Lighting Services in Biddeford, Maine

Inside Biddeford's older houses, lighting usually means working around plaster ceilings, few ceiling boxes and wiring that was never planned for them. Getting cable to new recessed cans, a pair of sconces or a fan means fishing it through old lath, and anything heavy hangs from a box braced to the framing. Strip lights under the kitchen cabinets land on the counter, where the cutting happens, and LED-compatible dimmers end the flicker that comes from pairing modern bulbs with old switches. In multi-family buildings, hallway and stair lighting on photocells, timers or occupancy sensors keeps common areas lit safely without anyone having to remember a switch.

Downtown and along Main Street, lighting has to suit the buildings. Biddeford's Main Street Historic District and the Biddeford-Saco Mills Historic District are both on the National Register, and projects covered by the city's preservation ordinance go before its Historic Preservation Commission for a certificate, so exterior fixtures, facade lighting and signs on designated buildings should be checked with the city first. Businesses in older storefronts can cut energy costs with LED retrofits of interior, sign and exterior lighting. Converted mill spaces with high ceilings benefit from well-planned LED fixtures that light the work area rather than the rafters.

On the coast, near Hills Beach, Biddeford Pool and Fortunes Rocks, a standard porch light can pit and rust within a few seasons. Fixtures built for boats, with stainless or brass screws and gasketed wire connections, hold up far better, and on a low lot the mounting height should account for how high the water has come. Across the city, motion-activated security lights for driveways, side entries and parking areas behind multi-family buildings improve safety, and low-voltage landscape lighting can light walks and steps without glare. Any of it that needs a city permit gets one, and the price is set in a free written estimate first. Porch and entry lights on older triple-deckers are often mounted on worn wooden trim with no proper box behind them; replacing one is a good time to add a weatherproof box, a sealed fixture and a motion or dusk-to-dawn sensor so the entry is lit whenever tenants come home.