Recessed Lighting Install with No Attic or Prior Wiring

Today i'm going to take this room that has no  lighting in it right now it's just got a switched   lamp on it which really stinks i'm going  to convert that into recessed lighting   with leds and do it all without access from  above. So this is a multi-function room in our house this room is about 14 by 14. And this standing lamp doesn't quite work for this space so i've been reduced to adding extra light by bringing in a work light from the shop come on guys this is just hideous i've got to get  rid of this and the can lighting is gonna make it   so that it's evenly lit and it looks great in  here the first question that you're probably   gonna have is how many lights do i put in the room  and that was the one that i was asking myself and   i am not an expert and so i went out and searched  to find what the recommendations were so whenever   i'm trying to lay out something in my house i like  to bring it into sketchup the 3d modeling program   that i use and i'll draw the room and then i can  see exactly what the layout's going to look like   so let me show you and i started placing some  of the lights using the recommendations that i   saw online one of the more popular ones is to use  half the ceiling height as the distance in between   lights but that would put nine lights in that  room and we're trying to do a workout room not a   tanning salon but if you look at the light output  needed per room you'll also see recommendations   based on lumens and going with four or six seems  like the right amount for this room so i'm gonna   go four for symmetry's sake we could always add  one in the middle if we need extra lighting so   i'm gonna go ahead and start measuring and laying  out the spots for the four lights and we'll see   if that's enough in the end and see if i made the  right decision but i think it'll be good all right   so to locate this last light unfortunately i can't  go off of a wall because the slanted wall extends   past where i need to be to get that measurement  so all i'll do is i'm going to measure my 39   inches off the wall on two points and then i  can extend the line out do the same thing from   the other side then i can cross them over at  that point where they meet and that should be   39 inches off of the crown molding which will be  42 inches off of each wall for the last light the   holes are all laid out and here's the light  that i'm going to be using it is a six inch   led light also known as a wafer light because  of how thin it is and i'll talk more about this   later but basically the beauty of these is that  i don't have to worry about where the studs are   so if you're using can lights like the larger  style cam lights i would have had to make sure   where my studs were and worry about that during  the location but since i'm using these i don't   so to cut the hole for that light i'm going to  be using a hole saw this is a 6 in 3 8 of an   inch i drilled a test hole in a piece of drywall  just to make sure that the fit was there and that   the outside ring of the light would still cover  it and the six and three-eighths is gonna work   but it is very very dusty no matter what saw you  use it is extremely dusty so to help keep down the   dust because you guys know i hate dust i got this  little bowl it's like a dust bowl and basically   the uh little unit the hole saw goes into the bowl  and then you chuck that up in your drill and this   is flexible so when we push it up there all the  dust will stay inside there this thing is awesome   if you're drilling a bunch of lights believe  me you'll thank me your spouse will thank you   get one of these so i'm going to chuck  up this little bad boy into the drill   i'm just going right through the hole there and  one thing to note is you want to run your drill   on low on the one speed because with such  a big saw you can get some grabbing and   kickback if you're in high speed and if  you're using one that has the hooked teeth   run it in reverse a great tip i picked up  from my buddy jeff from diy home run of vision   that is a great way to not have it  grabbing and jumping all over the ceiling oh my gosh the first hole is done and a few  things first of all this worked amazingly to   catch all the dust but the hole saw was much more  aggressive uh especially working over my head   and when i started out i'll show a little replay  it caught and i had my face up here and i'm lucky   that this thing didn't spin around and smack  me in the side of the face if you have a side   handle that would be a great time to use it and  keep your face below the drill because i almost   got the old one two mike tyson straight off  the ladder and that would have not been fun although it probably would have been a funny clip  but the last thing is look at this i'm right into   one of the joists if i had a regular can light  this space would not have worked but with the   wafer light i should be able to make this one  work let me go around and do the other holes now so i've got this switch here and it's going to  the outlet that has the lamp on it so i've shut   off the power make sure you shut off power before  working