On 1/13/2005 1:58 AM US(ET), Scott Smith took fingers to keys, and typed
the following:

We recently bought a house, and it still has the original garage lighting: a
single 60W bulb mounted on the wall next to the door.

I want to work in the garage, so I need to add some lighting. We live in
San Diego, and our winters don't usually get below 50 degrees, so I figured
I'd go with fluorescent lights.

The problem is that the walls and ceiling are all finished (sheetrock and
paint). Any thought of running the wires outside the walls sounds (at least)
ugly, but the idea of tearing out the sheet rock just to run wires around
the ceiling doesn't sound that appealing either (there are rooms above the
garage, so there's no attic or crawlspace to use).

I'm trying to figure out what my options are (after just buying a house in
San Diego, SWMBO would balk at the expense of just hiring a pro to take care
of it). Anyone out there done anything like this?

Any advice would be appreciated.

-Scott


I installed 5 FLs on the ceiling of my garage. I got them for a
commercial building demolition site, so they didn't cost anything
(except for bulbs). They are 4" surface mount no-frills, no lens cover
lamps. I wired them off the existing incandescent box, so the garage
switch lights them all. I stapled the elect cable to the ceiling joists
through the sheetrock. I had intended to use the surface track covers
for the cables, but I never got around to it. They've been up there
around 10 years now.

--
Bill