Lighting advice for 3 car garage in construction

[Hottrod]

Hi all, I'd really appreciate the forum's input on how best to tackle the lighting for my 3-car garage which is in construction. I enjoy detailing my cars so making sure the garage is well-suited to this is my primary concern.

The design of the house is very modern, and the garage space is just about 34' x 21' as per the attached floorplan. The two doors are 9' and 18" respectively, and are likely to be of frosted glass in aluminum frames if my budget can swing it when the time comes. The reason I mention this is that I like the lighting in the garage to be great regardless of whether the doors are opened or closed, and if they are glass doors, apart from looking damned ****, the ceiling lights will shine through when the doors are lifted against the ceiling. If I have to go with regular doors then the positioning of the light fixtures will have to be adjusted to suit.

So what does everyone think about the lighting? I'm no professional detailer, but I do want lots of light to allow me to detail at night or when it is raining outside, and I'll be using fluorescent (tube) bulbs to show up the imperfections in the paintwork. Electricity is relatively cheap here, however I live in the Caribbean and given that 4' bulbs are readily available here, ideally I'd like to stick with those for ease of replacement unless there's a good reason to use a longer tube.

Another thing is that a friend of mine has fluorescent tubes in a housing that has a frosted diffuser, and whilst this is less glarey on the eyes, I find that the resulting light actually makes it hard to see the paint clearly, so I'm leaning towards a fixture that does not have a diffused lens on it. Would welcome suggestions as to how many bulbs/ fixtures to go with!

Whilst I'm here I might as well welcome opinions on any other point: There's some stuff not shown on the plan attached, like an oscillating ventillation fan and a wall-mount vacuum, and I have ample electrical outlets planned. It is not shown in the drawing but there is to be an inset sink on the left of the workbench, and I will have cabinets below and above the worktop for storage of my detailing stuff. As everything is constructed out of reinforced concrete, including the roof, I can readily add some wall-mount cabinets as needed around the perimeter of the garage or some ceiling-mounted storage racks at a later date.

Soooo, based on the fact that detailing is strictly a hobby for me, I am unlikely to have a great deal of mechanical work going on in the garage and given that I have a great space to work with, if you were given the chance what would YOU do? Would really appreciate any input!

 

[wssix99]

I'm planning a similar build (same size) and similarly stumped. I'm thinking of putting in a drop ceiling so I can add fixtures easily and run any new utilities needed.

 

[Hottrod]

Sorry I didn't mention this - going with gypsum ceiling in the garage, but the drop ceiling (tiles of some sort) sounds like a great idea if you'll be changing things around every now and then!

 

[gatchel]

You really have to decide how much light you want (lumens per square foot) and evenly space the fixtures around the room. You should also take into consideration light placement where you detail because if you put a fixture directly above the car you will have less light on the sides. Budget is also a determining factor. Wiring lights up on several switches instead of one or two can also help by saving money and bulbs in the long run. I would do some searching here as there are probably 100's of posts about what to do.

 

[wssix99]

Sorry I didn't mention this - going with gypsum ceiling in the garage, but the drop ceiling (tiles of some sort) sounds like a great idea if you'll be changing things around every now and then!

Yea, USG makes a gypsum suspended ceiling panel, which is fire resistant. They sent me a sample for free and it really looks nice. No painting either.

http://www.usg.com/sheetrock-climaplus-firecode-lay-in-ceiling-panel.html
http://www.usg.com/sheetrock-climaplus-pvc-free-lay-in-ceiling-panels.html

 

[Cryptic1911]

You want to place the lights so they are not directly over a car, or it will create shadows. The best thing to do would be to make rectangles where cars would be parked, and then put lights around those. That way you have good coverage over the tops of them, and down the sides with minimal shadows.

 

[Gwhizman]

A total of 7 overhead 4' tubes and 4 more under counter. One bulb fits all.

 

[Hottrod]

You really have to decide how much light you want (lumens per square foot) and evenly space the fixtures around the room. You should also take into consideration light placement where you detail because if you put a fixture directly above the car you will have less light on the sides. Budget is also a determining factor. Wiring lights up on several switches instead of one or two can also help by saving money and bulbs in the long run. I would do some searching here as there are probably 100's of posts about what to do.

Thanks for this, I was thinking to have multiple switches which would allow me to have a reasonable amount of light (maybe 40ft candles) for regular everyday use, then a second bank of lights that would crank it up to 70 or so when needed.

I hear you on the positioning issue, very good point, thx! Will continue looking through previous posts, thanks VERY much for your input.

 

[Hottrod]

You want to place the lights so they are not directly over a car, or it will create shadows. The best thing to do would be to make rectangles where cars would be parked, and then put lights around those. That way you have good coverage over the tops of them, and down the sides with minimal shadows.

Excellent idea, thanks!