Most of the decision happens before the quote
Outdoor lighting gets quoted fast and understood slowly. A package price and a custom design can land within a few hundred dollars of each other, and look nothing alike once installed.
Ask whether the design comes first
The first question is simple: what does the
https://evercrestlighting.com/about/ plan for my house look like? If somebody can walk you through why each run is where it is, that is a good sign. A company that will not is selling you the same job they sold the last house.
Ask what happens after the install
Lighting sits out in the weather all year, so ask who you call when something quits. For seasonal work, ask who takes it down and where it lives until next year. For permanent systems, ask what support looks like a year in.
Scope
Some companies only hang holiday lights. Some only do low voltage yard lighting. Some cover the whole property. It matters since a company with one product will find a reason to sell you that product.
Ask about residential versus commercial
A house and a storefront need different designs. A home wants the front to look right and the walk to be visible. A commercial building has to be legible from the road, and the scheduling has to fit around open hours. Ask which one they do more of, and weigh that against what you need done.
Signs to be careful with
Pressure to sign on the spot is the clearest one. If nobody will write down what gets lit, the scope will be argued about later. An unclear answer on year two usually means there is no plan for it.Plenty of good crews are just disorganized. But lighting sits on your house for years, and the written scope is what you fall back on later.Two quotes are worth the trouble, as long as you read past the price line. If one company drew a plan and the other quoted a package, the two numbers are not comparable. Ask each one what they would leave out if the budget were tighter, since the answer shows what they think the design is doing.
Ask where they actually work
Local is not just a nice sentiment here: the crew that works your county knows the houses. EverCrest Lighting is an outdoor lighting company working out of Greenville, South Carolina, serving Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina. They do permanent LED lighting, holiday lighting, landscape lighting, patio lighting, accent lighting and security lighting for homes and businesses. The consultation is free, and the design gets drawn before anybody quotes. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or
[email protected].