Every quote calls itself custom
Nobody advertises standard packages. It costs nothing to say so it has stopped carrying information. What is worth checking is what the company hands you, because a design is a document and a package is a price.Keep that straight through the whole process. A package starts with a number and works backward. A design starts with your building and arrives at a number. Both are legitimate ways to sell. Only one of them answers to your building, and you deserve to know which you have.
What a design should include
A plan describes your house. It names which rooflines, which gables, which trees, which walkways, rather than describing the front of the house in general terms. It says what the standard white
https://evercrestlighting.com/about/ is. It says where the controller mounts and how the wiring runs. And it accounts for the unlit areas, deliberately.
Why the design precedes the number
A price without a design is a guess wearing a decimal point. Two quotes a few hundred dollars apart can describe completely different jobs. When the design comes first, the comparison is honest. When the price comes first, the design gets shaped to fit the number, quietly.A plan you understand is also a plan you can hold somebody to, which is the practical reason to insist on one rather than accepting a number and a handshake.
The questions a designer should ask you
A good design conversation involves a lot of asking. Where do you walk after dark. Is the patio used at night. Is this mostly a holiday purchase or an everyday one. How often are people over. The way you use the property matters as much as the shape of the house, and a designer who does not ask is designing for a stranger.
Where a plan earns its keep
Roofline, path lighting, accents and security usually all appear on the list. Piecemeal buying gives you fixtures instead of a result. One plan, phased if it needs to be, holds together.
Revisions
A design is the start of a conversation. You can remove things and you should, if they do not earn their place. A company that will not alter the plan is not really designing for you. The answer should be that revisions are expected.
Ask for a copy
Ask to be sent the plan, and hold onto it. It matters if the property changes hands, if you phase the rest of it, or when somebody needs to know what is buried in that bed. The design is part of what you bought.
Getting a design drawn
It starts at the house, which is the only place the useful questions can be answered. EverCrest Lighting designs and installs custom outdoor lighting covering permanent roofline systems, landscape, accent, patio and security lighting for residential and commercial properties throughout Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, from Greenville. Consultations are free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or
[email protected].