What lighting can we install?
Inside, that means new fixtures, recessed and LED lighting, pendants over an island or a stairwell, under-cabinet lights and ceiling fans. Outside, it’s porch and wall lights, landscape lighting along a walk or a bed, and security and motion lights over the driveway and the back door. The photo at the top is a row of pendants hung from an open ceiling, the kind of job where the layout has to be right before the first fixture goes up.
A ceiling fan replacing a light needs a box rated for a fan, since a light box isn’t built for the weight or the wobble. Recessed lighting in a finished ceiling usually means slim canless LED fixtures, planned around the joists so the rows come out straight. Over an island, pendants hang where they light the counter without blocking the view across it, centered on the island, which is rarely where the old ceiling box was.
Does new lighting need a permit in Nashville?
New wiring does. Tennessee’s rule calls for a permit before installing wiring that requires inspection, and Metro’s renovation guidance lists moving a fixture, switch or outlet among the changes that need one. A new recessed layout, a new switch location or a new circuit for outdoor lights is permitted work, and Metro inspects it to the 2023 NEC.
Outside Metro, the State’s rules still call for a permit on new wiring, and the inspector there may be working from the 2017 NEC instead. Either way, the permit appears on our estimate as a separate line.
Outdoor, landscape and motion lights
Outdoor fixtures have to be rated for where they hang: damp under a covered porch, wet where rain hits them. Every connection out there has to stay dry for years. Landscape lighting is usually low-voltage, fed by a transformer that plugs into a protected outdoor receptacle, so the cable along the beds can run shallow. Motion lights earn their keep over the driveway and the side yard.
Neil Cameron’s review on this page is about exactly this kind of job: outdoor lights. His word for how they turned out was “fantastic”.
What moves the price of lighting work?
Access above the ceiling matters most. An open attic over a single-story room is easy; a second-floor ceiling with finished space above, or a shiplap or plaster ceiling, takes longer. Then come the number of fixtures, whether switches move, how far the run is to an outside wall, and whether drywall needs patching and paint. Each one is a line on the estimate.
“Great service! The outdoor lights look fantastic and were installed professionally.”