LDF Outdoor Lighting

Mike Imondi is a true professional.
.His proposal was detailed and clear in what I could expect. He even included pictures of the different lights he would use. He sent a proposal to my homeowners association, and handled the approval process with them
He was always easy to reach if I had a question. His evening demonstration, before burying the wiring gave us the opportunity to tweak the plan just a bit. Installation was a breeze?.
The warranty is great!
You can't go wrong with Mike.
He's take all the challenges out of this process.

We have been considering doing outside lighting for some years. Beyond porch lights and a few lights on the sides of our garage, the only lighting we really had outside were some solar path lights that stopped working a year ago.  As we always seem to do, we turned to Angie's List to provide some guidance.  

After looking through the various companies, we narrowed down to two and while we think that both would have provided us with what we wanted, we choose Outdoor Lighting by Landscape Design First.  As noted by other reviewers, we worked with the owner - Mike Imondi, who we talked with by phone first and then came out, at a time that was convenient for us and walked us through the process.  What I really liked about Mike is that I felt he really listened to what we were looking for and that really sealed the deal. What we wanted was to not only to replace the path lights, but we also wanted some lights on some of the trees in both the front and back - and on the house itself in the front only.  The 'big' thing on the lights on the house for us though, was that we did not want them to be too bright. We wanted them to accent and highlight, but not be glaring on the brick.  We had driven around various neighborhoods to see other houses  that had lighting -  and the one thing that  seem to show up multiple times - was how bright the lights were as they shined on the homes.  Mike though, really took the time to understand that concern and came up with a lighting design that fitted exactly what we were looking for!

In addition to the lighting that we knew we wanted, based on our conversations, Mike also suggested a couple of things that we were not even thinking of. One was putting in some deck lighting below the hand rail going around our deck and the other was zoning our lights into 3 areas and using a remote control (In addition to Astronomic Timer ) to turns on/off the different area lights as
we saw fit. While we were hesitant of adding some additional costs with the deck lighting especially, Mike came out to set everything up on a test run - and we really ended up liking it all !  (In fact we are adding a second remote so we can keep one upstairs)
After installation, Mike came out and we walked through the entire setup.  In the couple of spots where I wanted to shift the lights just a bit ( from the inside - just a bit too much light in a couple of windows) - Mike made adjustments and even came back out with some "cowl tops" that further shielded the lights from the windows. 
We have had nothing but compliments from our neighbors on the lights and for us - we could not be happier with the work that Mike did. We wish now that we had done it years ago! 

Mike Imondi is the absolute best professional we have ever worked with. First of all, he designed and installed our outside lighting perfectly with utmost care and consideration of all we had hoped for. And, once the main job was done, he continued to be extraordinarily generous and helpful with his time and skills with whatever was needed to be done to ensure our satisfaction. The two times he has been out since the initial installation he has not charged us for his time or parts. He truly does not "nickel and dime" his customers. We wholeheartedly believe that you cannot find a better landscape lighting professional. Mike is patient, kind, knowledgable and a caring business owner.

Excellent. A-1 all the way. Mike Imondi was great to work with. He even let me keep the lights a few days longer than expected so I could try some alterations on locations. I would not hesitate to deal with Mike again. We will consider permanent installation in the future.

Mike came out as scheduled, and quickly diagnosed the problem without issue.  The system was put in by another company, but he was able to figure out the problem and come up with a solution that wasn't the quick fix that the other company was doing.  He also showed us how to use the system installed by the previous owner and even gave us some ideas for the rest of the yard, which was nice.

Part of our landscape lighting was not working due to wires being chewed.  We reviewed lighting companies on Angie?s List and then contacted Landscape Design First (Mike Imondi ? owner)  to get an estimate on repair and to also get ideas on how we could enhance our current system of eight path lights and two tree lights.  Mike came out within a day of our call to look at our system.  He offered to set-up a demo of the types of lighting that we could add to our backyard.  We enjoyed the demo of lights for a few days and greatly missed it when it was gone!  Needless to say, that demo convinced us of what we needed for our backyard ? not only for the beauty of seeing our landscaping in lights at night but also for the security of having more lighting for our backyard.  Mike listened to what we wanted and offered many suggestions. 
 
