Light Fixtures, Fans & Faucets in Fuquay-Varina, NC

The sensor, not the light

Fuquay-Varina properties tend to be more spread out than the towns nearer our base, which means more exterior lighting: the house, the garage, an outbuilding, a path, a driveway.

More exterior lighting means more of the most common exterior lighting complaint, and it is almost always misdiagnosed.

The light stays on all day. Or it never comes on at dusk. Either way, from the ground it looks like a failed fitting.

It is nearly always the photocell — the small sensor, often a little dome or window on the side or top of the fitting, that decides whether it is dark enough to switch on.

Photocells are consumables. They sit outside for years in sun and weather and eventually the sensing element degrades. When they go, they usually stick in one state.

On a great many fittings the photocell is a separate, replaceable part that unscrews or unplugs. Changing one takes minutes and costs a fraction of a new fixture. It is worth establishing before anyone replaces anything.

Where a photocell is integral to the fitting and cannot be separated, the fixture is the replacement — but it is worth finding out which you have.

Related failures worth knowing:

A light that flickers on and off at dusk. Often the fitting sensing its own light output. Some sensors are positioned badly relative to the lamp, and where a lamp has been changed for a brighter one the effect can start where it did not exist before.

A light that comes on at odd times. Something else lighting the sensor — a security light, a neighbour porch, a vehicle.

A motion sensor that triggers constantly. Sensitivity and range are usually adjustable, and pointing it away from a road or a tree that moves in the wind solves most of it.

Damp location and wet location

The other exterior lighting issue, and it is a specification question rather than a fault.

Fittings intended for outdoor use come in two categories:

Damp location. For covered positions that do not get rained on directly — a porch ceiling well back under a roof, a soffit that is genuinely sheltered. These are not sealed against water entering.

Wet location. For anywhere exposed to direct rain, spray or run-off. Sealed accordingly.

Using a damp-rated fitting in a wet position is why so many porch lights end up with an inch of water and a collection of insects in the bottom. The fitting was never intended to keep water out; it was intended to be somewhere water does not reach.

Worth checking before buying, because the two look very similar on a shelf and are marked rather than obviously different.

The same applies to outdoor receptacles, which need weather-resistant devices and an in-use cover in exposed positions — the kind that closes over a plug that is left in, rather than the flap kind that only closes when nothing is plugged in.

Where we stop on exterior work

Ours: swapping an existing exterior fitting for another on the same circuit, replacing photocells, adjusting motion sensors, replacing damaged covers and lamps.

Not ours: running a new circuit, taking a supply out to a building that does not have one, adding new exterior receptacles, and anything requiring a permit. Those go to a licensed electrician, and you will hear so at the quote rather than halfway through.

That distinction matters more on exterior work than anywhere else, because the ambition frequently outruns what exists — people want a light where there has never been one, and that is a different job.

Inside the house

Fuquay-Varina spans a wide range of housing, and the fixture work reflects it.

In the newer subdivisions, the standard items: builder flush mounts that are ready to be replaced, ceiling fans going in where a light currently is, and vanity lighting.

In the older in-town houses, more caution. Older ceiling boxes may have no grounding conductor, and insulation close to a fitting that ran hot for decades can be brittle. Both get looked at before anything is committed, and where the answer is that a circuit needs a licensed electrician, that is what you will hear.

Ceiling fans, the rule that always applies

A fan cannot hang from an ordinary light box. It is several times heavier than a light fitting and it vibrates continuously, so it needs a box rated for fan support — screwed directly to a joist or carried on a brace bar spanning between joists.

Retrofit braces fit through the existing hole, so it rarely means opening a ceiling. It does mean the box gets checked rather than assumed.

Downrod length worked out from the ceiling height rather than taken from the box, and blade balance done properly with the supplied kit.

Minor plumbing

Shut-off valves that will not close are the recurring surprise. The small isolation valves under sinks and behind toilets sit untouched for decades and frequently seize or fail to seal the first time they are used. They get tested before anything is dismantled.

You can check yours gently before we come — a quarter turn and back, no force. If one will not move, that is worth telling us.

Faucet replacement with new supply lines as standard, toilet fill and flush valves, traps and seats.

Where a connection needs soldering or altering, that goes to a licensed plumber.

Bundling at this distance

Fuquay-Varina is about twenty-five minutes from us, so a single light swap is poor value on its own.

Fixture work batches particularly well because most of the time on any one item is getting set up and getting the ladder in place. Six fittings, two fans, the outside lights and a faucet in one visit costs a fraction of doing them separately.

Getting a price

Photograph each fitting, and for exterior lights include a shot showing how exposed the position is — under a deep porch or out on an open wall. Tell us whether the problem is that it will not come on, will not go off, or has water in it.