New basement lighting (unusual residential construction)

[cmandp]

So the wife and I want to do something fun for a New Year's eve party and set up and build a small mini golf course in our basement.

Our basement has a finished part under the footprint of the house and an unfinished part the extends out past the house on 2 sides in the shape of an "L" as a patio. That part is where the picture is of. So the structure is a reinforced concrete deck with steel beams underneath. With the concrete deck not waterproofed with anything other than paint right now I'm concerned with moisture getting to any wiring/lights I put in.

I was thinking 4ft florescent or LED like the below. like this


Here's the basement. Outlets will be taken care of while doing the fixtures since you can see they are NM-B zip tied to the beams and not GFCI protected



My first thought to mount the fixtures was unistrut spanning beams and attached above the flanges. But is there an easy way to mount these directly to the bottom flange I am not thinking about? I don't want to drill the flanges or tap holes.

Any other thoughts on my plan would be welcome too.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Look for Beam Clamps at your local big box store (I just checked and Home Depot stocks them, for example.) They're meant for hanging unistrut, conduit, light fixtures, etc. from I-beams.

 

[cmandp]

Look for Beam Clamps at your local big box store (I just checked and Home Depot stocks them, for example.) They're meant for hanging unistrut, conduit, light fixtures, etc. from I-beams.

I know I can hang the strut below the beams with these.

I guess I should explain the headroom down there is a bit tight. I was hoping there was any easy way to hang the strut between beams above the bottom flange? I'll loose almost 6" of headroom unless I get clever with mounting.

Perhaps I can use some of the existing holes in the flanges and mount wood to that I can screw the lights to. That would be cheaper than almost $30 for a piece of strut.

 

[rjn2649]

I would just use wood and make some framing that would rest inside the beam flanges, maybe pressure treated if your concerned about moisture, I think I would be more concerned about that electrical, doesn't look very moisture resistant, I would use conduit and outdoor rated boxes with GFCI's, but that's just me.

The indoor mini golf sounds like fun...

 

[cmandp]

I would just use wood and make some framing that would rest inside the beam flanges, maybe pressure treated if your concerned about moisture, I think I would be more concerned about that electrical, doesn't look very moisture resistant, I would use conduit and outdoor rated boxes with GFCI's, but that's just me.

The indoor mini golf sounds like fun...

Yeah I'm thinking about just attaching wood or PVC to the beams now.

The current outlets are not safe. It's just NM-B zip tied to the beams and no GFCI. Not to code in an unfinished basement. The plan was to run the lights with conduit and XHHW and weather tight boxes and redo the outlets as well.

We were going to copy these old Popular Mechanics plans.

 

[Rc_Guy]

Use the beam clamp with the threaded rod upside down so it goes up into the pocket between the beams and put unit strut from beam clamp to beam clamp and hang light from that. This is the normal way of the beam clamp but just turn the beam clamp upside down so the rod goes up

 

[walta]

I have more than a dozen of theses lamps in my house.

They mount in spring clips so no holes for water to enter and the wire entered thru a rubber gasket. I bought them mostly because I liked the diffuser.

As always head room in a basement is at a premium use as little hardware above the lamp as possible keeping the lamps as close as possible to the ceiling. When I needed to put some under a beam I drilled and tapped for #8-32 screws



Walta

 

[rjn2649]

I love old popular mechanics, always amazes me how far away we have come from doing almost anything for our self.
As a little side note, because our home is small we don't entertain in the winter very often. But when we do we always run some sort of exhaust fan/air circulation, it's amazing how "nose blind" we become to the smells in our home, and if dampness in areas of the basement is an issue might be a good idea, I don't know what the rest of your basement looks like.