Landscape Lighting in Plano, TX — A Planted Canopy Coming of Age
Immediately north of Dallas. Blackland clay, alley-loaded lots, and trees finally big enough to light properly.
Plano sits immediately north of Dallas, and it is a specific kind of lighting problem, because most of it was built in the same few decades and the trees all went in at the same time.
The Trees Planted With the Houses Are Finally Worth Lighting
Willow Bend, Deerfield, Kings Ridge and the neighbourhoods either side of them were largely built between the early eighties and the early two-thousands, and the canopy went in with them — live oak, red oak, cedar elm, Chinese pistache, planted as saplings around new houses on flat Blackland lots.
Those trees are now twenty-five to forty years old, and that is the age at which a planted canopy becomes genuinely useful to light. A live oak planted in 1992 has enough crown and enough interior structure to mount fixtures in and throw a real shadow underneath. Ten years ago it did not. A great many Plano properties have a downlighting layer available to them that simply was not possible when the house was new, and most of them have never had anybody look at it.
That is the single biggest opportunity on a typical Plano lot: stop uplighting the same four shrubs at the front and get up into the trees that have quietly grown into being worth something.
Alley-Loaded Lots, Flat Ground and an Architectural Committee
Three things about the standard Plano lot shape the plan:
- The garage is round the back. Much of Plano is alley-loaded, which means the front elevation is uninterrupted by a driveway and garage doors — a genuinely good frontage to light. It also means the alley is a shared space where a badly aimed rear fixture annoys several neighbours at once.
- The ground is flat and it is clay. No contour to layer with, so depth has to come from the canopy and from what you leave dark. And it is Blackland clay, which shrinks and swells with the seasons and walks staked fixtures out of aim — so setting depth, compacted backfill and an occasional re-aim matter here as much as anywhere in the Metroplex.
- Most neighbourhoods have an HOA. Architectural committees often have views about fixtures visible from the street. The association sets those rules, not us; tell us at the design visit and the plan is drawn to fit them rather than revised afterwards.
What This Looks Like on the Ground Near Plano
We have not photographed a Plano installation yet, so every photograph below is from Dallas and Preston Hollow — 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 client letters in full. If you are in Plano and want your property to be the first photograph on this page, the design visit is free.
Plano, TX — and How Far It Is From Us
Immediately north of Dallas, and one of the closest large cities to us. Free on-site design visit, and Todd comes out himself.
Plano, TX · inside the TC Lighting service area · free on-site design visit
All Eight Services, Available in Plano
Landscape lighting is the bulk of the work, but it is not all of it. Every service below is available on a Plano property, from the same crew and the same licensed Texas electrical contractor.
Landscape Lighting
Design and installation — uplighting, moonlighting, path and specimen work.
Read more →Holiday Lighting
Seasonal install, maintained through the season, taken down and stored.
Read more →Permanent Festive LED
Govee-type colour-changing track set into the eave line. Invisible by day.
Read more →LED Conversion & Retrofit
Halogen to LED on an existing system, keeping the runs and fixtures worth keeping.
Read more →Pole, Site & Hardscape
Car parks, drives, steps, walls and seating areas, residential and commercial.
Read more →Interior Lighting
Inside work from the same licensed electrical contractor.
Read more →Ring Camera Installation
Cameras and doorbells fitted and wired properly.
Read more →Repair & Maintenance
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.
Plano Landscape Lighting Questions
Yes. Plano sits immediately north of Dallas and is one of the closest large cities to us. We have not yet photographed a Plano project for the gallery, and we would rather say that than show you somebody else's town and imply otherwise. The nearest documented work is in Dallas and Preston Hollow, twenty minutes south.
That is exactly the age where it gets interesting. A live oak or red oak planted twenty-five to forty years ago usually has enough crown and interior structure to carry a downlighting layer — fixtures mounted up in the tree, aimed down through the branches. Most Plano properties have that option now and have never had anyone look at it.
Blackland clay. It shrinks in drought and swells after rain, and a staked fixture moves with it — a few degrees at the base is a large miss at thirty feet. Proper setting depth and compacted backfill reduce it a lot; a short after-dark re-aim every year or two handles the rest.
Usually not, but it is much easier to design around a rule than to revise afterwards. Tell us what your association requires at the design visit. The HOA sets those rules rather than us, and we are not going to guess at them from a web page.
Nine times out of ten, getting up into the trees. Most Plano lighting we see is a row of uplights on the front shrubs and nothing else, on a property that now has mature enough oaks to carry downlights. Adding that layer changes how the whole lot reads at night far more than adding more fixtures at ground level ever will.
Where Else Todd Works Near Plano
- Landscape lighting in Dallas
- Landscape lighting in Preston Hollow
- Landscape lighting in University Park
- Landscape lighting in Garland
- What the work involves, in detail — design, conduit, day-set and night-set.
- Repair and maintenance, including systems somebody else installed.
Ask Todd About Your Plano Property
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.
- Free, no-obligation design visit and written plan
- Licensed Texas Electrical Contractor — TECL 41495
- Conduit-protected wiring and daily site cleanup
- Every fixture day-set, and a night-set on most projects
Prefer to talk? Call (972) 345-1180.