A landscape lighting company for homes that deserve to be seen at night
Rainfall Irrigation is a landscape lighting company that designs, installs, and repairs low-voltage LED landscape lighting for homes across the South Shore of Massachusetts. Most projects start with one question: what do you want to see from the street, the driveway, and the patio after dark?
Rainfall’s team is friendly, professional, knowledgeable, and reliable. Their crews arrive on time, work diligently, and make sure every system is running properly. We use them for both irrigation and landscape lighting and have received exceptional service.
What lighting does for a home after dark
Landscape lighting is a set of small, low fixtures placed around the yard to light the house, the plantings, and the ways you move through them.
Without it, most homes disappear into the dark by early evening, and the front walk is lit only by a porch light and whatever spills from the windows. A good design brings back the parts of the property you care about and lights them softly enough that the house still looks like a home, not a parking lot. We work as a landscape lighting designer first and a landscape light installer second, because the plan decides how good the finished yard looks.
Curb appeal after dark
Soft light on the front of the house, a specimen tree, and the entry gives the home shape and depth at night.
Safer paths and steps
Walks, stairs, and changes in grade are where people trip. Low light on each step and along the edge of a path shows the way without shining in anyone’s eyes.
A yard you use at night
A lit patio, deck, or garden turns the hours after dinner into usable time outside, from summer evenings to the early dark of fall.
Start from what is in your yard today
If you already have an older halogen system, the first question is whether to convert it. If you are starting fresh or adding to the yard, the work is new pathway and accent lighting. We also install deck and patio lighting. For security lights, commercial properties, or holiday displays, see our outdoor lighting services.
01LED landscape lighting conversion
For homes with an existing halogen system: bulbs that keep burning out, lights that have gone dim or yellow, or a system you would like to run on less power. Where the wiring and fixtures are still sound, converting to LED updates the lighting without starting over.
Convert to LED
02Pathway and accent lighting
For new work: path lights along walks and driveways, uplights on trees and the face of the house, and accent light on plantings and stonework. The right choice for a yard with no lighting yet or a new area to add.
Plan new lightingFour kinds of light make up a finished yard
A lighting plan is built from a few fixture types, each with its own job. Most homes use some of each. Choose a layer to see what it does.
Lighting project01Path lights
Short fixtures with a cap that throws light down and out onto the ground. They mark the edge of a walk or drive and show each turn, spaced so the light forms pools rather than a runway.
02Accent and uplights
Small directional fixtures set at the base of a tree, a garden bed, or a stone wall and aimed upward. They give the yard depth, pulling the eye to the few things worth seeing after dark.
03Wash lights
Wider beams that spread an even glow across a surface, such as the front of the house, a fence, or a hedge. Washing a wall lights a large area softly without one bright hot spot.
04Deck and step lights
Low-profile fixtures built into stair risers, posts, rails, and patio walls. They light the surface you walk on right where a misstep happens, and they keep the deck or patio usable after dark.
Low-voltage LED systems, explained plainly
The landscape lighting we install runs on low voltage with LED fixtures. Power travels through three parts.
Transformer
A weatherproof box mounted near an outdoor outlet. It steps household power down to low voltage for the lights and usually holds the timer or light sensor that turns the system on at dusk.
Wire runs
Low-voltage cable carries power from the transformer out across the yard, buried just below the surface or tucked into beds. On a long run, wire size and layout decide whether the far fixtures glow as brightly as the near ones.
Fixtures
Each fixture connects to the cable, and a sealed connection keeps water out. LED fixtures use less power than halogen bulbs and run cooler.
How a good lighting plan comes together
Good lighting is mostly restraint. The plan starts with a handful of things worth lighting and leaves the rest in shadow, so what is lit stands out. Fixture choice and placement follow from there.
- Light what you see from where you standThe street, the driveway, the patio, and the windows you look out of at night decide what earns a fixture.
- Warm light, not blue-whiteWarm white light flatters brick, shingles, and plantings and feels like home. Cold light looks harsh and commercial.
- See the light, not the bulbFixtures are aimed and shielded so nobody looks straight into a glare, whether from the sidewalk, the patio, or next door.
- Keep some darkContrast between lit and unlit areas gives the yard depth. Lighting every square foot flattens it.
You can see more of our finished work in the project galleries.
Landscape lighting projectKeeping existing lighting working
Landscape lighting lives outdoors all year, so it needs attention now and then. We handle maintenance and repairs on existing lighting: a run of fixtures that went dark together, a single light that flickers or will not come on, a transformer or timer that stopped turning the system on, and fixtures knocked over or buried as the plantings grew.
A whole section going dark usually points to a failed connection or a cut wire rather than a dozen bad bulbs. When the trouble is an aging halogen system, we will tell you plainly whether a repair or an LED conversion makes more sense.
- Snow and shovelsPath lights along a drive or walk sit right where snow piles up and plows and shovels pass, so placement and sturdy fixtures matter.
- Freeze and thawGround that freezes and thaws can lift stakes and tip fixtures out of line over a winter, which is worth a look each spring.
- Salt near the coastSalt air on coastal properties and road salt near drives are hard on fixture finishes and metal parts.
- Exposed connectionsEvery wire connection sits in wet soil or mulch. Sealed connections hold up far better than taped splices.
What homeowners ask before they light the yard
Have a question that is not here? Call 781-679-1388 during office hours and we will talk it through.
The number and type of fixtures matters most, followed by the length of the wire runs and the size of the transformer needed to power them. Access plays a part too, such as running wire under a walk or driveway. Every system is priced for the property it lights.
It depends on the condition of the fixtures, wiring, and transformer you have now. Many older halogen systems are good candidates for LED conversion, while a system in poor shape or laid out in the wrong places may be better replaced. We look at the whole system and tell you which makes more sense.
Low-voltage landscape lighting stays outdoors year round, and a well-built system works through winter. Snow, freeze and thaw, and salt near the coast are still hard on fixtures and connections, so placement away from plow and shovel paths and a check in spring go a long way.
Often, yes. Whether new fixtures can run from your current transformer depends on how much it already powers and the condition of the wiring. If it is at its limit, a second transformer or a larger one can carry the new lights.
Yes. Deck and patio lighting, including step lights, post and rail lights, and lighting for patio walls, is part of the work we do. It is often planned together with pathway lighting so the route from the house to the patio is lit as one design.
Tell us about the lighting you want
New lighting, an LED conversion, or a repair on the system you have: send a few details about your home and we will follow up to talk through the options.