I am redoing my garage when i get back from my honeymoon in august…
its a 2 bay attached garage with one small window and man door… Right now it only has 3 lights… 2 ceiling mounted incandescent lights and the garage opener light which is useless…
whenever i work on the car i have to use halogen lights to get the garage lit up enough…
The new plan for the garage is to coat the floor with a 100% solids floor epoxy (white with flake)
and to install ceiling lighting…
I was going to just do florescent lighting across the ceiling, but i was thinking since i am doing the floors and cabinets really nice, perhaps i would do recessed lighting… since i have a crawlspace above, i could wire the cans in really easy…
Do you think that the recessed lights could put out enough light on the white floor to make it look bright enough? or should i just stick to the original plan and go with a shit ton of florescent lights
Not sure what it would look like with the recessed lighting but my uncles garage has florescent lights on the ceiling and ground and it works out perfectly. He also does body work in there so I am not sure if that would be necessary for you.
As long as you use flood lights in your cans and you make sure that they have a great reflector you should be ok. I will talk to my lighting specialist and see what he has to say on the matter.
Stick with the florescent. I think with the recessed you’re going to always find it too dark with too many shadows. For what you’ll spend just making it workable with recessed you could have florescent tubes running the full length of the garage down 3 rows (lighting both sides of both cars parked in a 2 car garage).
I have a bunch of overhead flourescents but plan to install some on the side walls for more lighting for detail and paint work…unfortunately my yard is killing the funds at the moment.
I was going to do this as well, but im trying to make my garage look really nice… so i was going to run some funky track lighting on the garage wall that faces out so i can aim them to light up under the hood rather then have the ugly fixtures on the wall
my walls are bare so the studs are exposed so I was planning on setting them in there. My garage isnt attached to the house so it doesnt have to be as pretty.
flourescents all the way. i had 9 cans in my ceiling and i couldnt see shit. i have replaced 6 of them with 4’ fourescents so far and what a difference! drywall and white paint helps a ton too.
Cans will cost quite a bit more, but work as well. You will need quite a few cans to get the same light output, so it really depends if you are willing to pay for it. Flourescents are cheap as shit and throwing several up is easy as pie.
Search the garage forums, there is software out there that you can use to input your lighting placement info and garage dimensions and it will calculate the available light, it is what you really need to adjust for proper output.
Way less heat (will make a difference in the summer)
Way less power useage
Better light to show imperfections when detailing a car
You get more for your money
I would put them in the parallel to the cars, but not directly above them, so the light shines under the hood, into the car, etc. basically next to the sides of the car near the engine bay. I also put one on the back wall on the bay where I work on my car most, to shine right under the hood, it works out well.
Don’t cheap out on the lights though, or they won’t work well when it’s cold out.
This is a bad picture, but I had the lights like this in my garage before I insulated the walls and re did everything.
I agree with Xander, except, I have 5 lights per bay in a star pattern (4ft). Helps insure I don’t have any weird shadows. If you feel like going all out, recess a few 8ft lights in the wall with a piece of plexi over them. I then have seperate lights hanging over tool boxes and work benches.
If your really want recessed you should go with something like this, but do like 4 toffers per bay, and out on the corners as much as possible. The out put of the two ballast fixture should be enough for you.
If your really want recessed you should go with something like this, but do like 4 toffers per bay, and out on the corners as much as possible. The out put of the two ballast fixture should be enough for you.
yea i was about to say that too. you could do recessed Flourescents.
Lowes has some nice lights at a good price but you need the joists to be 16" OC. I bought some but had to take it back when I found out my joists were 12" OC. WHY THE HELL THEY ARE 12"OC above the garage I have no idea. Maybe because theres bedrooms above? I dunno
But, ill just screw them to the ceiling.
Recessed would look very cool but with a flood light you get, from center, direct light in a 5’ circle and it fads after that to about 10’ diameter.
Google search recessed light floor plan and theres a bunch of charts on how often to place them. But thats gets $$$$$$ quick and like someone else said, they are hotter and cost more.
BUT, if you ever wanted to use your garage as a “family room” every now and then you could dim them. Thatd be cool
Or look at lighting rep charts for the photometric diagram and just get a quick sketch of the garage, you should be able to do your own “floor plan” and have it be a uniform. In the end thought you are going to want some wall mounted or low to floor lights if you are working under a car only two feet off the ground