with electricity and now i'm gonna take   this off and see if the wires are running up  and over or down and over if they're running   up and over it's gonna make our life a lot  easier but i'm almost certain they're running   underneath i pulled the switch out and i looked up  in there and the wires are actually going up which   this could be a really good sign but i'm going  to check the switch and confirm the wires for   which ones the power is coming in and going out  of so turn the power back on to the switch and i'm   going to use a non-contact voltage tester to see  which ones are getting the power so coming into   the switch you're going to just have two hot wires  and i've got one that is looped around and that's   a good sign that this is feeding in power because  it's looping out and going to another circuit   and then the red line coming out is going to  that outlet and i can confirm that by using a   voltage tester so the switch is off right now  so this top side should not have any voltage   and it doesn't the light stays green but if i go  down to the bottom side so this has the voltage   on it and as it goes through when i flip the  switch to on it now transfers that to the top wire   and one thing to note here make sure you get  a good high quality voltage tester because i   had this little jobby which was maybe 10 or 12  bucks but it's kind of going everywhere around   there so i did not trust this one uh this guy  right here you know i can wave around there   it's not picking it up i can put it right on the  wire it's still not picking it up but when i put   it straight onto the black wire it shows that  so i feel a lot more comfortable using this one   to make sure that i know exactly where the  voltage is going all right you can see the   french door here this is the hole that is  closest to the switch so the switch is kind of   right over in here so i'm going to look up there  and see if i can actually see the wires because   if i do that would be that would be amazing and  a great way to do this is just to use your cell   phone put it in video mode and turn the flash on  and you can kind of monitor it from there okay oh there is a wire right in  here it is only a few feet over   and i bet that is it so i'm going to get the  voltage tester and we're going to check this   out and confirm if that is the wire or not so  we've got the light on the room on i'm going   to stick this up there and we're going to see if  it is detecting the voltage which we hope it is   all right we've got it beeping  go ahead and turn the light off no all right so that line apparently is  not controlled by the switch which that's   very confusing to me so i'm gonna have to  think on this and figure it out but i was   hoping we could tie right into that uh but maybe  that's somehow the supply line coming off of it   all right so this is the thing you're gonna have  to figure out when you're dealing with a switch   is to make sure where all the power is going i  realize the wire i was testing is a 14 3 romex   and it has two hot conductors a red and a black  the red wire comes off the switch and powers the   top of the plug in the room and the black wire  is constant power to the bottom of the plug   causing the continued beeping no so after some  research and weighing my options i've decided   on a route what i'm gonna have to do is tap into  the line that runs through the ceiling and what   that's gonna do is kill the outlet on the wall so  i'm gonna have to go back and address that later   and i have floor trusses up there so i don't even  have to drill to go through them i know i know   tell me down in the comments how much uh you wish  you had this situation i completely lucked out   but i'm gonna go ahead and run that wire through  but for all of you who do have solid joists that   you're going to have to drill through i'm going to  show you exactly how i would have done it and the   tools i would have used because i was prepared  to do that but before we get to that i want to   talk about today's sponsor policy genius so if you  own a house 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whichever   gives you the best rate so visit policygenius.com  forward slash fix this build that to shop the   market and start saving today and a big thank  you to policy genius for sponsoring today's video   so a lot of you're probably going to have to  pull through the wall and you're not going to   have that wire that i found up in mind and i was  super lucky to have that and you'll probably have   the switch on the inside i just taped this one up  here for effect because i want to show you what i   would have done what i was prepared to do before i  found that wire so it's a bit hard to show inside   so i want to give you a quick mock-up to explain  exactly what was going on in there now i'm not a   licensed electrician this is not advice for you  or what to do this is just a demonstration of   what i thought i was going to look at so basically  imagine that this is the light switch in the front   of the room and this is the switched outlet over  on the other side of the room so we've got power   that comes in from a wire down below and