Deck lighting - any thoughts

[quercus320]

Hi, all.

I've nearly finished building a medium-sized split level deck, and am thinking about what lighting to install.

Almost all the deck lights on the market seem to be walk-over lights sunk into the deck, pointing upwards. Apart from looking smart and giving your deck a vaguely spaceship-ish look on a misty evening, do people generally find that these lights are much good for actual useful lighting?! It strikes me that lights which send all their light up to the heavens, instead of towards the deck or the area you're using, don't sound hugely functional.

Has anyone got any (good or bad) experiences of these, or any other good methods for deck lighting (e.g. brick lights in the wall behind the deck, downlights attached to newel posts, etc.)?


Grateful for any thoughts and ideas!

 

[anthonyUK]

Those flush deck lights are probably for showing the edge of the decking area so you don't fall off in the dark. That is what I use them for anyway.

 

[brig001]

What about using the flush deck lights to mark the split so you don't fall over/off it in the dark. We have used them for the split level and the edges as anthonyUK says, and have other lighting too to see what you are doing.

 

[quercus320]

Thanks very much for the pointers on this!

Good point on the safety of highlighting edges where the levels split. I'll put some of these facing upwards on the outside edges of both deck levels, and also a few facing outwards from the front face of the step, to highlight the edge where the step down happens.

I'll probably stick at that for now, and see what it's like using the deck as evenings get darker later in the year.


There are a couple of wall lights on my garden office at the back edge of the deck, which might be enough, but I think time will tell on this one.