Best Solar Lights for Stairs

Lighting outdoor stairs is a great idea for a couple of reasons. First, there is the safety piece of the puzzle – stairs that are lit up will be easier for people to navigate at night, reducing the risk of a trip-and-fall injury. Even for that benefit alone, it would be worth finding a way to light up your outdoor stairs. 

In addition to safety, there is also the visual appeal of a strategically-lit staircase. With carefully placed lights going up the stairs, this part of your property can become a nice design element in addition to a functional component that helps people get from one level to another.

We’d like to use this article to talk about some of the best solar light options for your outdoor stairs. To talk about this project or any other landscaping project with the team here at TLC, feel free to get in touch. 

Lights on the Risers

One of the easiest ways to light up your staircase is by adding solar lights to the riser portion of the stairs. If you aren’t familiar with this term, the “riser” is the vertical part of each step. In other words, if you put your foot a little too far onto the stair while walking up, this is what your toe would hit. By adding small lights to the riser, you can effectively light up the treads (the flat part) and make it easy to see as you climb or descend. 

The key here is to pick lights that have a very shallow profile. You don’t want anything that sticks out too far into the stair, as that could become a tripping hazard – especially on the way down, when those lights would be harder to see. Solar lights that are designed specifically for this purpose will be a good pick, as they should have the shape needed to hug tightly onto the riser without getting in your way or posing a safety issue. 

Add Lights to the Side

Depending on the design of your staircase, you might be able to position solar lights along the side of the stairs so you can keep the treads and risers completely clear. This piece is often called the skirtboard, and it will vary in size and shape from one staircase to the next. If you have enough skirtboard available going up the sides of your stairs, you can position small lights at each step, or maybe every other step, to illuminate the area and create a dramatic effect. 

You don’t necessarily need to have a skirt board to utilize this technique. For example, you might have stairs that climb up alongside a retaining wall or other structure, and that surface would make a great place to affix lights. The idea is to add your lights in a place where they can illuminate the stairs properly while staying out of the way – so look around and get creative with your placement. 

Consider the Railing

As another handy place to tuck away your solar lights, look at the railing that serves your stairs. There are compact solar lights that can be added to a handrail and the light will then project down onto the stairs. Depending on the layout of the stairs and the surrounding area, you might find that you get better exposure to the sun using this plan, meaning the lights will charge up more effectively even when there is only a little bit of sun available during the day. Also, you might like the visual effect that is created by the light shining down onto the stairs, rather than placing the lights on the stairs themselves. 

Why Solar Light for Stairs?

Going with solar lights for your stairs comes with one huge advantage – simplifying the power supply. If you used traditional lights that needed to be wired into place, you’d likely be facing a rather significant project to get those ready to go. There would be the expense of the wiring to consider, as well as the disruption of the area that might be necessary to get those wires into place. With solar, you just install the lights and let the sun provide the power for you. 
Solar lights are an affordable, simple way to dramatically upgrade outdoor stairs on your property. Whether it’s just a couple of steps or a long staircase, solar lights will do the trick nicely. Thank you for taking the time to stop by, and please reach out to TLC for any landscaping needs in Jackson and the surrounding area. Contact us today!