Landscape lighting in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

What an outdoor lighting install from Autana includes

Outdoor lighting is not just fixtures pushed into the mulch. It is a low-voltage electrical system, and it gets built like one. Joel is certified for outdoor lighting through their supplier, which means the fixture and transformer choices come from training, not a guess at the big-box store shelf.

• Lighting plan walked with you on site
• Transformer sized to the actual fixture load
• Low-voltage wire runs buried, not laid on the surface
• Path lighting set to spacing that actually lights the walk
• Uplighting on trees, columns or the house itself
• Wall wash fixtures for stone and siding texture
• Tree canopy lighting where the property calls for it
• Photocell or timer control set up
• System tested at dusk before we leave
• Site cleaned, wire runs mapped for you

Path lighting, uplighting, wall wash and tree canopy

Path lighting marks the route from the driveway to the door and along a walkway, spaced so a person can actually see where the pavement ends without every fixture glowing directly in their eyes. Uplighting sits at the base of a tree, a column or a stone feature and throws light up through it, which is what gives a front yard depth after dark instead of a flat, evenly lit rectangle. Wall wash fixtures spread a broader beam across a stone or brick wall to bring out its texture, and tree canopy lighting mounts fixtures up in mature trees to cast a soft moonlight effect down onto the yard below. Most properties end up using two or three of these together, not just one.

Permanent holiday and Christmas lighting

Autana installs permanent holiday and Christmas lighting, put up in season and taken down after, so you are not on a ladder in January weather. It runs on the same low-voltage thinking as the landscape system: sized correctly, wired cleanly, and installed to come down without damaging the roofline or the beds it was strung through.

Repairs on systems already in the ground

Not every call is a new install. Autana also repairs outdoor lighting systems that are already in the ground, whether that is a dead run, a failed transformer, or fixtures that a previous installer set too shallow and a mower or a frost heave has since found. If your system was put in by somebody else and stopped working, that is still a call worth making.

Transformer sizing and why runs get buried

A low-voltage transformer has to be sized to the total wattage of the fixtures on its circuit, with room to spare, or fixtures at the far end of a long run dim while the ones closest to the transformer stay bright. Getting that math right the first time is part of what the certification through our supplier covers. Wire runs get buried rather than left on top of the mulch, both so the yard looks finished and so the wire is not the first thing a trimmer or a garden fork finds.

Why Indiana winters kill cheap fixtures

Fort Wayne runs USDA hardiness zone 6a, with roughly 38 inches of rain and 34 inches of snow most years, and the ground here freezes and thaws repeatedly through the winter. Cheap composite fixtures crack in that cycle, connectors that were not properly sealed corrode and fail, and stake-mounted lights heave right out of frozen ground. Autana uses fixtures and connections built to stay sealed and stay put through that cycle, which is the difference between a system that is still working in year four and one you are already replacing.

How the install runs, step by step

1. Walk the property at dusk if possible

   Joel walks the yard with you, ideally as it is getting dark, to see what trees, walls and paths actually need light and where fixtures would just be wasted.

2. Written quote out of Jobber

   Fixture count, run lengths and transformer size in writing, free. Repairs to existing systems get diagnosed on site before a number goes on paper.

3. Set the transformer and plan the circuits

   Transformer sized and placed, circuits mapped so no run is carrying more load than the wire and the fixtures at the far end can handle.

4. Bury the wire runs

   Low-voltage wire trenched and buried along the planned routes, not left coiled on top of the mulch where a trimmer will find it.

5. Set and aim the fixtures

   Path lights, uplights, wall wash and canopy fixtures set and aimed once it is dark enough to actually see the effect, then adjusted on the spot.

6. Set the control and test the system

   Photocell or timer control wired in, and the whole system tested at dusk before the crew leaves, not just checked with a meter in daylight.

7. Clean up and walk it with you

   Site cleaned, and a walk-through after dark so you can see exactly what you are getting before the invoice goes out.

How much more of the year a lit patio actually gets used

Auburn and Fort Wayne typically see their first frost around mid-October, and daylight starts shrinking well before that. A patio, fire pit or seating area with no lighting effectively stops getting used once it goes dark by six o'clock, which starts happening in late summer, months before the weather itself would force you inside. Lighting does not change the calendar, but it puts the evenings you already have back to work.

Recent outdoor lighting work

Outdoor lighting questions

Related work

Lighting usually gets planned alongside these:

• Fire pits and seat walls →

  The lit patio a fire pit and lighting system are usually built around together.

• Paver patios →

  Path and step lighting run alongside a new patio's base while the ground is already open.

• Landscaping and mulch beds →

  Uplighting on trees and boulder beds that gives a front yard depth after dark.

• Retaining walls →

  Wall wash fixtures that bring out the texture of a block or boulder wall at night.

Outdoor lighting by city

• New Haven
• Fort Wayne
• Auburn

Also serving: Garrett, Columbia City, Warsaw, Huntertown, Leo-Cedarville, Grabill, Harlan, Woodburn, Monroeville, Hoagland, Waterloo, Butler and Kendallville.