Installing Recessed Lighting – part 1
I was at my brother’s house over the weekend and we had one task – install 4 new recessed lights in the upper floor of his home that was built in the ’30s (I think.) This upper floor had some windows on either side of a long, narrowish central room. We needed to add some serious light in there to make it a more usable space. Basically when we asked ourselves how to install recessed lighting, we just turned to our dad, who has years and years of electrical experience, for both guidance and help on the actual install. So here’s the situation – our dad is the man, and that’s a thing that gets tossed around a lot – “oh, he’s the man”, etc., well, he really is, and he helped out in a huge way on this project.
Before I got there my brother, Dan, had done all the shopping, so we were ready to roll right away. I had a double-espresso in my belly and had also just scarfed down some breakfast burritos to fuel the long day of home improvement mania ahead. My eyes were wide, my camera was ready, and my laptop was open to start taking notes, and to get covered with ceiling-drywall dust!
My dad has been fiddling with electrons for a long time and he has this ‘magic bucket’ full of cool tools for electrical projects that pretty much goes wherever he goes. There are going to be pictures of the magic bucket later, so keep your peepers peeled. For this project you won’t need every single thing that he’s got in his kit, but here are the essentials that we used on this one. These links will go to Amazon and ToolBarn eventually because I love shopping at both of these places, I have ordered satisfactorily many times before, and you can pretty much find anything you’ll need.
Wire strippers
Wire cutters
Small and large phillips screwdriver
Small and large flat screwdriver
25′ tape measure
Wire nuts of various sizes
Hammer
1/2″ wood staples
Pen knife or small x-acto knife of some kind
Drywall saw
Pencil (not overly sharpened ideally)
Dust mask
2′ x 4′ 3/8″ board (dimensions aren’t important, but it needs to be big enough lay on, and light enough to maneuver in the space above the ceiling, whatever that looks like in your situation)
Other helpful items to consider:
Electrical tape
Compact LED flashlight(s)
Band-aids
Work towels (that won’t ever need to find their way in front of the important-type guests)
I am sorting/editing all the pictures this week and organizing/expanding on my notes, so there will be more posts in this series soon. Until then, cheers!
posted in Articles In Series, Lighting, Main living areas | 0 Comments