Within about a month of our accepting Mike?s proposal he started to work.  He moved our existing transformer to a new and better location and added a new GFI outlet.  A timer was added to work with the existing sensor.  He made adjustments to our existing lights and added twenty-two new lights.  All the lights including the existing ones have LED lights which are very bright with a real white light.  Mike made minor adjustments once installation was completed.  He even added two last minute lights to the plan.  He took care when adding lights to our landscaping beds.  He was also very cautious when digging sod or working in the beds to avoid impacting our irrigation system.   When he put the sod back (after laying the wires in conduit) he even watered the grass.  When the lights failed to turn on one evening, Mike returned our call promptly (it was around 9PM) and walked us through how to get them to turn on.  The next day, Mike made an adjustment to the timer and the lights have since worked fine.   Mike also included a first year maintenance visit at no charge and will also be providing us with a lighting plan that shows where all of the wires, etc. are located.  Overall, this was a great experience and we would definitely recommend Landscape Design First without hesitation!

Mike, the owner came to discuss the project outline.  The project consisted of updating an old outdoor landscape lighting system that was damaged from a lightning strike.  He suggested we consider "LED" lights after hearing our concerns about reliability.  Initially we thought the cost was high.  After understanding the energy savings as well as a reduction on transformers, we understood where there was a payback.  We liked his ideas and he was able to make additional modifications keeping the price point more appealing on the "LED" system.
Once we agreed to use Landscape Design First, Mike returned with samples of lighting fixtures.  We used them at night to see how the low watt lights would work.  We were surprised how well they lit the house.
Mike was very professional as was his assistant who worked without supervision.
Once the initial light system was connected,  Mike wanted us to evaluate the layout.  There were additional changes that took a couple of return visits.  They worked during the early evening so we could make changes before the final installation.
New wiring was used as well as a Hub system to keep lights from looking inconsistant.  The fine tuning took a few days and Mike wanted us to be sure everything was acceptable. 
We are very particular with the way things must look and were very pleased with the products and services from Landscape Design First.
Mike responds quickly to inquiries even months later, after the work has been complete. 
He also provided a schematic for the landscapers to use so wiring is not cut.. Nice preventative step.

We are thrilled with the work Mike Imondi and his company did. He was the lowest of three estimates, with the most value, and had the best customer service during our estimate phase. He put together an outstanding demo and was available for all questions. The work he did is outstanding, and he has come out for a few tweaks at no charge since- including repairing some damage done to a circuit that was not his fault 3 months after the service. He also had such creative ideas, we were just blown away. We highly, highly recommend working with him!

Mike worked during the patio prep phase to lay out conduits that would later be covered by the patio base.  He returned when the patio was complete and installed the power source and all lights.
 A manufacturer related issue was found with the transformer at installation.  Mike worked through the situation very professionally and kept the system functioning all along the way.  This company uses only high quality components throughout that both look great and have excellent warranties.

He was wonderful. During the quoting process he set up some temporary lights so we could see if we liked his ideas before we got on board. His upfront investment to win our business was substantial. As a person he listened and really put in the time. He checked back in to make certain we are happy and offered to come back out in the Spring to make certain we were still satisfied after our plants bloomed and make any adjustments needed.

We contacted Mike Imondi directly and he responded promptly to set up a time to talk about our goals for exterior lighting of our home and landscaping.  We walked around the house and Mike drew up the initial plan for uplighting trees, architectural features of the home, and path lighting.  He discussed options of different types of lighting, and also where the transformer would be installed and how we could make the timer operate in a carefree, dependable manner.  Mike gave us an estimate and he then set up the lights for our approval, and after a few nights we were able to tell him what looked good and what we thought should be changed. He came back several times and was very patient in the placement of the lights until we were totally satisfied.  The whole system was then permanently and professionally installed.

Not only will I use this company again, I would highly recommend it to others. Kathryn Lane

See above summary.

We have worked with Mike on several projects over the course of four years. We wholeheartedly recommend his services and thank him for the exceptional job he has done for us. Mike has consistently demonstrated an extraordinary ability to timely bring our ideas to reality while impressing us with his integrity and genuine desire to deliver a final result we would absolutely love. Our lighting looks amazing and we couldn't be happier with our experience from the design phase through the installation. We thank him for his collaborative approach and professionalism and feel very confident that other clients will find him to be just as responsive and conscientious from design to installation and beyond.