Stuck on garage exterior lighting, need some help?

[JasonF]

Just finished a 32x48x12 pole building and am doing to wiring now. My initial plan was too put can lights in the eves above the overhead doors, entry door and windows. I then come across these exterior barn lights from Menards, fairly cheap and I thought they would look good centered above all the doors.
http://www.menards.com/main/outdoor...iling-wall-outdoor-light/p-1509827-c-7906.htm

Problem is that the center point of all my doors fall right on a steel rib. What are my options for mounting a fixture over this rib or what do you thing about the light being off-center? I know if I would have pre-planned I could have had a square trim plate put up for a fixture but that needed to go up before the steel.
Heres is a pick of the doors;

My second question is, if I were to go back to putting can lights in, what am I looking for in a can light? When I search through Home Depots sight I dont see anything that say exterior use for instance? I do see some that say for use in damp locations but they still appear to be open enough to let bugs in?

 

[Ray916MN]

I couldn't find anything built to address this problem, so I vee notched a pressure treated piece of wood to make a flat mount base to fit over the rib. Painted it to match and used caulk on the back and screwed it on then drilled the hole for the wire to come through.

 

[lessersivad]

Eave light option previously posted;

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=208926

 

[usa#1]

May not be the look you're going for, but you could use a wall pak centered between both big doors. Check out http://www.e-conolight.com they typically have good pricing. They also have led versions of the goosenecks you are thinking about using.

 

[JasonF]

Thanks for the links and the pictures guys. I'm still not 100% sure on what route I'm going to go but I'm leaning towards the LED pot lights in the soffits. If I do go with the barnlights I think I will do like Ray916M and add a second light to each door and then block the overhead door to keep it centered.

 

[Burb]

I ran into this same problem with the lights falling on the rib. Luckily out of 10 lights only one fell on a large rib, all the others fell right in the middle of the small ribs. Either way I wanted something that would look good and fit flush to the siding without having to cut huge holes in it.

I ended up picking up a 5/4" x 6" x 10' pvc trim board @ Menards and making mounts to go between the siding and the light fixture. I've attached pictures of what I came up with, but did not take a picture of the large rib cutout, but hopefully you'll get the idea. I just set up my table saw to cut the groove on the backside, and painted them once they were done. As a bonus I had enough room under the light fixture to hide the mounting screws from where the block attaches to the siding.

Hope this helps.

 

[JasonF]

I ran into this same problem with the lights falling on the rib. Luckily out of 10 lights only one fell on a large rib, all the others fell right in the middle of the small ribs. Either way I wanted something that would look good and fit flush to the siding without having to cut huge holes in it.

I ended up picking up a 5/4" x 6" x 10' pvc trim board @ Menards and making mounts to go between the siding and the light fixture. I've attached pictures of what I came up with, but did not take a picture of the large rib cutout, but hopefully you'll get the idea. I just set up my table saw to cut the groove on the backside, and painted them once they were done. As a bonus I had enough room under the light fixture to hide the mounting screws from where the block attaches to the siding.

Hope this helps.

Now that is a great idea! I was a little hesitant about using a block of wood as I didn't want to have keep it painted but this would last forever. I think I even have some of this PVC garage door molding lying around somewhere which is even better!

 

[Burb]

Now that is a great idea! I was a little hesitant about using a block of wood as I didn't want to have keep it painted but this would last forever. I think I even have some of this PVC garage door molding lying around somewhere which is even better!

Thanks! I also didn't want something that would eventually rot, or have to be painted all the time like wood. The pvc board cost $32 if I recall, not cheap as far as boards go, but I easily had enough to do all 10 of my lights with some to spare.

 

[JasonF]

Thanks! I also didn't want something that would eventually rot, or have to be painted all the time like wood. The pvc board cost $32 if I recall, not cheap as far as boards go, but I easily had enough to do all 10 of my lights with some to spare.

So did you cut the large rib into the PVC or did you notch the steel? If you cut the steel what did you use?

 

[lessersivad]

Burb,

That turned out nice. Thanks for posting your solution.

 

[Burb]

So did you cut the large rib into the PVC or did you notch the steel? If you cut the steel what did you use?

I used my table saw and cut out the pvc to fit around the rib, but just never took a picture