Far enough south that the job is planned around the journey, and built so it does not need a second one.
Waco is roughly ninety miles south of us, on the Brazos, and it is travel work — which we do, for the right project. Two things about the town shape what that project usually is.
The first is the river and the ground above it. Cameron Park, dedicated in 1910 and one of the largest municipal parks in Texas, runs along the Brazos with chalk bluffs standing over the water, and the properties on that side of town sit on the same contour. The second is age. Castle Heights was platted in 1923 and placed on the National Register in 2009, and a good share of the older housing here is period stock with the detail to go with it. Neither is a difficulty. Both reward being lit properly rather than generically.
The houses in and around districts like Castle Heights were built when facades carried detail — brick patterning, stone surrounds, deep porches, timber work under the eaves. That detail is the reason to light the elevation at all, and it is the first thing a careless plan destroys.
Two rules cover most of it. A flat plane of brick or render wants washing — a wide, even beam from far enough back that the light arrives nearly parallel to the wall and the surface reads as one piece. Anything with relief in it — a stone surround, a corbel, a column — wants grazing, the fixture tight to the wall aiming almost straight up, so the texture throws its own small shadows and the modelling appears. Use the wrong one and a carved stone surround flattens into a pale rectangle.
Where a property is inside a historic district, what may be fixed to the street face can be constrained, and it is worth establishing at the design visit rather than after. Our part is the same as everywhere: a written plan and a fixed price you can hand to whoever needs to approve it. Confirm current requirements for your address with the city.
A property above the Brazos has something most gardens do not: genuine vertical relief, and a view that goes dark at the edge. The instinct is to light outward toward the view. It is the wrong instinct — light thrown off a bluff lands nowhere, and all it achieves is a glare source visible from the river and the far bank.
What works is lighting the near ground and letting the drop stay black. A lit foreground with nothing behind it reads as depth, and the eye supplies the rest. Where there is rock face, limestone or chalk takes grazing light beautifully, and a bluff edge picked out at low level from above gives you the shape of the land without announcing it for a mile.
The safety question is separate and matters more here than on a flat lot: steps, level changes and the path to an edge should be lit because people walk them at night, and that is circulation lighting rather than effect. The hardscape lighting page covers how that is handled.
Ninety miles each way is the fact that organises a Waco job. It would be dishonest to pretend otherwise, so here is how we handle it rather than a claim that distance does not matter.
It is the same discipline we use for the Arizona work, on a far shorter drive. The consequence for you is that a Waco project is quoted as a complete piece of work with a start and a completion date, and the distance is in the number rather than in a series of surprises.
We have not photographed a Waco installation yet, so every photograph below is from Fort Worth and Dallas — 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 Waco and want your property to be the first photograph on this page, the design visit is free.
No Waco 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.
“I needed work done on my lights in the backyard. I called Todd who owns TC Lighting LLC. Todd came to my house to give me an estimate and I found Todd to be very knowledgable and with many years of experience. Todd also suggested lighting my three tall trees in the backyard…”
“It's a work of ART! My large trees are lit and create beautiful ground shadows and my pathways have the perfect touch of lighting. Todd and his workers are honest and reliable. Couldn't be happier!”
“From start to finish, Todd and his crew have been nothing but professional. We found Todd to be very attentive and responsive and he exceeded our expectations. Our extensive landscape lighting project was planned in a timely manner and completed ahead of schedule…”
McLennan County, on the Brazos, about ninety miles south of Carrollton down I-35. Free on-site design visit, and Todd comes out himself.
Waco, 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 Waco 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.
Yes, for the right project. It is about ninety miles each way down I-35 and we treat it as travel work: one design visit that settles the whole property, materials staged before the crew leaves, and the night-set done on the same trip rather than a return journey.
It is worth raising at the design visit rather than afterwards, because what may be fixed to the street face can be constrained. We bring a written plan with a fixed price and dates that can be handed to whoever approves it. Confirm current requirements for your address with the city.
Washed rather than spotted. A flat plane of brick wants a wide, even beam from far enough back that the light arrives nearly parallel to the wall. Anything with relief in it -- a stone surround, a corbel, a column -- wants grazing instead, the fixture tight to the wall so the texture throws its own shadows.
No. Light thrown off a bluff lands nowhere and reads as a glare spot from the river and the far bank. Light the near ground and let the drop stay black -- a lit foreground with nothing behind it reads as depth. Steps and the path to an edge are a separate question and should be lit for safety.
There is no published minimum, but the honest answer is that the drive has to make sense for both of us. Call with the address and what you have in mind and we will say plainly whether it is a job we should be doing.
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.