How to light my new garage.....

[MagicMarker]

So here is my new 2 car. It has high ceilings and I'm unsure how to tackle lighting.. The main purpose is to detail the cars and just overall a place to hang out. I was talking to someone and he advised to install track lighting on the ceiling along each long wall and on the back wall areas. Saying that it would be cheaper and I could direct the lighting anyway. And easier to change bulbs.

What do you guys think? I haven't come across any of your garages with track lighting.. Looks like most use some sort of tubing or a few use recessed.

I intend to have an electrician do all the work. Ideas?

 

[sands35]

Personally, I'd run conduit up to outlet boxes spaced on the ceiling, then use plug in 4' tubes.

Also, is that romex naked on the ceiling (Yellow line)?

 

[DeadSock]

A couple of questions.

1) Do you have ceiling access? If so, you can run wiring properly to 'old work' boxes for the lighting layout desired. If not, you'll have conduits running box to box for the lighting layout.

2) Where's the panel? I'm guessing you'll want at a minimum a 20a for outlets, and a 15a for lights.

3) What are the dimensions? Need to know the width, bredth, and height.

The windows on that one wall and the ones in the door will help quite a bit.

My suggestions:

Strip back all existing wiring to a 'feed' point (outlets and lights, could be the same). You may find you want more.

Pull all 'trim' and be prepared for some drywall patching. A fresh coat of bright white paint on the ceiling and walls will help LOTS.

Get the garage door extended up with high lift tracks. This makes the door obscure less of the ceiling, and hence lights on the ceiling unobscured.

You're probably looking at 24 4' tubes to get a decent level for detailing. That's 12 4' double strips. A 15a circuit can handle that if they are T8 strips).

One last suggestion, replace the "genie" opener with a jack-shaft opener (e.g. liftmaster 8500)

 

[DeadSock]

One other thing, you may not need an electrician. If you can see the black/white/green(bare)/red colors, it's possible to DIY to code for outlets and lights.