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.