A city still under construction, where the cheapest time to do this is a window most people miss.
Frisco had fewer than 35,000 people in 2000. The Dallas North Tollway reached it in 2007 and it has not stopped since — the Cowboys' ninety-one-acre headquarters at The Star in 2016, the PGA of America's move from Florida onto the Fields property in the far north of the city, and tens of thousands of houses in between.
That has one consequence that matters more than any soil or tree question here: a large share of Frisco lighting enquiries arrive while the house is still a building site, or within a year of completion. There is a window during construction when putting in a proper lighting system costs a fraction of what it costs afterwards, and it closes the day the concrete is poured. Most people miss it, because nobody tells them it exists. This page is mostly about that.
Here is the whole argument in one sentence. Running an empty length of conduit under a driveway before it is poured takes twenty minutes and costs the price of the pipe. Getting a cable under that same driveway after it is poured means boring beneath it, and that is a specialist visit with a specialist price — or it means the lighting on the far side of the drive simply never happens.
The same logic applies to every hard surface a new Frisco build puts down: the drive, the front path, a rear terrace, the pad for an outdoor kitchen, the apron at a gate. Each one is a barrier once it has set and a non-event beforehand.
None of this commits you to a fixture count or a final design. It is groundwork that keeps every option open, and it is the single highest-value thing we do on a new build. If your house is already finished, none of it is lost — it just means we design around what is there, which is the normal job everywhere else on this site.
Many Frisco builders include an exterior lighting allowance, and the result is nearly always the same: a handful of identical uplights spaced evenly along the front elevation, a transformer sized to exactly that load, and a photocell. It is not fraudulent and it is not useless. It is a line item that was priced, not a scheme that was designed, and it has three predictable limitations.
The transformer has no headroom. Sized to the fixtures supplied, it cannot take the back garden later without being replaced, which means the thing you would most want to add is the thing you cannot. The fixtures were never aimed. They were set in daylight by whoever installed them, and a landscape fixture that has not been aimed after dark is a fixture doing roughly a third of its job. There is no zoning. Everything is on one switched output, so the frontage and the terrace come on together and stay on together.
The useful news is that the cable and the groundwork in a builder's install are often perfectly sound, and a takeover can keep them. We will tell you honestly which parts are worth keeping. The repair and maintenance page covers how we take on a system somebody else put in.
A lot of newer Frisco housing is tall relative to its plot — three storeys, steep gables, a two-storey entry feature — on a lot that is generously sized at the back and tight at the front. That geometry creates a specific problem.
To light a thirty-five-foot elevation evenly you need distance. A fixture tucked into the foundation bed, two feet from the wall, throws a narrow bright triangle up the first storey and nothing at all above it, which reads as a house with its feet lit and its head cut off. The beam needs to arrive at a shallower angle, which means the fixture has to move out into the lawn — often eight or twelve feet out — and be a tighter, longer-throw optic rather than the wide flood that suits a single-storey wall.
Fixtures out in the lawn raise two questions and both have ordinary answers. They have to be mowed around, so they go in a small mulched or gravelled pocket rather than loose in turf. And they are visible by day, so they are specified low and dark and set behind planting where planting exists. What you get for that is the top of your own house, which is the part you paid for.
We have not photographed a Frisco installation yet, so every photograph below is from Preston Hollow and Flower Mound — the nearest documented work, on the same ground and the same kind of property. Each one is captioned with the town it was actually taken in. All are TC Lighting installations, shot after dark on the property. Click any of them to see it full screen.
The full gallery is grouped by town, and the reviews page carries thirty-one client letters in full. If you are in Frisco and want your property to be the first photograph on this page, the design visit is free.
No Frisco client has written to us yet, so rather than dress a letter from somewhere else up as a local one, here are three from elsewhere in the service area with the towns they were written from. All thirty-one are on the reviews page in full.
“March 2019 was the first time I used TC lighting and met the owner Todd Cormier. I interviewed a number of lighting companies over a two week period and decided to use TC Lighting as I felt Todd was truly a lighting architect and really understood what we were looking for…”
“We were so impressed with Todd and his crew. He was meticulous, gave us a plan and brought it to life. The pools of light and warm touches were perfect. He made our home a shining jewel. Our neighbors are jealous and will be calling Todd soon, I am sure.”
“TC Lighting recently redid my front and back landscape lighting. The proposals for lighting were better than what I had in mind when I called. The outcome exceeded all expectations. I have combination of up lights, pathway lights and down lights in the overhangs…”
Collin and Denton counties, up the Dallas North Tollway, about twenty miles north of Carrollton. Free on-site design visit, and Todd comes out himself.
Frisco, TX · inside the TC Lighting service area · free on-site design visit
Landscape lighting is the bulk of the work, but it is not all of it. Every service below is available on a Frisco property, from the same crew and the same licensed Texas electrical contractor.
Design and installation — uplighting, moonlighting, path and specimen work.
Read more →Seasonal install, maintained through the season, taken down and stored.
Read more →Govee-type colour-changing track set into the eave line. Invisible by day.
Read more →Halogen to LED on an existing system, keeping the runs and fixtures worth keeping.
Read more →Car parks, drives, steps, walls and seating areas, residential and commercial.
Read more →Inside work from the same licensed electrical contractor.
Read more →Cameras and doorbells fitted and wired properly.
Read more →Diagnosing and rebuilding failing systems, including ones we did not install.
Read more →Or start here: the home page for the whole picture, about Todd Cormier for who turns up, the photo gallery for the work itself, reviews for what clients say, and contact to reach us directly.
Now, and specifically before the driveway and any terrace are poured. Putting empty sleeves under a hard surface before it sets takes minutes; getting a cable under it afterwards means boring, which is a specialist visit with a specialist price. The groundwork does not commit you to a design or a fixture count.
Sometimes not, but check three things. Whether the transformer has spare capacity for the back garden, because they are usually sized to exactly the fixtures supplied. Whether the fixtures were ever aimed after dark, because most are set in daylight. And whether there is more than one zone. The cable and groundwork are often sound and worth keeping.
Yes, and on a new build that is the sensible way to do it. The coordination is mostly about timing -- sleeves before concrete, cable runs before the beds are made up and the sod goes down, boxes before masonry. Todd will talk to them directly rather than through you.
The fixtures are too close to the wall. A tall elevation needs the light arriving at a shallower angle, which means moving the fixture out into the lawn, often eight to twelve feet, and using a tighter long-throw optic rather than the wide flood that suits a single-storey wall.
Not if they are set properly. They go in a small mulched or gravelled pocket rather than loose in turf, which gives whoever mows a visible edge to work to. We also specify them low and dark so they recede by day.
Four fields, about fifteen seconds. Send the address and what you are hoping to light. Todd walks the property himself, in daylight, and you get a written plan with a fixed price and dates before any work begins.
Prefer to talk? Call (972) 345-1180.