Recessed Lighting Clearance

skidmark845

I want to installed recessed lights in my ceiling, however I only have approx 4inches of clearance in the ceiling before the second floor starts(post and beam house). Are there lights out there that will fit in this small clearance??????

Thanks

mdshunk

That's gonna be tough. You need about 1/2" above the fixture too. I'm thinking you're gonna need to look at some 3" diameter recessed cans to fit in that minimal height. Unfortunately, these little wee cans are pretty salty and you need to use lots of them for the lighting to look right.

Don't suppose you care for track lighting? That's a popular option in post and beam construction.

Magnettica

Any chance of sistering-up your floor joists with some real joists 2x6 or 8? That might be the way to go to get what you want. Of course it's more money, but do you want your lights to look good or like crap?

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mickeyco

I'll take a stab at it, this may or may not be the case, but my experience has been that timber frame homes usually have real low ceiling height, so he may not necessarily be looking for cans but some sort of recessed light to preserve ceiling height. There are several types of recessed lights, florescent, low voltage and sideways bulb incandescents. There are also several light fixtures that are semi-recessed and protrude a little that might also work, I've also seen protruding "eye ball", adjustable, cans that might work, MD could tell you all the brands, I don't know them.

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MechanicalDVR

The last timber frame job I was on had something like Mickey mentioned, the trim guy made custom wood frame boxes around the cans so they were semi-recessed. I could feel the heat on my head as I walked under them which sucked and I thought at the lower height they had limited light throw. The first floor ceiling height was like 7'2''.

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747

I know what you need and i don't know what there called. Many Many Many this old houses ago on that show. They showed up at a ranch and made it bigger new second floor open up first floor. AR...on project was Graham Gunn big name in Boston. The lightening designer was Melissa i don't know what ever happened to her. Anyway they had a open high ceiling in the combo living, dining room area. She mouned these little fixtures on the ceiling which packed alot of punch. The whole purpose was to light the dinning room table but people not know where the light was coming from. Those are the fixtures which would be perfect for your stituation. There small and the amount of light they give is incredible. You could look at the ceiling and not know that is where the light is coming from for the table because of there size. I have no ideal what those fixtures were. Which is no help to you.

Ps the owners of that house were steve and jan something i think igo.

skidmark845

Thank you so much for that information. After MUCH searching I found an episode that has the lighting you mentioned (Melissa was the key). It was the Belmont House project from season 15, episode 351. For anyone who is interested the lights are called Ambiance disk lighting at Seagulllighting.com and also Vetro downlights at Lightolier.com. Thanks again, you really helped out!!