Landscape Architect Articles

Pier Warmth11-08-17 | Feature

Pier Warmth
Illuminating a Dock and Boathouse

At this residence in Arnold, Maryland, (inset) Chesapeake Irrigation and Lighting completely replaced a dilapidated system that included lights that were buried in overgrowth and some that were not even working. The install involved moonlighting in trees for the driveway and guest house, uplights on trees and the house, a variety of other landscape lighting, and making the pier and boathouse aesthetically pleasing when viewed from the house. Because of the issues presented by the marine environment, brass fixtures were used. The color temperature of the LEDs was kept in the lower range (2700 K) to bring out the warm tones of the wood on the pier and boathouse.

Though the destination for most landscape lighting is, as the name suggests, on land, sometimes the lighting ends up in or over water, as was the case for an extensive project installed by Chesapeake Irrigation and Lighting.

A complete lighting renovation at a residence in Arnold, Maryland, which included illuminating the house, guesthouse, driveway, trees and other landscaping, also involved a pier and boathouse on a finger of the Chesapeake Bay.

"This was a complete redo," says company owner Dave Underwood. "They had some old fixtures that were in bad shape, and some weren't even working."

Though the project comprised so many different aspects, it was bid, and then installed, in its entirety, not in phases. This was important because all of the wiring for the lights on the pier was run underneath it. And the crew could only get under the pier, using a Johnboat, when conditions were right.

"We actually had to refer to the tide tables and return at certain times when it coincided with low tides," Underwood explained.

When conditions weren't right, the crew would work on the house and surrounding grounds.

Besides puck lights mounted on the stairs themselves to help the residents and visitors safely make their way from the pier up to the house, LF-1LED-BS Brass Finish fixtures coupled with 2-watt LEDs were positioned on the underside of the railings.

On the pier, they replaced existing lights (referred to as eyebrow or puck lights) on the pilings, and added others. Wall-wash lights, which were mounted on pilings with a 6-inch stem and 90-degree knuckle, were used to light the boathouse fa?????ade. To hide the wiring, it was routed internally through the pilings.

All fixtures on the pier were brass to hold up to the marine environment. The wall wash lights focused on the boathouse had a wide beam spread but the two lighting the flag on top of the boathouse had a narrow spot.

The wiring underneath the pier was brought up to a PX-300 transformer with an astronomical timer, one of four transformers installed for the project. This one was mounted on a taller piling where existing electric service was located. All splices are above water and were sealed with waterproof connectors.

The whole project took three to four workers about 10 days to complete. Of that, a total of four days were spent on the pier and boathouse.

One of the challenges was running the wiring up to the fixtures that illuminate the flag. This involved routing it into the boathouse, which sits over open water and has narrow catwalks that had to be carefully navigated by the crew to avoid falling into the water.

And Underwood remembers another challenge; "This was a winter project so there was actually some ice on the water that we would have to chip away at to work. And it was very cold."