in this video we're going to look at some different ways to light your decking and
associated features and i am particularly excited to share this led strip here with you
so stay tuned to see what makes this so
amazing so this is the decking area that we're going to illuminate and it's got this pergola
constructed on the top here which we're actually going to use to our advantage so more on that a
little bit later it's actually already got some existing lighting mounted on the fence posts
here which gives us a great start to lighting up this area but we want to add some more to
create a bit of texture to create some points of visual interest and to make this relatively small
area feel really special so let's consider four ways that we can light up decking differently
number one stop lighting up the sky very often when people start looking at adding lights to
decking their kind of go-to choice is to add recessed lights that point upwards now this is
okay because it kind of creates small points of visual interest on the surface but unless those
lights are actually pointing at something then all the light that they emit just disappears into the
sky and doesn't really impact on the installation at all so what can we do to make this method of
lighting decking pop a little bit more well i've got these fittings from ansel it's the turlock led
and it's pretty smart because it comes with this sleeve here that allows it to be easily installed
into a concrete casting for a path or something like that now i won't need that sleeve in this
instance because i'm going to be relying on these spring clips to hold the fitting into the decking
so it's really simple to install i just drill a hole through the deck in the position i want it
to be and it comes with this pre-wired flex that i can take into a weatherproof connection but the
really clever part comes with this adapter here that sits on the top of the fitting if you just
undo the two screws on the front here and then remove the glass lens you can see that the adapter
comes with a new kind of frosted glass lens that sits in the fitting and then the domed plate sits
over it and screws into place even during the day when the fitting isn't on this looks loads better
with the brushed steel dome here but the accessory has the effect of diverting the light out of the
sides of the fitting thus illuminating the decking instead of being lost into the sky it comes in two
forms this one with a two-way splitter and the other with a four-way splitter so you can see
the effect that using the two different types of fittings created i've added two fittings to the
edges of the decking here and you can see what it looks like with the four-way splitter here
and swapping them out for the two-way fittings creates this amazing effect also you can actually
twist the whole fitting round to change the directions that the fittings illuminate meaning
you can get super creative by pointing them in different directions to create different effects
as you can see the light output just grazes across the surface of the decking creating a larger area
of visual interest than just pinpoints of bright light so that's a great start and
has already started to improve the look and feel of this area but having started at ground level
you may be thinking that the only way is up well you'd be wrong number two set your lights lower
now normally when we illuminate something we put the light above it and we point down to the object
and that's logical because that's pretty much the way that nature works
now we have started to move away from that in this installation a little bit by placing some
of the lights in the surface of the decking but have you ever thought about putting lights under
the decking now most of the time when these long planks are installed there's a gap left
between each one to allow for a little bit of expansion but we're going to take advantage of
this by installing some fittings underneath here and creating texture along the front surface now
it's important to understand at this point that we're not trying to create a light source here
that can be used to illuminate the patio or the decking we're creating a lighting effect
that if you're sitting down here on the patio it will just lift this front face up a little bit
and create a subtle but reassuring glow between the slats so to achieve this we'll be using this
meteor fitting from ansel it's an incredible fitting with a wide range of applications it's
actually rated at ip68 which means it can be submerged at depths of over one meter so it
could be used to illuminate ponds from under the water which could be a really exciting effect
it's a constant current fitting and so it needs the appropriate driver and if you're using more
than one off the same driver like i am here you'll need to connect them in series with each other
and it just looks great i love the styling on here with the stainless steel housing and the
grooves around the outside it looks kind of like a miniature version of those massive searchlights
that they used to use old movie premieres it's almost a shame i'm putting them out of sight
okay so i'm putting them under here but i'm not actually going to point them out towards the back
of the decking for two reasons really they need to be 0.5 meters away from the surface they're
illuminating and there's not a huge amount of room back here but also i don't want to create a bright
spot between the gaps in the deck in here i want to create kind of a warm reasonably uniform glow
under here so by pointing the lights away from the surface i want to illuminate and letting the
light output bounce off the other surfaces in here it will create an indirect light source
reducing glare and giving us the effect that we want so night's fallen let's power up the
