I have a new home there is no driveway or grass yet but they are coming soon. I was looking into getting French curbs and I seen homes with lights running up the path within the cement and I thought it looked great. Does anybody know how to do this or what kind of lights to use??? The ones I saw were small round lights which looked kinda like pot lights flush within the cement and gave off a glow at night.
Talk to the contractor who will put in the curbs for you. I'm sure they'll know what to do to give you the desired effect. I've seen it done with pavers but not concrete curbs.
Well the thing is I have a friend who does sidewalks for the city and he offered to put the French curbs in for me as a side job but he doesn't know anything about the lights. to make a long story short if I want the lights its gonnna be a project that I do myself.... there is no contractor involved.
Keep in mind that to put 120 volt lights in the curb you will need an electrical permit and city inspections. You won't need that for 12 or 24 volt systems. Find the supplier of the lights you want and install accordingly. Sounds like you'll want to run conduit and boxes in the curb.
From:King snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com
Exactly what is a "French Curb"?
Will it try to surrender to you every time you approach it?
DOH! good one!
I've been mulling over having those installed at my house also. Check out this website:
I'd think maybe a solar light could give off the "glow" you are talking about and would avoid the wiring and inspection step.
Those are popular here, although small lights on the face of steps are even more popular. As luck would have it, my neighbor has those and I've watched the process. PVC conduit in the concrete, little wooden light-sized box slipped into the forms capping the conduit. After the concrete's poured and begun to set, the forms come off. When it's set, the wire is snaked through the conduit and the lights are wired and pushed into place, stuck with some sort of sealant.
I'm pretty sure the round lights go in the same way. The square solar lights on pavers get set into a paver-sized recess pressed into the concrete when it's poured, but they don't have wire.
Mary
A friend ripped off and idea from Epcot or Disney or something. Anyhow. Pour concrete and push plastic fiber optic through. It should come FROM one place (in the back), but the push through you do on the front it where you do your pattern.
You cut the fiber near the top of the concrete and work it until it's ready to cure.
When the concrete cures, you sand it down enough to re-expose the fiber (they've likely been covered over by the cement). The final pass is basically to polish it a bit. Apply light at the still ganged together start of the fiber and you see it in the concrete.
so I know the process in my head, but didn't see it get done. I don't know how he supported the fibers while it passed by rebar, etc.
It's a lot easier when you're pouring a liquid like epoxy or whatnot. Stuff that settles to level on it's own without brooms to finish it.
Ponder. You're on your own with the idea and have all the detail I have.
Mary Shafer wrote:
I found a couple of places (just in case anybody was interested..... Just what I wanted!!
Please- they are now called "Freedom" Curbs.....
All kidding aside, we've been looking into this same thing. There's a franchise called Kwik Kerb
Kwik Kerb has a machine that forms the curbing in place. They place a small square protrusion on the stencil so it forms a groove in the curb as it's laid down. After the cement cures they insert a series of low voltage "light tubes" with tiny bulbs every few inches along their length. The tubes are about 2' long with mating plugs at each end. The whole thing is no more complex than a string of Christmas lights with a low voltage transformer. It's held in place in the channel with a silicon like cement.
I'd have to guess that the markup on the lighting system is around 300% at a minimum. If you go that route consider asking the contractor to just form the channel. You should be able to buy the lights online and install them yourself in an hour or two for a fraction of the cost.
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