Recessed Lighting Install with No Attic or Prior Wiring

How to Install Recessed Lighting with no attic access or existing wiring! DIY Can Lights

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Installing LED recessed lighting is not hard with the right tools. Can light installation is a thing of the past with these new wafer LEDs and you can install them without attic access or existing wiring. Make your space way better

[Fixthisbuildthat]

Thanks to Policygenius for sponsoring this video!

[neo]

A hint from an electrican, don't tuck the lights up in the ceiling until you have the switch installed and you can make sure they work. Some designs of these led are not real easy to get back out once installed and can damage the sheetrock.

[emilolguin]

Great mockup of the wall. Note that if you're working on an older home - the walls might have horizontal blocking at 48"~52" from the floor preventing you from passing the wire to the new electrical box, as many electrical boxes are set at 45"~48" on center. This would require you to cut another access hole above the block and drill a hole for the wire to pass through. Last summer (covid project) I remodeled our bathroom and used the wafer lights above the toilet and shower areas. They're fantastic as they give plenty of light and are so easy to install. The best quality of light for a bathroom is from the 4000K fixtures. I also used clear silicone to seal the light. Oh yeah, I left my wire strippers up in the attic too! One more thing, if you're going to put a ceiling fan up you have to be careful not to place too many or too close to the fan because you'll get a strobe effect (been there, done that)!. And you may find that the light from the ceiling fan is disappointing compared to the wafer lights.

[Digidoc]

These wafer lights are SO easy! Since they are IC rated and rated for damp locations, I installed four of them in my front soffits as wash lights and put one in my bathroom above the shower!
As an added bonus, I used one in my closets to satisfy the electrical inspector; they don't protrude into the space so there is no concern with the lights getting broken and starting a fire.
Also, the LED uses so little power, I actually see the difference in my bill!

[jasonmorgan]

As an electrician for 30 years, you did a very good job with the video and explanation. Only suggestion would be using 14-3 from light to light etc. You then could of carried both the hot and the switchleg to the existing outlet and convert the switched outlet to unswitched.

[Eggsther]

Drlling the hole with the dust all collected on the bowl is just so ✨SATISFYING✨

[TemperVoid]

Love how you go through each and every step in your process! Even the steps that don’t go quite as planned. It’s the perfect way to help teach problem solving and working around roadblocks.

[zpan]

Pro tip: when drilling the holes on the ceiling, put the drill in reverse first. Cut about 1/3 into ceiling, then switch back and finish the job. This way you would have a much smoother cut, and avoid banging your head with that drill！

[romondoalexander]

Third video now that has skipped the one part i actually care to see! How the wires feed into the lil boxes and how to daisy chain them off each other..

[josephspina]

Many ways to do this, but as an experienced electrician in your situation i would have turn off the power to the wire reached into the ceiling light hole closest to the outlet cut the wire with enough access to make a splice (outside the ceiling) in an approved box, pull the rest of the wire out of the first hole (near the switch) to make another splice in a sec box. And replace the wire between the two ceiling light holes.

[philshock]

Same brand I bought and installed about 8 months ago, Brad. I used them for my exterior soffits and porches though, not indoors ... 5 - 6 inch lights and 6 - 4 inchers to replace existing can lights. They are awesome! Many reasons for the swap but a big motivator for me was to eliminate places for wasps and mud daubers to take up residence which were a constant battle - the solid flush mount works great for that. In addition, not only do they look great and provide great lighting, they save you money too! They've all had a lot of use but the 4 inch lights have been run over 8+ hours every night since install and not a hint of trouble. Great choice!

[billhandymanbill]

Excellent video, especially for a non-electrician! As a helpful tip, always check the LED units to make sure they are dimmable if you plan to use a light dimmer and make sure the dimmer is compatible to use. You are lucky that the ceiling cable was NM (Non Metallic, aka Romex) and not BX, metal spiral clad electrical cable as you would not be able to accurately use you non-voltage contact tester. Keep up the great work/videos!

[reissallan]

Make sure your ceiling fan blades do not cross the light coming out of the LEDs or else your entire room will become a strobe light.

[randomdude]

I highly recommend investing in a $20 endoscope that is a quarter inch size. Then you can drill 1/4-in holes and insert the endoscope which can connect to your smartphone.

[BiggMo]

If you have a difficult wall or ceiling texture to repair match, You could also take down the crown and make access holes that the crown would cover when reinstalled.
... or if your room doesn’t have crown, it’s a nice opportunity to add it in lieu of a possible bad patch. Also consider rope light in a dropped crown as part of the lighting scheme.

[dragonlordship]

Best part of this video is that dust bowl.
Watched many channels but none had that even the big channels and experienced one around 30 years :) .. excellent choice

[jefflebowski]

Blown insulation in the attic sucks when installing recessed lights, you have to make sure it's cleared away before you start cutting holes in the ceiling. Another tip is to buy 6" lights instead of 4", they give better coverage and the larger hole allows you to use both hands.

[tighecrovetti]

Those wafer lights are one of the greatest modern inventions. No cans, low heat, low draw, great around win. I installed, I think, a total of a dozen of them in my finished basement.

[WideAwakeHuman]

Having done electrical work on existing homes... It would be AWESOME if it was a standard to make a schematic for the entire home that stays with the panel for all the future owners

[stefanbuscaylet]

Figures i saw this video 2 DAYS AFTER HIRING AN ELECTRICIAN TO DO EXACTLY THIS. We just wanted a can light over the kitchen sink where there was already 6 can lights in the kitchen already. I watched him and he did pretty much what you did. Great video and thank you. Little things you added were more valuable than you probably recognize like using the non-contact voltage tester as well as why you were using gloves. Just remember that many of us watching these videos have ways lower DYI skills and its probably hard to even recognize how far down the learning curve we actually hard. Again, great job on this video and thanks for taking all the extra time while you just wanted to get some lighting in your house to video record, edit, and post videos for us all.