What permanent lighting costs in Albuquerque
We do not publish a flat price, and this page explains why in detail rather than hiding behind it. Here is every factor that moves your number, so you can see roughly where your house sits before anyone knocks on your door.
The seven things that set your price
In rough order of how much they matter. If you read nothing else on this page, read this list. It is what any honest installer in this city is actually calculating.
-
01 / biggest factor
Linear feet of run
How much roofline you are lighting. This is most of the price. A sixty-foot front elevation and a two-hundred-foot wraparound are different orders of job before anything else is considered.
-
02
Single story or two
Height changes everything about the labor: bigger ladders, slower and more careful work, sometimes a lift. Two-story work is not twice as expensive, but it is meaningfully more per foot.
-
03
Roof and fascia type
Concrete or clay tile means working entirely off ladders at the fascia, which is slower. Flat roofs with parapets are usually straightforward. Brick with scalloped trim takes patience to follow properly.
-
04
How complicated the shape is
A straight run is fast. Peaks, gables, dormers, stepped parapets and arched entries all add corners, and corners add time and material. They are also usually the parts that look best lit.
-
05
Power access
If there is a suitable exterior outlet or a garage circuit near where the controller wants to live, this is trivial. If power has to be brought to it, that is real work and it goes on the estimate as its own line.
-
06
Number of separate runs
Front, garage side, back patio and a detached casita are four zones, not one. More zones can mean more controller capacity, which is a step change rather than a smooth curve.
-
07
Access on the day
Gravel and xeriscape instead of lawn, a steep slope, a narrow side yard, low power lines, a dog with opinions. None of these are dealbreakers; all of them are time.
The comparison nobody does properly
Permanent lighting costs more on day one than a set of string lights, and more than one season of hiring a crew. Anybody who tells you otherwise is hoping you will not check.
The comparison that is actually useful runs over ten years, because that is the timescale a permanent fixture is bought on. On one side: an install fee and a takedown fee every autumn, rising with everything else, plus replacing strands that a New Mexico summer has finished off, plus the weekends. On the other: one number, once, and then a decade of nothing except the occasional wipe of the lenses.
Somewhere in that decade the two lines cross. Where depends entirely on what you currently spend, which is why the honest version of this conversation happens at your house with your numbers, not on a web page with ours.
How to compare two quotes
If you are getting more than one estimate in Albuquerque, and you should, quotes in this trade are very hard to compare because they describe different things at different specs. Line them up on these five points and the differences appear fast:
- Exactly which elevations are included. “The house” means different things to different companies. Get the runs listed.
- Addressable or single-color points. A cheaper quote is often a cheaper system. The difference explained.
- How the channel is fixed. Mechanically fastened, or adhesive? At five thousand feet of UV, this is not a detail.
- Warranty: what, how long, and honored by whom. Manufacturer parts cover and installer labor cover are separate things, and both should be in writing. For reference, ours is a 15-year warranty.
- Who does the work, and who comes back. An owner-operated crew and a national franchise routing to a subcontractor are different products at similar prices.
If another company beats us on a genuinely like-for-like spec, take their quote. We would rather lose one job than talk somebody into the wrong one.
What we will not do to the number
No “today only” discount that expires when we leave your kitchen. No price that drops by a third the moment you say no. No quoting off a satellite image and then discovering on install day that the job is bigger. We measure it, we price it, and the number is the number. More on how we work.
The cheapest useful version
If budget is the constraint, light the front elevation and the entry and stop there. It is the smallest job that still changes how the house looks from the street, it can be extended later on the same controller, and it is a far better buy than full coverage in weaker hardware. Ask us to price it both ways. We will.
Money questions, straight answers
If you want the technical side first, read how permanent lighting works.
Why will you not just publish a price?
Because any number we published would be wrong for most of the people reading it, and a wrong number is worse than no number. A single-story ranch in the North Valley with sixty feet of front elevation and a two-story house in Tanoan with peaks, a tile roof and two hundred feet of run are not the same job and cannot honestly share a price. What we can do is be completely transparent about the factors, which is what this page is.
Do you charge for the estimate?
No. We come out, measure the roofline, talk through what you want lit and give you an itemized number. If you decide against it, that is genuinely fine and nobody will keep calling you.
Is there a cheap version?
There is a smaller version, which is different and better. Lighting the front elevation and the entry only is a legitimate, much cheaper job that gets you most of the visible result. What we would steer you away from is the same coverage in worse hardware, because non-addressable points and adhesive mounting are how a system looks fine for two years and bad for the next eight.
Do you take payment up front?
The deposit and payment terms are written on your estimate before you agree to anything. We are not going to ask for the full job in cash before we start, and you should be wary of anyone in this trade who does.
Does it add value to the house?
We are lighting contractors, not appraisers, so we are not going to invent a number for you. What we can say from experience is that it is a fixture that stays with the property, buyers respond to a lit elevation at an evening viewing, and it removes a chore rather than adding one. Whether that shows up in an appraisal is a question for your realtor.
Get the number for your actual roof
The only way to know what your house costs is to measure your house. It is free, it takes about half an hour, and there is no obligation at the end of it.
- Backed by a 15-year warranty.
- Albuquerque metro only. We are not a franchise routing you to a subcontractor.
- Every estimate is measured on site, in person, before you get a number.
Start your quote
Two dropdowns and your name. Everything else is optional.