Landscape lighting & irrigation in Portland, OR is specialty work handled by a licensed landscape contractor, not a general yard crew. HD Landscape & Maintenance designs and installs low-voltage lighting, drip and spray irrigation, and yard drainage across the Portland metro under Oregon LCB Lic. #9977.
By Donavan Hesedahl, Founder & Owner · Last updated 6th August 2026
Beyond mowing and planting, the three systems Portland yards actually need are lighting, irrigation, and drainage. All three are buried, all three are regulated, and all three are far cheaper to install before the patio and beds go in than after. That sequencing is the single biggest thing homeowners get wrong.
Oregon treats these as licensed work for a reason. Under Oregon Administrative Rule 808-003-0126, a landscape contracting business has to pull — or confirm the owner has pulled — permits for backflow assemblies on irrigation systems, low-voltage wiring for irrigation and landscape lighting, and drainage systems. A crew that shrugs when you ask about permits is telling you something.
We handle all three as part of our landscaping and design work, and the water-saving side sits with our sustainable landscaping team. When they’re installed together, one trench does three jobs.
Expect roughly $150 to $350 per installed fixture for a professional low-voltage system, with most Portland front-yard projects landing between $2,500 and $6,500 for 10 to 20 fixtures, a transformer, and buried wire. A wraparound design covering entry, path, trees, and a back patio commonly runs $8,000 to $15,000.
Nearly all landscape lighting Portland OR homeowners install is 12-volt low-voltage, which is safer, cheaper to run, and easier to adjust as plants grow in.
Current as of 2026. What moves the number here:
Low-voltage 12V systems generally don’t need an electrical permit, but the 120V outlet feeding the transformer does — the City of Portland covers that under residential electrical permits. One more reason lighting gets designed alongside hardscaping rather than bolted on afterward.
Yes — for lawns and new plantings. Portland is genuinely wet October through May and genuinely dry July through September, and that summer window is long enough to kill turf and first-year shrubs. Irrigation here isn’t about volume, it’s about covering an eight-to-twelve week drought.
The wet-winter reputation is exactly why so many Portland lawns look rough by August. Homeowners assume the rain handles it, skip the system, and then hand-water inconsistently through the hottest stretch of the year.
The parts of an irrigation system installation Portland yards actually need:
If you only fix one thing, fix the water. Willamette Valley clay and the hardpan under a lot of close-in Portland lots don’t absorb winter rain, so it sits — on lawns, against foundations, and in the low corner of the yard where nothing will grow.
The drainage solutions Portland OR homeowners end up needing are usually some combination of grading, a French drain, a catch basin, and downspout routing. Which combination depends on where the water is coming from and where there’s somewhere legal and lower to send it.
Two site conditions we see constantly. In the Southwest Hills and Council Crest, gravity is on our side but volume isn’t — sloped lots concentrate runoff into a single fast channel that scours beds. Down in Sellwood-Moreland and parts of St. Johns, the ground is flatter and the water simply stops, which means a drain has to be built with real fall or paired with a sump.
Drainage work also has to respect the plants above it. We coordinate it with lawn and yard care so a saturated lawn gets aeration and correction together, and with seasonal services so gutters aren’t quietly dumping a roof’s worth of water into the one bed you just replanted. You can see finished work in our portfolio.
We work Monday through Saturday across the city — the mature-canopy lots in Laurelhurst, Alameda, and Grant Park, the sloped properties in the Southwest Hills, and the flatter, older blocks in Sellwood-Moreland and St. Johns. If you’ve been searching landscape lighting installer near me Portland OR, that’s the ground we cover, and the full picture is on our Portland service page.
As an irrigation system company Portland Oregon homeowners call for both new installs and repairs, we also run systems out to Beaverton and Cedar Mill, and into Lake Oswego and West Linn, where larger lots usually mean more zones and a second transformer.
Looking for a yard drainage contractor near me Portland side of the river or out in Tualatin and Clackamas? Same crew, same license. If you’re planning hardscape at the same time, read our notes on paver walkway installation in Portland and on landscaping and design costs first — sleeves for wire and pipe belong under a patio, not through it.
Plan on $150 to $350 per installed fixture. Most front-yard systems of 10 to 20 fixtures run $2,500 to $6,500 including the transformer and buried wire; full-property designs covering entry, paths, trees, and a back patio typically run $8,000 to $15,000. Brass fixtures, tree uplighting, and long wire runs are the biggest variables.
For lawns and newly planted material, yes. Portland’s July-through-September dry stretch regularly runs eight to twelve weeks with almost no rain, which is long enough to brown out turf and kill first-year shrubs. Established native plantings can often go without. Any system installed requires a backflow assembly, tested annually.
Start by finding where the water enters and where it can legally exit. Most fixes combine regrading away from the foundation, disconnecting or extending downspouts, and installing a French drain or catch basin routed to a lower outlet or a drywell. On flat lots with no fall, a sump and pump is often the only workable answer.
A French drain is a trench filled with drain rock around a perforated pipe wrapped in filter fabric, which collects subsurface water and carries it somewhere it can safely discharge. You likely need one if water stands on your lawn more than a day after rain, if a foundation wall stays damp through winter, or if one corner of the yard kills every plant you put in it.
A typical Portland-area residential system runs roughly $3,000 to $7,000 for a standard city lot with four to six zones, including the backflow assembly, controller, and heads. Larger properties with more zones, drip lines, and a smart controller commonly reach $8,000 to $12,000. We quote every property on site after checking static pressure and flow.
HD Landscape & Maintenance LLC Serving Portland, OR — 6581 SW 192nd Ave Beaverton, OR 97007. Phone: (971) 336-5520 Email: hdlandscapellc@gmail.com Hours: Mon–Sat 7:00am–7:00pm · Sunday closed Oregon LCB Lic. #9977 — Licensed & Insured
Serving Portland and surrounding areas including Laurelhurst, Alameda, Grant Park, Sellwood-Moreland, St. Johns, the Southwest Hills, Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Tualatin, West Linn, and Clackamas.
Lighting, irrigation, and drainage are all easier and cheaper to get right the first time. Contact us for a free on-site consultation and an itemized written proposal — no obligation. You can also browse our full range of landscaping services.