Adding lights to finished ceiling

[dachrist]

Hey all

I have a 20' X 20' garage that currently has 2 48" T12 2 lamp wrap around fixtures mounted to a finished ceiling. I want to add an additional 6 48" T8 2 lamp wrap around fixtures. What are my options for wiring, and which would look better? I think my options are armoured cable, pvc conduit or EMT conduit. The ceiling and walls in the garage are white now. Can you paint armoured cable and/or conduit?

 

[IDASHO]

What, no attic?

If you have access to the attic it will be fairly easy to drop in boxes for lighting.

 

[Steevo]

I had a garage once where there was no access to the space above the sheet rock ceiling. I used EMT conduit to go from the electrical box where the original light was (extended it with a box extension) to a couple of fluorescent fixtures, and then from them to two more, etc. If you lay it out carefully, you can avoid (much) bending of conduit.

 

[dachrist]

What, no attic?

If you have access to the attic it will be fairly easy to drop in boxes for lighting.

There is a bedroom directly above the garage, no attic.

 

[bward76]

1/2 emt painted white. If your not handy with bending pipe, it may be worth throwing it out on craigslist that you need an electrician for a couple hours of pipe bending. There are quite a few out of work these days that are working pretty cheap for cash.

 

[Scotto]

Which way do the joists run? You might be able to make some holes and snake the wires a long the joist.

 

[mhm993]

Sounds like you want it to look nice, so same way you'd do any interior electric job. Small holes in the sheetrock, fish tape, drill joists where necessary, and use the fixtures themselves as a way to run the cable around joists where possible. Mostly takes some thought about which way the joists run and where to place the fixtures. Spackle and touch-up when you're done.

It's hardly any more work than putting up conduit and painting it. And You get a job so much better looking. Probably lots cheaper, too.

If you're phobic about cutting and pasting the ceiling, just replace the existing fixtures with 8 footers. If you want more than two eight foot fixtures, put them end to end and there's no wiring necessary except inside the fixtures. Voila. Daylight without exposed conduit or cable in the ceiling.

 

[dachrist]

I think I am going to go the painted conduit route. The ceiling joists run the "wrong way" for where I want to mount the new lights, and the ceiling is insulated to boot so that would make it even harder to fish wire through.