lighting
Outdoor and garden lighting
A garden lighting run costs £200 to £900 and a driveway scheme £600 to £2,500. Two decisions do most of the work: mains or low voltage, and where the cable goes. Everything after that is choosing fittings, which is the enjoyable part and the cheap one.
What this covers
What it costs. A garden lighting run is £200 to £900 and a driveway scheme £600 to £2,500. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Running armoured cable to lighting in a garden
- Spike and wall lights on a switched garden circuit
- Lighting a driveway or path on a photocell
- Low voltage lighting from a transformer
- Weatherproof connections rated for the position
What is involved
Low voltage systems run a transformer indoors or in a weatherproof enclosure and take 12 volts out to the fittings. The cable can be shallow, the fittings are plug and play, and the whole run is safe to handle, which makes it the right answer for planting beds that get dug over. Mains lighting takes armoured cable at a proper depth with warning tape above it, costs more to install and runs further without voltage drop, and it is what a driveway or a long boundary needs.
Cable depth is the part people underestimate. Armoured cable across a garden goes deep enough that a spade will not find it, in a trench with tape above, and that trench is the labour. Running it around the perimeter under a border rather than straight across a lawn costs more cable and much less digging, and it survives future landscaping. Ducting laid while a patio or a drive is open costs almost nothing and is worth doing even with no lights planned.
Control decides whether the lighting gets used. A switch inside the back door is the minimum. A photocell brings it on at dusk and is what a driveway wants. A timer or an astro switch turns it off at midnight, which matters because garden lighting left on all night annoys neighbours and wildlife in roughly equal measure. Zoning the scheme so the path can be lit without lighting the whole garden is the thing most people wish they had asked for.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask whether the scheme is mains or low voltage and why, for this garden. Ask what depth the cable goes and whether that is in the price, because the trench is the job. Ask for zones rather than one switch. If a patio or drive is being laid, get ducting in now whatever the lighting plans are.
Common questions
Mains or low voltage?
Low voltage for planting beds and anything that gets dug over, because the cable is shallow and safe. Mains for a driveway, a long boundary or anything needing real output at distance.
How deep does the cable go?
Deep enough that a spade will not reach it, in a trench with warning tape above the cable. The exact figure depends on where it runs and what protection it has, and the trench is most of the cost of the job.