Causes of Outdoor Landscaping Lighting Issues, Part 1

For many homeowners, particularly those who regularly utilize their landscape spaces during the evening and night periods, outdoor lighting is one of the most important parts of the entire landscape. Helpful for everything from home security to highlighting the most beautiful parts of your property, outdoor lighting solutions are available in a wide variety of styles and price points.

At LaytonScape, we’re your one-stop shop for all outdoor lighting, just one of many services our landscaping contractors offer. Not only can we help you choose and install the best lighting upgrades for your property, we can also help you with some basic expertise to maintain them and keep them providing excellent light years into the future. One issue that may crop up is certain sections of lighting that stop working, or even the entire system – why might this happen? In most cases, the causes are simple and easy enough to fix. In this two-part blog, we’ll go over a number of things to check if your outdoor lighting is having issues.

outdoor landscaping lighting issues

Transformer Power

The single most common cause of issues with lighting is also the simplest one: Faulty electrical connection of some kind. In some cases, your ground fault circuit interruptor may be tripped due to connections getting wet after a rain or snow storm, or even due to sprinklers leaking. In others, circuits may trip simply because they’re old and are not working properly.

For starters, examine your power transformer carefully to ensure there are no nicks or other issues with the wire that runs between the transformer and a given outlet. From here, if everything is kosher, find the reset button on your GFCI outlet – these are usually found in the middle of each outlet. Press this button to see if the problem is fixed. If not, you may have to call an electrician for further assistance.

Cut Lines

In cases where you notice a particular section of your outdoor lighting that goes out, a possible cause was an electrical line being cut or breaking. This often happens during other landscaping jobs like hedge trimming or trenching, which accidentally cut wires.

In most of these cases, we recommend contacting our pros or an electrician. It’s best to let professionals troubleshoot power line concerns, including splicing new wires to reconnect the area. If you have training in this area, however, you can correct it yourself as well.

Timer Issues

In other cases, your lighting isn’t working the way you want due to timer issues. This could be due to timers losing battery or power, or simply developing shorts in their wirings. Even newer, Bluetooth-powered timers may lose track after a power outage. If the issue is something as simple as batteries, simply replace these. For Bluetooth devices, you may have to resync the transformer with a phone app to update your settings.

For more on the possible causes of outdoor lighting issues with your landscaping, or to learn about any of our landscaping services, speak to the pros at LaytonScape today.