In the front and side of my house, I use All-Star Cast Brass Spotlight (2700K/38 degrees/5W) and Max Spread Brass Path & Area Light (2700K/38 degrees/3W) but the garage is dark. I don't have an easy install as I have to run power and install against the garage without any dirt. I've attached pictures for reference. Any ideas?
Questions: Where is the transformer? Does the paved walkway on the right extend along the right garage wall all the way to the backyard? A photo of the right outside garage wall would be useful. How did you light the shrubs/trees on the right, that is, how did you get power to the light? Is that a light fixture above the center of the garage? If so, what bulbs does it use and how much light does it put out?
If you have an outlet in your garage, you might be able to do what I did. I have a couple of puck lights mounted underneath" the door frame top. The fixture wires are fed through a small hole I bored through the edge of the frame and they are stapled to the interior wall of the garage. Of course you’ll need a separate transformer for this but you don’t need a high capacity one for just a couple of lights.
I have 2 transformers: 1) Backyard 2) Right corner of the house. The paved walkway on the RIGHT goes away from the garage to the front door. I could extend the light on the left corner of the house to the garage but I'd need to run the power somehow along the siding to the garage. The shrubs/trees on the right are powered by the transformer in the RIGHT corner of the house. After the front door/steps, it's all soil/mulch. There's a hub on the left-corner of the garage that I could tap into. OR, I could tap into the backyard transformer that powers the lights in the backyard AND the path lights on the left walkway towards the backyard. It wouldn't be on same network as the front lights but they go on/off same time. Yes, light fixture above the center of the garage. It's LED lights on a 'sensor'. It's semi bright. Want me to take a picture? I COULD do that but they wouldn't be on the same light network and require another transformer which would not be wife approved. Ironically, I have a Wyze camera right on that fixture too.
No need to mess with the security lighting. A couple of options come to mind: 1 - Build a small shrub/flower bed at the front corner where the paved walkway meets the driveway in order to protect a MR16 spotlight aimed at the garage door and house wall next to the garage. The MR16 bulbs have several angle and wattage options that you can experiment with. A smaller MR11 spotlight will also work, but has fewer bulb options. You can run power to the light by daisy chaining from the left tree/shrub uplight. 2 - Run a mainline from the backyard transformer up behind a downspout and then along the edge of the soffit to a pair of rotatable hardscape lights, mounted to the front edge of the soffit and aimed down at the garage door. You can hide the wiring along the soffit in quarter round or 2-piece flat cable races that you can buy from Lowes or Home Depot or Amazon. Once installed and caulked, the cable races look just like another piece of trim work. Option 1 is cheaper and easier, but if you don’t like the shrub bed idea, option 2 will workout just as well; it is just more expensive and labor intensive. I’ve done it both ways for my house lighting. It depends on what’s the easiest way to access power from the transformer to the lights. Have fun. Bob
Thanks for the info. #1 - There's some soil behind the shrub at left corner of the garage. Would I point the MR16 across the middle of the door or just on the left corner? Would I need another on the right corner? There's nothing but driveway there so mounting is a concern. The left-side lights are feed from the backyard transformer. The junction box is on the opposite side of the walkway leading to the fence in the 2nd picture so there's no easy way to cross over due the walkway. Just behind the fence on the RIGHT side, I have another junction box but not sure how far a run would be down the length of the side of the garage to the left corner that we are talking about. #2 Can you explain this more?
sagosto - This is an example of a line I ran to a puck light I mounted to the back of a switch plate and recessed into the soffit. I used a cord cover raceway kit that I bought on Amazon to enclose the wires. It’s a two piece design. The base plate is attached to the soffit with screws and the cover then snaps onto the base. As this is a single fixture that never gets wet and the wires are enclosed in the raceway, I used heat shrink crimp connectors to attach the light lead wire to the mainline feed wire. For 2 fixtures, I would suggest using a Volt Line-Voltage Junction Hub to make the connections. In earlier attempts at running cable along the edges of soffits, I used adhesive backed quarter round cable raceways, but found the 2-piece system easier to install. A first attempt at using Gardner Bender plastic cable clamps to run the mainline was a disaster. It looked unsightly, even when painted and the wire kept sagging below the edge of the soffit and into view. The only other issue is exposure of the mainline wire at ground level before it runs up behind the downspout. To keep the grass string trimmer from cutting the wire, I enclosed that section of wire in a short piece of half inch ID plastic conduit. Hope this helps. Bob
Thanks! Did you use something like this? https://www.voltlighting.com/buddypro-plus-brass-led-puck-light-2700k Why puck? To keep it 'hidden'? I can run a line from the junction box from behind the garage and run it along the exterior as you did to either side of the front of the garage pointed down. Would the puck be bright enough? It's 3W so should be the same as one of the uplights.
Sorry for the delayed response - traveling. Yes, I used the pro buddy plus puck lights. The 300 lumen output is definitely enough. Be sure to add the puck light glare shields as the beam spread is about 120 degrees. 2 lights would probably be enough with the highly reflective white garage door. Bob