comes  into the box and then it splits out to another   wire that goes up and across to the outlet that is  switched now here's where the interesting part is   so the way an outlet is set up is that they have  these little tabs on here in between the screws   on both the hot side as well as the neutral side  and those are normally just there and they will   transfer the power from one screw to the other and  from one plug to the other but if you break the   tab on the hot side what happens is it makes that  two individual plugs so you can power one plug   by constant power and one plug by the switched  power so the way that's typically going to look   is either you're going to have two 14 2 wires  meaning a white and a black one going to the top   which will be switched and one set going to the  bottom which will be constant power and that's how   it's set up right here or you're going to have the  situation that i have which is a 14 3 wire which   has two hots which has a red hot which is on the  switch in my situation and a black hot which is   constant in that situation so if you do have two  wires that's going to be a lot easier because all   you have to do is disconnect the top one because  you're going to be using that for the can lights   so you can remove that wire and then use the  constant power on the bottom put a new plug in   that still has the tab intact and then you'll just  have a constant power plugged and you'll be using   the wire for the lights but in my situation i'm  gonna have to cut the wire and i don't have any   constant power left because i'm killing both the  red and the black side of the wire at one time so   i'm gonna have to run new wiring over to that plug  to get it back into service after i'm done doing   the lights but let me show you about drilling  through this mock-up and how i would run the wires   now if i couldn't get access to the wire that was  coming out of the switch then i would also have   to address it there so in this mock-up the top  hot lead is coming up to the top and i can tap   into that but let's just say it was going down  below and you couldn't see it or it was just   going down below and you needed to run the wire  up what i would have done is just take it off   the hot lead from the top of this switch because  that's the one that i just turned off over there   so now this is the other end of the dead wire   and then again cap that or pull that out get it  out of the way because it'll no longer be in use   and then run a new wire down so that's why i'd  have to go from this light switch all the way to   my first light in the series so over in the room  i marked out some spots on the wall i would go   in and make a hole at the top of the wall make  a hole in the ceiling and that would allow me   to get into this bay and then to grab the wiring  so then you can use something like an auger bit   where spade bit that has a self drilling it's  got a little screw auger head on it so it will   pull it through they also make these really  long flex bits so this is an auger flex bit   and you can go all the way up into the wall so  this is the one that i wanted to use make a hole   and then you can slide this all the way up into  the wall and go through the top plate so come in   from underneath and go up now the thing is very  important whenever you're drilling into walls   and whether you're drilling up you're drilling  through joists because you can also use this to   drill through the joists once you get the holes in  the wall you can come back in and go the other way   with either this long auger bit or the other one  you don't want to drill through any of that blind   because of situations just like this you may have  power up there in my ceiling you even saw some of   it i've got drain pipes i even have water lines  in there so make sure you do exploratory holes   so i would do that exploratory hole on the ceiling  here and then as well in the wall as the wall   use my camera phone and i would know if i was  going to drill through here i would make sure   that i was going to the back so that i wasn't  anywhere near this wire so for this situation   i might use a bit like this this is a little  bit too large this is a 7 8 inch bit i would   probably use a half inch bit somewhere in that  size so you can comfortably run it through but   you don't want to weaken the joist i could just  come straight in through the the drywall hole   put it in where i need it  to go and then drill through so at this point i could use my fish tape go  in through the hole that i made in the drywall   come up through the hole feed the wire in  through that first can light opening pull it   down with my fish tape and then pull it out on  the first opening there at the top of the wall   at this point i could then either fish down into  the box or come up through the box now both of   those might be hard so you might actually have to  open up another hole right in front of the box but   then you can just get that in and then make your  connections to the switch and then you've got   your completed circuit for the lights all right so  now it is time to install the lights and again i'm   using these led wafer