Cost guide
How much does outdoor lighting cost?
A garden lighting run is £200 to £900 and a driveway scheme £600 to £2,500. Trenching is the largest single line on most quotes, so a route that avoids it changes the price more than the fittings do.
Typical prices
Ranges, not quotes. A quote depends on your home and the job.
| Work | Typical UK price |
|---|---|
| Low voltage run, transformer and six spike lights | £350 to £700 |
| Mains run to wall lights on an outbuilding | £300 to £650 |
| Driveway scheme, bollards or recessed uplights | £900 to £2,500 |
| Adding a photocell and timer to existing lighting | £120 to £280 |
| Armoured cable, per metre trenched and laid | £18 to £35 |
| Ducting laid while a patio or drive is open | £8 to £18 a metre |
Lay ducting while any hard landscaping is open, even with no lights planned. It is a few pounds a metre now against digging up a finished surface later.
What moves the price
- Mains against low voltage, which decides cable type, depth and protection.
- Trench length and what it crosses. A border is soft; a lawn is work; a patio is a rebuild.
- Distance from the consumer unit, and whether an outdoor circuit already exists.
- Number of fittings and whether they are spikes, wall lights, recessed uplights or bollards.
- Control. A switch, a photocell, a timer or an astro switch, and how many zones.
- Making good, and whether turf has to be lifted and relaid.
Who quotes for it
57 of the 10,262 electricians listed on this site take on outdoor lighting.
The towns with the most: Weymouth (2), Shrewsbury (1), Edinburgh (1), Coventry (1), Exeter (1).
Questions about outdoor lighting
Can I put lights in without digging up the lawn?
Usually, by routing around the perimeter under a border rather than straight across. It uses more cable and far less labour, and it survives the next time the garden gets changed.
Will it come on by itself?
With a photocell, at dusk. Add a timer or an astro switch so it goes off at a sensible hour.