Bucket Truck Services

A dark parking lot is a safety problem, an insurance worry and a reason customers go somewhere else. Parking lot lighting repair is high work by definition, which is why we keep our own bucket truck. It is also how we look after signs, wall packs, canopies and building-mounted fixtures that ladders can’t safely reach.

Pole lights

When a pole light fails, the cause is usually one of a handful of things:

• Lamp or ballast: on older high-pressure sodium and metal halide heads, both wear out, often within a short time of each other.
• LED driver: the electronic driver fails before the LEDs themselves.
• Photocell: a failed photocell can leave lights off all night or on all day.
• Timer or contactor: in the electrical room, controlling a whole row of poles at once.
• Underground circuit: a cable damaged by digging, frost or age, often the reason half a lot goes dark.
• The pole itself: a cracked base from a plough strike, or a corroded hand-hole cover exposing the wiring.

We test from the head down and from the panel out until we find the fault. If a buried cable is the problem, we locate the break and quote a repair or a new run, rather than replacing parts that were fine.

Wall packs

Wall packs light loading docks, side doors, walkways and the backs of plazas. They are often mounted just above ladder height on block walls over pavement, which makes the truck the safer choice. Many still have old metal halide or sodium lamps; a new LED wall pack with a built-in photocell is usually a better buy than another lamp and ballast.

Signage

Pylon signs at the road, fascia signs over storefronts and channel letters all have lighting inside: fluorescent tubes, LED modules or neon in older ones, plus power supplies and timers. We open the cabinet, find what has failed and repair or convert it. We work with your sign company where the sign face or structure needs attention, and we do the electrical. A sign that comes on at the wrong time often just has a timer that lost its setting during a power outage or never moved with daylight saving time; we reset it or replace it with an astronomical timer that adjusts itself.

High-bay work in schools and plazas

Plaza canopies, covered walkways and the high fixtures under a drive-through or loading canopy are a natural fit for the truck. Indoors, school gyms and plaza units with high ceilings need a lift suited to the floor, which we arrange for the job. Either way, the work is the same: replace or convert the fixture, check the wiring and controls, and leave everything labelled.

Converting a lot to LED

If several poles in a lot are failing, converting the whole lot to LED is often better value than repairing heads one at a time. LED area lights put light where it is needed with less spill onto neighbours and the night sky, come on instantly, and need far less maintenance. Pairing them with photocells and a schedule, or dimming late at night, cuts running hours further. Our LED lighting retrofit page explains how we plan a conversion and the Save on Energy programs to check.

Working safely in a busy lot

We cone off the area around the truck and use a spotter when the lot is busy, so customers, students and delivery trucks can keep moving around us. We keep well clear of the utility’s overhead lines and plan the truck’s position before the boom goes up. The utility’s own poles and streetlights belong to the municipality or the utility, not the property owner, so if the failed light is on a public road, we will tell you who to call.

Who calls us

Plaza owners and property managers, condo corporations, schools and colleges, churches, community centres, car dealerships and industrial sites with yard lighting. One visit can cover a whole list: a dark pole, a flickering sign and a dead wall pack at the back door.

A typical service visit

1. You send the list of what is out, with photos if you can.
2. We quote, or for simple repairs book a service visit at our hourly rate.
3. On site, we test, repair and note anything else that is failing.
4. Where the work needs it, we file with ESA and arrange the inspection.
5. You get a short report of what was fixed and what to plan for.

Request a free quote for a lot, a sign or a list of high fixtures, or call 519-591-1442. We work across Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo and North Dumfries.