in this video i'm going to be fixing a problem of
not having enough lights in a room this is a break room me and my employees use when we're at the
woodshed we often use this space as a computer work area and break room which is great but it's
just too dark it's actually really simple to add lights to any space so in this video i'm going to
do just that and show you the steps in case you have a room in your house that needs the same the
first thing to do is locate the joists and figure out which way they're running you basically want
to know where the joists are so that you can avoid them what i did to figure out my light layout is
first decide how many lights i wanted in the space i chose eight then i measured the length of the
ceiling space and divided it into equal parts for the number of lights for my space i wanted
two rows of four lights each and my ceiling is 274 inches long that means i'll have a light every
55 inches you can do the same math for dictating the placement of rows however i place these by
eye instead i have a ceiling fan in the center of the room so i picked a placement by eye then
match that measurement on the other side i do recommend not getting too close to the walls
because the light will cascade down like this and if this is hitting a wall then it will
create something like this or just die off so place it kind of out where you'll get
the full beam of light now you can very well go through the ceiling and make a bunch of pencil
marks however i instead use rows of painters tape to make a very quick visual guide it goes up
and down quickly and is also very easy to see it's very handy if you have a 6'5 friend who
doesn't require a step stool to press the tape on at this point i went to each light
location and ran a screw in just to double check that it wasn't on any joists if
you are then move the location one way or the other before getting going i was all good so
next i started prepping for drilling holes there is a variety of tools you can
use for cutting holes in drywall but a cheap specialty tool definitely worth picking
up for this job it's called an adjustable hole saw cutter it has teeth that rotate in a circle
on a drill and it's adjustable so you just need to match it to the size of your fixture before
getting after it i next made a dust shield drilling into drywall above your head is going
to create a huge mess they do make plastic shields but i didn't pick one up so instead i
grabbed an old basketball and cut it in half after drilling a hole on the bottom
i could poke my drill through and grab onto the hole cutting tool now
when i cut into the ceiling most of the dust will be captured in the bowl
instead of going all over the house however drywall is still nasty stuff so
you can see i'm still wearing a respirator by the way if you're curious about anything i'm
using i've left you linked down in the description oh also if you don't have a basketball to
cut up you can cut the top off of a bucket okay so the next thing to do is determine where
the power source is going to be coming from in my case i have these pendant lights that are really
low hanging doesn't put out a lot of power and so what i'm going to do is take these off put in a
blank in the ceiling but i am going to steal its switch so that this switch it will be the power
source that'll daisy chain off to power all of my new lights so that whenever i come in this switch
instead of doing this one pendant light will then operate all of my lights so in your case um it's
really great if you have an old switch that you're using the new lighting to replace completely
because that makes it simple but if that's not the case for you then you just need to find some sort
of power switch either an outlet or an existing switch my room is actually a room built within a
bigger shell so the insulation is on the ceiling of this attic space instead of on the floor which
makes my job here even more simple since all the bays are nice and open but if you do this job
you might have to move some insulation around now i'm in the attic space and what i did is
locate that pendant light that i just disconnected in the corner which is right over there i located
the romex coming off of it and now i'm going to be routing it to my first hole which i'm going to the
furthest hole first so that's what i'm doing now okay now i ran a separate piece of romex from this
hole to that hole to start actually daisy chaining off so this is just kind of roughed in i have
my link i have extra links so that later i can staple it to the joist here now i'm going to pick
this up i'm going to leave myself plenty of space and i'm just going to cut it somewhere down here
you should have about six inches past the hole there we go and then i'm
gonna stick it back down there now i'm gonna repeat on the other holes
i'm gonna be coming up from this hole down into this one again you just want to
have about six to eight inches just to where you have enough wire to work with whenever
then you move to making your terminations once it's in place i'm gonna
pick it up and make a cut each unit comes with two components the
transformer and then the light itself you can see how low profile these things are but each one
comes with two springs on the side so where you'll be able to straighten these out insert the disc
and then whenever it's inside the drywall these will spring down and that's actually what holds
the fixture up into place this you can attach to the joist with the attachment here and then
you can just uh hardwire it into the transformer and then plug and play right there in between
the two units so i'm actually going to disconnect them like this in order to make wiring in the
transformer a little bit easier and then i'll connect this in afterwards after running the
romex it's back down to the space to start stripping wire and terminating connections for
lighting i'm going with the recessed disk lights these are quickly taking the place of can lights
which used to be the old go-to for jobs like this but these are not only easier to install but also
cheaper the leds so good efficiency and a lot of them have adjustable color temperature as well if
you ever need to take the light out you just have to tug on it and the springs on the back will
straighten out until it passes through the hole that's it now you go into the attic attach to the
transformer look how low profile and cool that is now before letting you go let me thank this video
sponsor which is tough built i've been utilizing tough builds clip tag tool belt system and i am
highly impressed with the design and function every pouch in the system is the same and it has
two parts that allows you to quickly put it on or take off an entire bag without having to remove
your belt so in the morning when i get to the job site i can pick up which bag is needed for the
day and clip it right on then once that job is done i can just as quickly shed it the clips are
also designed to be mounted so i bought an extra pack of clips and screwed them into the wall so
that whenever i remove a pouch i can place it neatly on the wall where it's always ready to go
and organized another great built-in design idea is the kickstand a lot of their pouches have a
kickstand on the back that can quickly be deployed should you find yourself in a position where the
pouch is better off of you instead of on you tell me that's not awesome tuff belt has a huge variety
so regardless of what trade you're into there is a pouch made for you or if you're more of a drill
of all trades like me then i recommend picking up several and having them stocked with the trade
tools so that you're ready to go and organized big thank you to toughbook for supporting
what i do if you'd like to check out their cliptech tool bags then i've left you links
down below but i also recommend checking out their awesome knee pads and saw horses i fully
stand behind all of these products okay the last thing in the project to do is take the tape
down before the fixtures go all the way in and it's as simple as that i was done oh my
goodness that actually makes a huge difference i don't know if it can get more simple so
if you have a dark room or area then i hope this video has given you the confidence
to tackle the job of adding lighting to it again i've left you links to everything
i used down in the description and i'll see you on whatever i'm working on next you
