HawthorneVillager.com

Ok, having done the proper thing and read all the potlight threads that came up on search, it sure looks to me that the best route is to have Mattamy just put in those rough-in caps and put the potlights in ourselves afterwards.

One of the threads mentioned, however, that the cases they put in are now plastic, not metal, which brings me to the stupid question... how do you find the boxes in the ceiling when it comes time to put in the lights? Originally I had thought to use a metal detector, but that won't work with plastic. Do they mark them in some way? Do they give you some kind of blueprint showing where they are? Or do you have to trial and error poke holes?

Ahhhh, that would make sense, if the cap was below the drywall... I assumed it was above the drywall.

The part that doesn't make sense to me then is why they would do that for ~ $70, when all that is needed to finish it off is to take off the cap and plug in a $10 light, when they charge ~ $250 per finished potlight. It would seem putting the holes in the drywall would be the time consuming part of it.

The light doesn't just pop in to the box. You have to rip the box out (it will be attached to the joists) install the pot light, attach the wires and then fix the drywall to fit around the pot light. Not the end of the world, but not a simple "pop it in" either.

Marc

Yeah, dream is right. The holes made in the drywall will not be an exact fit to your pot-light so you still have to do some work and it might not look as clean (depending on how good a DIY'er u are)

I can screw up an Ikea bookshelf assembly, so... not good

That said, maybe I can just buy the potlights with the bigger rims to hide my sins, since my brother-in-law had to come rescue my last drywall repair project

They can't have a junction without a box per the building code.

I'm having 6 rough-ins put in my kitchen. I asked Agapi (my design consultant) how big the caps will be in order to go out and get my pot lights. She said this:

"Capped ceiling electrical box opening approx 3 1/4" diam halogen light
rim will cover the edge."

Now, when you buy the potlights, it might say 2" or 3" or what ever size they are, but I don't think that that is referring to the cap size, but instead, the light size. I'm going to play it safe and by them after i move in. It'll be my first project, along with putting up the garage door opener. Man, I hate working over my head!!!


Justin.

Surprisingly it can be done, although it does seem like an intimidating proposition.

I would suggest getting a conduit installed from your attic to your basement so you have options of dropping the wire to the basement.
Although, if you get a good electrician, they'll be able to install the soffit lighting through the attic and run the switch to the mainfloor.

Jeff

I don't have the email here, but I'm pretty sure it was $293 per outdoor potlight, and $81 for each seperate light switch they quoted.

If so, then I'm jealous. The charged us around $460 each in phase 12 for exterior pot lights plus extra for the switch. They've come in down in price since then I gather.

Ok, turns out I did have a copy of the email here (it was nested in a bunch of replies) and it was $293/$81 (and here I thought I had a terrible memory... maybe it was the shock of multiplying 8*293 and seeing how much outdoor potlights would cost that made it memorable )