Is installing recessed lighting something I can do myself?

[Anonymous]

I have one recessed light in my kitchen- just one. I wanted to add some more and call in an electrician, but when I looked how to install additional lights on youtube it looks extremely easy. DH and I are a little bit handy, I've changed existing light fixtures before, we've done things like patching the wall and ceiling, tiling, painting, etc. But we've never tried something this advanced with electrical. Do you think it is reasonable to attempt this ourselves? Is it more tricky than it looks?

[Anonymous]

It's not hard at all but you need to know what you're doing. The consequences of an error are too great.

I'd hire an electrician and watch him work, ask questions. You can then do the next simple electrical project yourself.

My .02

[Anonymous]

Adding recessed lighting is easy, just a pita, especially if you've done all that. The HARDEST part of adding recessed lighting is patching drywall if you need to cut access points to drill holes in the joists and fish it through for the romex to pass through.

A couple simple tips. 1. Buy airtight/insulation contact recessed cans regardless of whether there's insulation around. They're only a few bucks more and nice to not have ot think about it should you have some left over you want to use where there might be insulation. 2. Remember to use clamp connectors for the romex on the knockout plugs for the metal box (example here: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Halex-3-4-in-Non-Metallic-NM-Twin-Screw-Clamp-Connectors-5-Pack-20512/100134407) 3. Use a coat hanger to poke a hole to see if there's anything between the joist where you want to put the can rather than just cutting a hole. 4. Twist the wire together well and wire nut them and you should be good to go. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

It depends on a lot of factors. We have a 1950s house and had to have a couple new circuits installed and wires run from the breaker before the recessed lighting could be installed.

[Anonymous]

I do a lot of home improvement projects myself, but the one thing I won't touch is the electrical system. It's just too dangerous if you make the wrong move, especially in an older home which is almost invariably not up to code.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do a lot of home improvement projects myself, but the one thing I won't touch is the electrical system. It's just too dangerous if you make the wrong move, especially in an older home which is almost invariably not up to code.

Every person I've met says the same thing, and I honestly don't understand it. Take an adult education class taught by your local county and you'll look back and laugh at what a fool you were for thinking this way. Just an fyi.. if an older home isn't upto code, an electrician isn't going to be able to magically bring anything upto code either probably without rewiring your whole house, so don't worry about something you can't fix.

I've done a lot of home improvement from tiling, complete guy and redo of bathrooms, framing, drywall, plumbing, etc. and the EASIEST thing to do is electrical. No lugging around lots of heavy materials, mixing mud/thinset/etc. making a mess. I won't mess with anything serious like adding a subpanel, but adding a circuit is generally pretty easy as long as you're aware of your local electrical code (which follows a lot of common sense).

For the previous poster, if you're adding some recessed cans often times you won't need to run a whole new circuit from the panel. In this instance where you need to install a new circuit, the hard part is actually just the fishing of the cables which you don't really need an electrician for.

[Anonymous]

^ Spoken like a guy. There is a reason 'they' all say the same thing. I'm not willing to take a gamble with my most expensive asset - which around here is 500k to several million. Lots of things are easy - if you know what you're doing. I can fix badly done drywall, tiling, even plumbing - but I can't fix a house that burns down through ignorance or incompetence on my part. It's just not worth it.

[Anonymous]

Op here. Luckily for me my house is only about 10 years old, I agree with the posters saying they wouldn't mess with an older home and I definitely wouldn't either!! Everything in my house is fairly basic so I feel like I won't hit any unpleasant surprises from running a wire.

[Anonymous]

If you have a finished space above the kitchen, the hardest thing to do, in my opinion, in is to look for open spaces to install the cans. You don't want to cut any joists, hit electrical wires, or plumbing. You may want to buy or rent a snake camera that you can use to look above the dry wall to see if there are any obstacles to avoid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a finished space above the kitchen, the hardest thing to do, in my opinion, in is to look for open spaces to install the cans. You don't want to cut any joists, hit electrical wires, or plumbing. You may want to buy or rent a snake camera that you can use to look above the dry wall to see if there are any obstacles to avoid.

Good advice. Another piece of advice when fishing cables is look around and map out where things may be running in between certain joists. Go on the floor above the place where you're looking to install cans and look if there are floor registers for hvac, or a bathroom, etc. Those can at least be dead giveaways whether you'll have an issue with plumbing or ducts. If there's a floor register directly above where you want to install a can, there is probably an hvac duct running between the two joists back to the central part of the house to a main duct. Also, soffits are a great place to fish cables as you won't run into top plates/joists/etc. where you need to cut a lot of drywall access holes.

[Anonymous]

OP here. So I decided to just attempt to install one new recessed lights- I found a nice spot without anything in the way...

and the new light isn't working. Par for the course, I guess! As far as I know, we did everything right!

[Anonymous]

OP here- ok, fixed it! Now I have two pretty LED lights and the kitchen is very bright, much easier to work with! I think we saved quite a bit of money so I am happy

[Anonymous]

Congrats! I second 10/2 22:59... I love electrical the most of all renovation aspects.

It is worth getting a basic electrical wiring book to understand what is important (wire size, grounding, box fill, etc.), but it really is quite simple. I just can't understand folks like 10/3 00:04. They probably also wouldn't work on natural gas pipe b/c OMG explosions! But it really is quite simple once you know the basics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats! I second 10/2 22:59... I love electrical the most of all renovation aspects.

It is worth getting a basic electrical wiring book to understand what is important (wire size, grounding, box fill, etc.), but it really is quite simple. I just can't understand folks like 10/3 00:04. They probably also wouldn't work on natural gas pipe b/c OMG explosions! But it really is quite simple once you know the basics.

Sweet baby jesus I hope this is a joke.