How To Cut Recessed Light Holes

hey guys how's it going it's scott with everyday home repairs and today i want to show you how to cut six inch holes in your ceiling so you can install recessed lighting specifically i'm using these ultra thin recessed lights from amazon link down in the description for your reference and you don't have a lot of wiggle room if you see here your hole needs to be about six and a quarter inches in diameter but can be no more than six and five-eighths to make sure you don't see any gaps around the small trim that you have on these so i'd say one of the only drawbacks of these newer ultra thin recessed lights are that there's not a lot of wiggle room so if you cause a little more ceiling damage chip the paint type of thing you might be doing some drywall repair or painting to get everything looking correctly so the saw i'll be using is a six and three-eighths drywall hole saw you can get these at most home improvement shops this one came from menards which is in our area but you also gave them home depot lows pretty readily available but just make sure the diameter of the hole saw matches the recessed lights that you got i also want to show you how to kind of minimize the mess that you make because this can be a really dirty project in terms of drywall dust all over you and all of your floor or your carpet so believe it or not nothing fancy but you can go down to the grocery store pick up a roast pan that you more often would see at a picnic and use the lid i'll show you how to use the lid so it can catch the vast majority of the debris and drywall coming off these cuts and then finally what to do when it doesn't go right the ceiling behind me is not simple half inch drywall it's actually half inch drywall and a quarter inch of plaster so it is a little harder to get through than just half inch standard drywall also you need to be thinking through is there any ceiling joist that you might be hitting that's something you really want to take into consideration and then this hole right here which i started to cut but started to get into some issues where i have steel mesh actually in that part of the ceiling so what do you do in that case and how do you get that whole cut with minimizing the amount of damage or repair that you have to do long term so without further ado let's jump into it assuming you have all of your locations i'm going to drill a 3 16 inch size hole in the first location now this hole is smaller than the center drill bit on the hole saw then i'll take a marking flag and then tightly roll up the flag portion and then once i get that all rolled up i'll take the flag and insert it through the 3 16 inch size hole and then push that up through the ceiling and into the attic space where then i can see the flag easily independent on how much insulation i have in the attic then i'll take a bet the bent end of that flag and just some painters tape to secure it in place i'll do that for all my locations and then go up in the attic and clear out any insulation so when i'm drilling the hole i don't have insulation falling on top of me and just making more of a mess so last thing prior to cutting is to make that catch for all the drywall debris i'm just going to use this lid from the roast pan mark my center point on the lid and then don't drill your fingers drill a small 3 16 hole doesn't have to be too precise here this hole is just so i can easily cut with my side cutters then measure the size of your chuck i want to measure it at that sloping part so i'm going to go an inch and a half in diameter i just found something on the job site that was about an inch and a half into diameter just so happened to be the end of a flashlight this is just to give me my cut line for the trusty side cutters and then just a note guys in the description you'll see these tools you'll see the exact roast pan the hole saw just everything for your reference to make your job go easier fit that on there as a dry fit and also this lid is is so thin that it's very common you'll get a crack like that not a big deal you use painters tape or something to kind of hold it together if you don't do that it will propagate like a windshield crack it'll just start to expand and you'll have a crack throughout the whole lid all right everything fits up now ready to cut start your cut and kind of take your time applying even pressure all the way around the hole saw now with this lid you also have to apply pressure vertically just to make sure it doesn't spin around now be careful because it can catch remember there's only so many teeth like that on this hole saw so if it grabs a hole to anything it's really going to catch and crank around your drill so finish off the cut and slowly remove the plug trying to minimize any damage so here is the result a little bit of chipping but overall going to work well and be covered by the trim piece on the recessed lighting now probably more importantly dude what happens when it doesn't go right so here's a hole where there's actually wire mesh underneath a ceiling joint so in this case the hole saw is not going to cut it no pun intended so i'm going to break out the oscillating tool with the drywall blade get all suited up with my respirator safety glasses and get the vacuum out to try to suck up as much of the debris as possible and then just work my way around taking my time trying to reduce any damage but overall trying to get that plug out and then removing any of the nails here's the finished product can you see that wire mesh inside which was causing the issues you're also going to need to do a little patchwork hopefully that helps you out on your project and gives you an idea when everything goes smooth but also if you have plaster like this and you run into some snags now if you're undertaking a project where you're adding lights like this to a living space that has no ceiling lights remember on the channel we'll have that video where it's walked you through planning where to put the recessed lights cutting the holes going through wiring and getting the full project done start to finish that video is on the channel and also linked at the end of this video links to all the tools everything we use down in the description and don't forget to hit the subscribe button as we have weekly videos coming out to help you with repairs and improvements around your house and we'll catch you on the next one take care

Channel: Everyday Home Repairs

Views: 9,301

Rating: 4.9361024 out of 5

Keywords: recessed lighting installation, hole saw for recessed lights, how to cut holes for recessed lighting, drywall dust collector

Id: qSyNT0duiDk

Length: 6min 49sec (409 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 09 2021