meteor fittings under the deck and see what that looks like now i'm sure you'll agree
that that is a great effect there it's subtle but it adds real texture and interest to this area
and when we start combining it in with some of the other lighting in this area it gives us a layered
effect where we can have some fittings on and some off to create different atmospheres i love it
number three create vertical interest so let's get off the ground and look at this pergola now
now it's fair to say that decking can kind of fall victim to the curse of the garden solar light the
temptation may be to hang some solar-powered lights on strings from the pergola here
to create that typical romantic environment which can look great but the problem is that
those solar lamps are just not bright enough or controllable enough for regular reliable use and
the problem is they tend to stop working pretty quickly so what's the alternative
well this is this is the concho ip65 led strip from ansel and we're going to use it to create
some vertical lighting effect for this area now when we were planning this video the good
people at ansel almost kind of casually dropped into conversation that this white led strip can
be installed in a run up to 50 meters long i had to stop them and get them to say it again
50 as in five zero meters long and yes they confirmed it can do a 50 meter run in white
or 30 meter for the rgb version that is quite an achievement for an led strip and it opens up
the possibility of some seriously interesting applications so what are we going to do here
well there's been a slot that's been routed into the uprights and the cross beam of this pergola
and it's the width of the led strip so that's going to sit in there really nice and neatly
and i'm going to take it up this support post across the top here and then drop it down on
the other side now the temptation when you do something like this would be to install the tape
flush with the front of the surface but actually it looks better when you recess it a little deeper
because it tucks the source of light away it creates a nice glow of light out of there and
it minimizes glare from the light points as well now you can order this strip cut to the
length you require at half meter intervals for the white version or at one meter intervals for
the rgb and you can get it pre-made off with the driver connected and the end caps on all there
ready for you or you can order a length and then cut it up and adapt it to meet your requirements
and to be honest this can be quite handy for when you need to kind of play an experiment
with the required installation a little bit so let's power it up and see what it looks like so
you can see we've created a kind of arch or portal of light which is great now the reason i've only
put it on this back section of the decking is that this is going to be a seating area
looking out across the garden and i want the light to project from behind the seating i'm sure you'd
agree that's created a really interesting and engaging light source for this decking area again
number four make use of architectural features okay so this one's a little bit of a cheat because
we're looking at the sleepers here instead of the decking itself but it's you know decking adjacent
so i think it's justified so these sleepers are here to act as cladding to the retaining
wall that's behind it and partly for decorative effect and partly to try and extend the lifetime
of these there's a chamfer cut along the front top of each sleeper and that helps water to run
off down the front instead of creeping into the joints between the timbers and on the bottom face
of each one there's a v-shaped notch cut into the sleeper to help water running down the front to
drip off again instead of running into the joint and it just makes the sleepers look a little bit
better than just a solid face on there so that's my carpenter hat off when i look at this profile
that's been created here there's literally only one thought that springs to mind that was born to
hold some more led strip so again i'm going to use some more of the concho led strip and that's going
to go into the groove that's been created here now this is a great idea because it's taking advantage
of this naturally occurring architectural feature anyway it's going to sit up and inside here
out of sight and because it's angled on the inside it's going to project the light downwards
and outwards so it'll create a nice glow emanating from under the sleeper provide a decorative effect
to the timber surface and also some incidental light onto this graveled area here now getting
around this corner here could be a potential problem however ansel have created a solution for
this kind of situation in the form of this handy little flexible link here which can be connected
from one cut end of the strip to another cut end meaning that you can get around tight bends
really easily which is fantastic the strip can be fixed in place using these handy little clips here
that simply and unobtrusively sit over the strip and pin it in place i think it's fair to say that
the concho led strip is a really simple way of achieving really long runs of led lighting and
because it's 230 volts there's absolutely no worrying about drivers or vault drop brilliant
so there we go we've seen a few creative and different ways to add some excitement
and depth to lighting installations when we're bringing some light to decking and its environs
but as always we want to hear from you what creative ways have you used to illuminate decking
will you be using any of the ideas featured in this video please leave your thoughts and
questions in the comments section below and as always thank you very much for watching