “wash” the walls by aiming your fixtures from a distance of about a foot and a half to two feet.
