Open-plan apartment living room and kitchen with ceiling fan and layered ambient lighting

Resources

Straight answers about lighting procurement.

How our bids work, what we need from you, and where lighting usually goes wrong on a multifamily schedule.

Where schedules slip

Four ways lighting costs you time.

These are the recurring failure modes in multifamily lighting procurement, drawn from published industry sources rather than from our own claims. Each one is a reason we front-load the takeoff.

Lead times land past your deadline

A specified fixture’s lead time turns out to run beyond the project date, and the team is forced into rushed substitutions late in the process.

The bid comes back over budget

Lighting bids arriving substantially over budget create the same crunch as a long lead time. The fix is upstream: work the budget and the bill of materials before bidding.

The fixture schedule misses accessories

It is easy for a schedule to omit a critical accessory or option. Because LED products are configurable and modular, the omission usually surfaces as an RFI when the installer is already on the floor.

Nobody owns controls commissioning

Practically every project needs some form of controls, and unclear ownership of commissioning creates a bottleneck at the very end of the job. Worth settling on day one.

Adapted from Regency Supply, “4 reasons lighting causes developers’ schedules to fall behind” (1 August 2022), and US Lighting Trends on distributors and value engineering. These describe common industry conditions, not outcomes on DRS projects.

FAQ

Frequently asked, honestly answered.

What do you need from me to price a project?

Plans and unit counts to start. From those we produce a lighting takeoff, spec-matched product selections, and value engineered options. The more complete the drawing set and finish schedule, the tighter the pricing and the more VE opportunity we can surface before the first PO.

Do you only supply lighting?

No. We supply lighting, appliances, and hardware for multifamily new builds and renovations. Lighting is the core of what we package, but the same estimating and warehouse process covers the rest.

How does your value engineering actually work?

We price the specified package first so there is a real baseline. Then we bring alternates — styles, finishes, and in-stock options — that keep the project on track without abandoning design intent. We also stock a curated list of go-to fixtures for quick and simple swaps when a schedule needs one. Options are presented for your team and your designer to weigh; we do not substitute unilaterally.

What does “warehouse hold and release” mean in practice?

We receive and hold your fixtures in our warehouse rather than shipping everything to the jobsite at once. Releases go out against your build schedule, labeled by unit, floor, or building, so material arrives where and when it is needed instead of occupying the site and getting damaged.

Do you work outside Texas?

Yes. We are based in Carrollton, just north of Dallas, and our portfolio spans the continental U.S. Documented projects include work in Alabama, Colorado, Tennessee, and Virginia alongside Texas.

Do you handle renovations, or only new construction?

Both. Our documented portfolio includes a 2024 renovation of an occupied 298-unit podium property alongside ground-up garden, wrap, and podium builds.

Do you handle lighting controls?

Controls are part of most projects, and we coordinate on them as part of the package. Commissioning ownership should be settled early with your electrical contractor and design team — if you tell us what the project needs, we will tell you plainly what we can and cannot cover on it.

What build types do you package for?

Garden, wrap, and podium, plus renovation work. Each has a different balance — garden leans on site lighting, wrap carries long corridors and a garage scope, podium concentrates the amenity and structured-parking scope. See the portfolio for examples of each.

Apartment amenity clubroom with pendant lighting

Catalog

Request the DRS Multifamily Catalog.

The catalog covers what we carry across Units, Amenity, Building, and Site Lighting, and it is the fastest way to see whether we can match a spec you are working to.

Request the catalog