Rating the whole assembly for the location, not just the tape
Never accept the word waterproof as a specification. Ask for the exact IP rating, then ask it of everything else staying outside. The EnoLED 24V Glow67 series is listed as an IP67 wet location strip; confirm that on its page with watts per foot and cut interval.
Suitability belongs to the assembly, not the tape alone. Connectors, end seals, cable, channel and the driver enclosure each need a rating suiting an exposed exterior rail. Whether a position counts as a damp location or a wet one is not the installer's call either: it is a code determination the licensed electrician settles against local requirements. The sealing detail sits in weather sealing an outdoor run and protecting connections in wet locations.
At the post: the dry fit and the cable entry
Start at the post nearest the feed, because what you decide here repeats down the deck. Drill the cable entry on the sheltered face, sloping downward so nothing runs in. Then dry fit and stop: hold the channel against the post rather than the trim, dry that surface, mark the fixing centers and leave it loose. Nothing is screwed home yet, and the tails stay long and unconnected.
Along the infill: the top rail run between posts
Measure each bay again with the channel dry fitted, because end caps shorten the finished opening, and write every bay down separately. Only once those lengths are confirmed do you drive the post fixings home, which is why nothing was fastened before. Many strips can be cut at designated points and reconnected with compatible connectors or by soldering, depending on the product: verify the interval and the method for that exact tape first.
Channel outdoors earns its place twice. It carries away heat the tape produces in normal running, and behind a diffuser it reduces but does not guarantee that visible dots stop showing. LED density, profile depth and the diffuser specified feed into that too, and no channel is mandatory.
Aim it under the cap firing down; on top of the cap it puts the emitter at eye level from the yard.
At the corner: turning without bending the tape
Never fold tape around an outside corner. A tight radius creases it, and a crease is a fault nobody sees until dark. Break the run: terminate one bay, seal the end, start the next on its own sealed lead, and keep joins above the top rail line.
At the stair transition: the rake and the change of plane
The stair rail changes plane at the top of the rake and again at the bottom newel, which is where most decks go wrong. Treat the rake as its own bay with sealed ends, and match the setback used on the level rail.
Back at the feed point: driver, supply and who does what
With the footage fixed, size the supply: published watts per foot times the installed length, then at least 20 percent current headroom, checked against what your chosen driver from the power supplies to choose from is rated to deliver. If the published figure is 4 watts per foot and the rail totals 46 feet, that is 184 watts, and 20 percent on top means a driver rated 221 watts or better; take that figure off the listing, not off this example. One voltage runs end to end, so confirm 24V on the tape, supply and control listings. Every bay returns in parallel on its own pair.
The wiring stops here until the breaker is off and confirmed off. Outdoors the line voltage list is long: an exterior receptacle, the circuit feeding it, the junction box it terminates in, in-wall cable running out to it, any penetration through the rim joist or house wall, a hardwired driver and its enclosure, and the switch or dimmer box inside. All of it belongs to a licensed electrician working under local electrical code, under the NEC where it applies, and under the manufacturer instructions. Never open, probe or test a live line voltage connection. None of the low voltage guidance above is permission for unqualified line voltage work.
