Browse Forums Lighting + Lighting Design 1 Jan 16, 2018 2:02 pm Hi everyone , Our builder appears to have some astronomical costs for downlight's at $115 per light and when we will be installing between 50 and 80 lights depending on the type it is becoming obvious that I should do it myself or have a friend who an electrician do the job after handover. What I am hoping to happen here is that I can lay down my plan and your experienced heads can advise of anything you can see wrong or anything that you would do differently. So basically.... I will ask my builder to install double light switches at every light switch and I will replace the lower switch with the following..https://www.schnap.com.au/clipsal-switc ... xqEALw_wcB I will have the builder place a power point in the ceiling above each light switch so that I can run cable to these surface sockets... https://www.sparkydirect.com.au/p/93262 ... nnect.html and finally to each surface socket attach a similar downlight to the following..https://www.discountlighting.com.au/int ... white-trim To me it appears to be quite simple and straightforward, I am no electrician but I replaced my ceiling fans and Oyster lights in the current house myself aswell as all the light switches so I believe myself to be competent in doing this. Has anybody installed their own downlights? We have not had my electrical meeting yet and short of negotiating a significant discount this will save me somewhere between $2500 and $4000. As a single income family of four this is a significant amount of money for us! Re: DIY Downlights 2Jan 16, 2018 9:42 pm I think you are just best off getting the standard batten light fitting to each room & get the sparky in after to install downlight/surface socket/switch/dimmer. I see you're building in WA so if you have a second story you will have to pay the builders prices for electrical to be built into suspended slab. It will be very likely your builder will charge more to have a surface socket in the roof space than to install the batten, so what I have suggested above would be the cheapest means to get what you want. Re: DIY Downlights 3Jan 16, 2018 11:58 pm I'm going to copy a comment I made elsewhere.. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gosh the builders charge for downlights are ridiculous aren't they! I originally thought we'd save the hassle and get the builder to do them, but they wanted to charge a $138 variation each! No thanks! We saw a lighting consultant before prestart (who sadly seemed to go out of business by the time we were ready to order ) and worked out the locations for the lights. The builder just put single plug bases in the ceiling for the lights. Hubby went and drilled the holes in the correct place after the ceiling was installed (before lock up) and we've purchased the lights from Beacon. The lighting consultant estimated $50 installation per downlight including drilling, so hopefully we can sort it out for a bit cheaper. Hubby is organising it this week. So thats $30 per LED downlight, plus install, at $80ish each. $50 saving per light! Not a small amount when you're looking at 50+ lights!!! Assuming the structure of your cabinetry is good then I would DIY everything as follows: - replace your counter tops entirely, - replace all drawer runners with soft close… 1 4835 Re my second point – yes exactly. And often it may take additional time if the manufacturer recommends no more than X meters… 3 5715 |