Enhancing Lighting in a Concrete High Rise Building

I live in a concrete high rise condominium building in the Greater Vancouver Area. What kind of options do i have to improve the lighting in my condo? I’d really like to install pot lights…. is it possible?

Pot lights are a recessed light fixtures and must be installed into something. In most cases they recess into an attic, deep joist space or into a dropped ceiling. Because you live in a concrete building with concrete ceiling, pot lights cannot be installed into the ceiling unless you install them into a bulkhead, lowered bathroom ceiling, or anywhere where the ceiling has been lowered and offers enough clearance for them to be installed.  Here’s a few different lighting options you may consider:

1) Change your existing light fixtures. This is the easiest, fastest and most economical way to improve lighting. There are a lot of light fixtures available for a low price. Just be sure that if you are looking into energy savings you choose a light fixture that can use compact fluorescents.

2) Add wall mounted light fixtures, track lights and task lighting. Wall mounted light fixtures are commonly found in the bathrooms above the vanity and in hallways. In most cases, in a building that uses switched outlets, wall mounted light fixtures can be hard wired to switched bedroom outlets for permanent lighting. Track lights help improve ambient lighting in an area and can be installed through long spaces by connecting the track pieces together. Track lights work well because they allow you to direct where the light will shine and can be used to showcase artwork. Task lighting and under cabinet lighting can be installed in the kitchen and where ever cabinetry is installed. We highly recommend to our customers whenever doing a kitchen or any renovation involving a lot of cabinetry work to have under cabinet/task lighting installed. It not only makes for great work space lighting but can also brings out the colors in a decorative back splash or stone counter top.

3) Trapeze Lighting is a newer contemporary way to enhance the lighting in an area. The lights are suspended on electrical cable suspended from the ceiling or walls. Lights can be positioned anywhere along the cable runs. Trapeze lighting is typically a low voltage lighting system.

4) Lower the ceiling to install pot lights. If you are set on installing pot lights within your condo this may be the only way to go. You can lower the ceiling by about 6 ” in most cases without significantly affecting the headroom. This will give you the clearance you need to install most small 4″ Pot lights. Just be sure to check the depth required for the pot light you will be using before setting the height for the drop ceiling.

Home rewiring & Knob and Tube removal

I’m thinking of having the old knob and tube wiring in my old heritage home replaced with new wiring? What will be included in this rewire and how much will it cost?

New Westminster, Coquitlam, Burnaby and Vancouver, to name a few, are just a few area’s which still have many older homes using knob and tube wiring. Typically these homes are known as a “Vancouver Special” and were built with 2 floors consisting of a main floor living area and unfinished basement. Typically we recommend our customers budget between $10,000.00 and $20,000.00 for a whole home rewire.  The price will very depending on what features the customer would like to have in place, the size of the home and overall ease of installation (accessible areas). We highly recommend enhancing the receptacle and lighting layout whenever a home is rewired. Many people are not aware of current lighting enhancements available to them and should look at this as a great opportunity to add value and appeal to there home. Pot lights and under cabinet task lighting make a kitchen a great and functional living environment and are frequently added when a home is rewired. Pot lights in bathrooms are also very popular and are frequently installed in the shower area with a proper rated shower trim.

A few new features required for rewired homes in the Greater Vancouver Area and as required by the CEC are:

a) Tamper-Resistant receptacles which prevent children from placing small objects into the slots of electrical outlets.

b) Arc fault detection for receptacles in the bedrooms to help reduce the risk of a fire.

c) Three Way Switches in stairs and Hallways

d) Receptacles located not more than 12 feet apart

e) Improved Grounding and Bonding

e) And GFCI receptacles near the kitchen, bathroom and auxiliary sinks to minimize the possibility of electrocution