Do you have access to the wires feeding the light from one end of the
house or the other? Crawlspace or attic.?

I am assuming romex is here and it is running through drilled holes in
the joists...

If its ran throught the joists and not secured by staples you may have
a couple options.

1. If it comes from the same direction you are trying ro move the
light you may be able to pop you a small hole in the ceiling (
assuming its sheetrock) big enough to get your hand up in there and
pull it back. Hopefully the fixture will cover up your hole you made
or just fix the hole.

2, If it comes from the other direction and you can pull it back, tie
some jetline or strong string and pull it back and add another piece
long enough to make it to the new light location. You can get 60 inch
bits that you can drill through the joists, Set you a j-box in the
attic where you pulled it back.

Certianly sounds like a pain to attempt.




On 21 Oct 2006 21:09:11 -0700, "BallPeanScrewdriver"
wrote:

I "need" (as defined by wife, not me) to move a 1st floor light fixture
about 56 inches. OF COURSE it's across joists, and OF COURSE it's on
the 1st floor so I don't have access to it from above.

Is this as ugly a procedure as it seems like it must be, or are there
tools and/or techniques to make it less painful (primarily defined as
not messing up the ceiling byond the existing hold and the one I'll
need to make)? I am assuming I have to drill through all the joists
between the old and new locations, so some type of extended drill bit
seems like a bare minimum. But 20+ years of DIY home repair/remodel has
taught me others often know a "slick" way to do a given task, and I'm
hoping that's the case here (although the geometry and physics of the
problem certainly don't seem to leave much wiggle room for such a
solution).

Thanks in advance for your input!

-dave