lights and you might notice  it has this little pigtail on it and that connects   to this little guy here which is basically a  little junction box but they make it super easy   with these little push in wire connectors so all  you have to do is strip the wire plug that in all   the greens go in one all the blacks on another  and all the whites on the last one and then you   can just screw these two together and you're all  good and the great thing about these is that they   are very inexpensive i got a pack of 12 for i  think 60 bucks they are 3000 kelvin and they are   ic rated which means insulation contact so if you  have insulation in your ceilings that is fine make   sure that you get their proper rating for your  situation but compared to the old school can light   i mean there's not even a difference these are  so much easier to install and you don't have to   worry about any obstructions so now i'm going to  reach up and cut the wire so i can pull that down   to start the first run of the lighting so  now when i'm ready to wire it up on this end   i can just connect the output of the switch  to the red wire and the input for the power   to this black wire and we'll be good to  go so to prep the boxes for install it's   really easy they just have little knockouts  you just take a screwdriver and push it out   then just use some little  push in knockout connectors   these little knockout connectors protect the wire  from getting cut on the sharp edges of the metal   box and it also holds it from pulling back so  it's kind of a strain relief as well all right and   note to self uh don't leave anything up in your  ceilings i just spent about 10 minutes looking   for my wire strippers and i remembered i left them  in the ceiling do not strands tools in the ceiling   so i'm just going to strip these wires and then  i can put them into the box make the connections   and then move on to the next light now i know  it's a bit hard to see with the camera angled   from down below but you want to make sure  you do a good job getting the wires seated   into these push connectors because if  you don't then they won't be able to   pass it through but once you get the wires in  there you can just put them back into the box   close that up you can also connect the boxes  to the joists up there to make sure they are   firmly in place but i'm gonna go around and wire  all the boxes first and then come back and make   all the connections for the lights all right now  it's finally time to put the lights in so there's   some little plastic on here i'm gonna go ahead and  take that off it's always a nice satisfying sound they do come with a little gasket on them i've  seen some people take them off but uh i'm gonna   keep it on there because it'll keep a nice tight  seal and when people are opening the front door i   could feel air drafts and also wearing gloves  is a good thing so that you don't mark up all   the front of this and also so you don't get a  bunch of dirt on the ceiling even though i'm   sure i've touched it a bunch of times wearing  gloves at this stage will just help keep things   a little more clean so with everything wired up  there all i've got to do is make that connection   of this little pigtail here and then just thread  that all the way down so it is fully compressed   now these clips just slide right in here and this  is nice because i've also got the joist right up   top that i'm not going to have to worry about once  i let go it should just suck it right up in there   yeah that looks great i'm gonna put  these last couple in then wire up   the switch and then we'll find out if i made  the right decision and a four is enough light we'll just make the connections here and then we  can test the room's cleared out let's see how it   turned out oh yeah this is a huge improvement  over our old stand lamp we are going to plan   on adding a ceiling fan which will add a little  bit more light for fill if you wanted to really   do a lot of fine detail work i would probably  go with six four inch lights maybe even eight   four inch lights on a dimmer because it could  be a bit brighter in here but for what we want   it's great if you want to check out some more home  renovation and improvement projects i've got a   playlist queued up for you right there and i want  to give a huge shout out to all the folks that   have been joining the ftbt builders club you can  check out more information about that down below   and i'll catch you guys on the next episode  where we're going to build something awesome

Channel: Fix This Build That

Views: 452,865

Rating: 4.844162 out of 5

Keywords: Can lights, recessed lights, pot lights, led can lights, led recessed lights, led lights, led wafer lights, led can light installation, can light install, led light install, recessed lighting installation, recessed lighting layout, running wires to a ceiling, running wires in walls, ceiling light install, how to, how to build, how to make, woodworking, woodworking projects, woodwork, diy, do it yourself, diy project, fixthisbuildthat, fix this build that, ftbt

Id: 2kSHTWthJ5w

Length: 18min 21sec (1101 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021