jmlcolorado
Well-known member
Hey folks! I have a question regarding lighting for a low ceiling 2 car garage.
A few years ago when we were renting, I bought 3 8' T8 fixtures from Home Depot. These have worked really well, and I carried them to the house we bought. They have worked nicely in there for about 4 years, but now that I spend more time in the garage, I find their placement aren't optimal. The other problem I have is ceiling height. It's a hair under 8' near the back of the garage.
What I would like to do is add a 4th row to the back of the garage and space these closer together.
I've attached a photo of the height of the garage door to the ceiling too which is the next problem. I can't install any fixtures flush mounted to the ceiling due to door clearance issues.
What I propose to do is build a recess in between each truss bottom cord, Sheetrock, install lighting, then trim out the ceiling with 1x4 or similar in order to hold a reflector that would be near tight to the ceiling.
I frequently have dark spots now with the three and will be getting a lathe soon, so I'd like as much light as possible. I would likely switch all 8 fixtures with 4 switches. 2 switches for the front lights (no sense in having those on with the garage door open) and another two switches for the back fixtures. This would allow me to control lighting for general walking through lighting, all the way to full production lighting.
The permitter of the garage walls will be lined with equipment (lathe, disk sander, drill press, tool box/work bench, bench grinders, ect) so I want lighting to be close to directly above the walls to light these areas very well.
So rather than having one fixture in the center of the garage, there would be two equal distance from the center. This would also aid in under hood lighting when the truck is in the garage with the hood up.
Garage is heated and doesn't drop below 50* when unoccupied, and up to 70* max during the winter when working.
Here are some pictures to help.
Current setup looking to rear of garage:
View of above garage door. Wood door sags, new door wouldn't allow as much room:
Another view of above garage door clearance. My finger blocking the leer half of the photo to allow **** camera to raise brightness to show clearance clearly without sunlight making it too dark.
And a view of the current dark side of the garage.
I would like to try out t5 fixtures, but hear they aren't good for short ceilings. My hopes is that adding more fixtures would limit hot spots. I'm also not sure if they could be installed in an "enclosed" area, the recess I build to raise fixtures above ceiling height, and to add reflectors.
A few years ago when we were renting, I bought 3 8' T8 fixtures from Home Depot. These have worked really well, and I carried them to the house we bought. They have worked nicely in there for about 4 years, but now that I spend more time in the garage, I find their placement aren't optimal. The other problem I have is ceiling height. It's a hair under 8' near the back of the garage.
What I would like to do is add a 4th row to the back of the garage and space these closer together.
I've attached a photo of the height of the garage door to the ceiling too which is the next problem. I can't install any fixtures flush mounted to the ceiling due to door clearance issues.
What I propose to do is build a recess in between each truss bottom cord, Sheetrock, install lighting, then trim out the ceiling with 1x4 or similar in order to hold a reflector that would be near tight to the ceiling.
I frequently have dark spots now with the three and will be getting a lathe soon, so I'd like as much light as possible. I would likely switch all 8 fixtures with 4 switches. 2 switches for the front lights (no sense in having those on with the garage door open) and another two switches for the back fixtures. This would allow me to control lighting for general walking through lighting, all the way to full production lighting.
The permitter of the garage walls will be lined with equipment (lathe, disk sander, drill press, tool box/work bench, bench grinders, ect) so I want lighting to be close to directly above the walls to light these areas very well.
So rather than having one fixture in the center of the garage, there would be two equal distance from the center. This would also aid in under hood lighting when the truck is in the garage with the hood up.
Garage is heated and doesn't drop below 50* when unoccupied, and up to 70* max during the winter when working.
Here are some pictures to help.
Current setup looking to rear of garage:
View of above garage door. Wood door sags, new door wouldn't allow as much room:
Another view of above garage door clearance. My finger blocking the leer half of the photo to allow **** camera to raise brightness to show clearance clearly without sunlight making it too dark.
And a view of the current dark side of the garage.
I would like to try out t5 fixtures, but hear they aren't good for short ceilings. My hopes is that adding more fixtures would limit hot spots. I'm also not sure if they could be installed in an "enclosed" area, the recess I build to raise fixtures above ceiling height, and to add reflectors.
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