Its been a while since I started this, but I finally put a light in today. Why the wait? Well, first, too many other projects ahead of this one in order of importances and second, I still wasn't sure exactly what I wanted. Add to that, last fall we were toying with the idea of selling our house, so most things home improvement wise got put on about a 3 month hold. Anyway, if you want to hear me explain away procrastination and laziness, just ask!
Here's the light I ended up with:
400 Watt Garage Light
(TLDR: screwy design for both my house and the light led to a fun hour or so of install/sit and think/installed)
This thing is rated at 18K lumens! The most I found before seeing this was about 10K. I ordered it along with a Husky rolling tool cart (another story) and installed it today. Installation was, well, somewhat challenging. First, I took out the bulb and removed the lighting plate that has been installed for the life of the house -- about 35 years. Piece of cake.
The fixture that I went with can do flush mount or hang mount, and I went with flush. It gave you a plate to install over the electrical box and several holes to screw into whatever you wanted to screw into -- box holes, studs, etc. Since I only had one stud to play with, I figured I'd screw in to the stud and then one of the box screw holes. The fixture was made to put up against the plate, over the screw heads of the plate screws, having a big enough opening, then twisted to one side or the other where the opening got narrower so the screw heads now hold it. But I soon realized that, since my elec. box screws were going east and west, and my rafter stud (north and south) was on the east side of the elec. box, there was no way to mount the fixture either parallel with the garage or perpendicular to it. Either way would have worked, but the holes dictated some offset formation! I didn't know who to be more mad at: the builder of my house or the designer of the light. Both would point fingers at the other since I would have had the same dillemma had my rafters ran the other direction.
I finally realized that all I needed to do was to line up longer screws on one side of the fixture and attach it via the studs. The fixture wasn't very heavy and 2-3" screws were plenty. I got it up there and it lit up. Let me find a free hosting service and I'll show before/after pics.
Here's the light I ended up with:
400 Watt Garage Light
(TLDR: screwy design for both my house and the light led to a fun hour or so of install/sit and think/installed)
This thing is rated at 18K lumens! The most I found before seeing this was about 10K. I ordered it along with a Husky rolling tool cart (another story) and installed it today. Installation was, well, somewhat challenging. First, I took out the bulb and removed the lighting plate that has been installed for the life of the house -- about 35 years. Piece of cake.
The fixture that I went with can do flush mount or hang mount, and I went with flush. It gave you a plate to install over the electrical box and several holes to screw into whatever you wanted to screw into -- box holes, studs, etc. Since I only had one stud to play with, I figured I'd screw in to the stud and then one of the box screw holes. The fixture was made to put up against the plate, over the screw heads of the plate screws, having a big enough opening, then twisted to one side or the other where the opening got narrower so the screw heads now hold it. But I soon realized that, since my elec. box screws were going east and west, and my rafter stud (north and south) was on the east side of the elec. box, there was no way to mount the fixture either parallel with the garage or perpendicular to it. Either way would have worked, but the holes dictated some offset formation! I didn't know who to be more mad at: the builder of my house or the designer of the light. Both would point fingers at the other since I would have had the same dillemma had my rafters ran the other direction.
I finally realized that all I needed to do was to line up longer screws on one side of the fixture and attach it via the studs. The fixture wasn't very heavy and 2-3" screws were plenty. I got it up there and it lit up. Let me find a free hosting service and I'll show before/after pics.