Recessed lighting and ceiling fan installation in Los Angeles
Before we cut into a ceiling for recessed lights or a fan, we check the switch box for a neutral and whether the dimmer suits the new lamps. A fan also needs a ceiling box rated to carry it.
Coming out to look is free. Your price the same day you ask.
Three things we check before anything gets cut
A lighting job looks like a decision about light fixtures and turns into an electrical decision about what is already in the ceiling. Three things decide it.
- Whether there is a neutral at the switch box. Most smart switches and many dimmers need one, and a house wired before the requirement changed often has a switch loop with no neutral in it.
- Whether the switch can dim what you are putting in. A dimmer built for incandescent lamps and a modern LED driver are frequently not compatible, and the symptom is flicker or a hum.
- Whether the ceiling can carry it. A fan is a moving load and it needs a box rated for one, which a box holding a light fixture usually is not.
Recessed lights in an older ceiling
Cutting in downlights is quick where the ceiling is open and slower where it is not. In a house with an accessible attic most of the work happens above the plaster. In a two-story house, or under a flat roof, the runs have to come from somewhere else and that is what changes the number.
Insulation matters too. A fixture that is rated for contact with insulation can sit in it and one that is not has to be kept clear of it, which sometimes decides where a light can go.
Dimmers, and why the one in the drawer may not work
If a new LED lamp flickers on an old dimmer, the lamp is usually not faulty. The dimmer was designed to cut power to a filament and the lamp has a driver in it that does not behave the way a filament does.
The fix is a dimmer matched to the load, and sometimes a different lamp. We will tell you which before you buy either.
Ceiling fans and what the box has to carry
A ceiling fan hangs a moving weight off a box that was probably installed to hold a light. A fan-rated box is braced between the joists and it is the part of the job nobody sees. Where one has to go in from below, that is an opening in the ceiling, and we say so before the work starts.
Say what is happening and we will tell you what it involves.
One sentence about what is happening will do. Sending it costs nothing and does not book a visit.