Outdoor Electrical Projects in Burlington

A yard project often comes with electrical work: lights along a path, a deck you can use after dark, a hot tub, or heat over a patio. Outside, that work has to stand up to rain, snow and frozen ground, so it is wired differently from anything indoors. This guide covers what each project needs at a Burlington home.

Burlington Homes and Their Yards

Single-detached houses make up 50.3 percent of the occupied homes in Burlington, according to the 2021 census. The same census puts 47.4 percent of the city's homes, a little under half, in the group built in 1980 or before. In a house of that age, the outdoor receptacles may date from a time when ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protection was required in fewer places than it is now. That is worth checking before anything new is plugged in outside.

Path, Deck and Garden Lighting

Lights along paths, on the deck and over the doors make the outside of a house easier to use and to cross after dark. Every fixture, box and connection outdoors has to be rated for a wet location. Deck lights are simplest to wire while the deck is being built, before the boards cover the framing underneath.

Our lighting and renovation service installs path, deck and security lighting. Colour temperature matters outside as much as in, and our pot light guide explains the difference between warm and neutral white.

Hot Tubs

A hot tub needs a dedicated circuit, typically 240 volts at 40 to 50 amps depending on the model. It also needs GFCI protection, usually from a GFCI breaker in the panel, and bonding of the metal parts around it. Check the panel before the tub is delivered, since a hot tub is one of the loads that can leave a 100 amp service with no room to spare. Settle the route of the cable and the spot for the tub's disconnect switch before the pad or the deck under it is finished.

Our guide to pool and hot tub electrical goes through bonding, clearances and the inspection in more detail.

Outdoor Receptacles

The Ontario Electrical Safety Code requires GFCI protection on outdoor receptacles. Each one also needs a weatherproof cover that keeps rain out while a cord is plugged in. The Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) recommends pressing the test button on every GFCI once a month, and our GFCI guide shows what a failed test looks like.

An outdoor GFCI that trips again and again, or one that will not reset, needs a closer look. Water inside the box and a worn-out device are two common causes, and a GFCI that has failed gives no protection at all.

Heated Patios and Pergolas

An electric patio heater needs its own circuit, sized for the heater's load and protected for outdoor use. Lights or a ceiling fan built into a pergola need fixtures rated for the outdoors and a box that can carry their weight. Plan the switches at the same time, so the heater and the lights can be controlled from inside the house.

Buried Cable and the Permit

Power for a hot tub, a shed or lights at the back of the yard usually travels underground. The cable has to be a type made for burial, or run in conduit, at the depth the Code sets, so frost and garden spades do not reach it. Before any trench is dug, the buried utility lines in the yard need to be located and marked.

Outdoor wiring needs an ESA permit, as almost all electrical work does, and an underground run may need to be inspected before the trench is filled in. On the outdoor jobs we take on, we look after the permit paperwork and book the inspection.

• Pool and Hot Tub Electrical: What Ontario Homeowners Must Know Before Installation

• GFCI Outlets: Why They Matter and Where You Need Them in Your Ontario Home

• LED Pot Light Installation: Transform Your Hamilton Home Room by Room

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➡ Learn more about our electrical services in Burlington