Home Improvement Today?

Part of what we are doing by going this route is we will be able to add plumbing for a bathroom , as well as address interior drainage issues , insulate under the slab and install a vapour barrier

 

a version of this controller about eye level on the wall and the heaters are about 8inches off the floor level. Its a common heating thing in this area from what Ive seen. Just not very efficient IMO.

 

Can anyone recommend some good LED Lights for garage use? need something super simple to wire to existing switches. It's far too dim in there.

 

LED retrofit "fluorescent tubes". That's what I have in mine. Got them at Costco. If you buy from Lowes, you have more options for the temp rating of the bulbs. Some people hate the "hospital" green LED lights. I think mine are around 5-6k. and they're plenty bright for me.

 

I currently have just like two bulbs, one over each bay... No flourescent lights. I had to use a handheld light bar to help with the kobalt assembly.

Seems they already have some sort of LED bulbs in them but they don't cast much light. They are pretty dim. Could be a wiring issue or just some crappy bulbs.

 

The P/O had the 2-car garage converted to an illegal dwelling. Once I tore down a weird maze if interior walls and opened the space up, light placement was not ideal and he issued single bulb fixtures. I wired in two ballasts over each are where a car would go (I don't park cars in there, just bikes) centered over the exposed portion once the garage door was fully opened. That provided more than enough light for the rear. The front fo the garage (nearest the door) has a single third fixture centered over it which is only useful when the garage door is closed- when it's open, the door itself covers the light. I also attached three small plug-in LED tubes to the door which provide overhead task lighting at the very entrance of the garage once door is open and it's dark out since that's where I do the majority of my work.

When I type it all out like that, it sounds like I have a shit ton of light. I don't really, but each of the 3 lighted areas are useful for each task. Simple layout below (yes, it looks like a smiley).

 

Gotcha. I'll look into wiring some ballasts. I've also been thinking about something like these:

$50 Barrina (6 Pack) LED T5 Integrated Single Fixture, 4FT, 2200lm, 6500K Super Bright White, 20W Utility LED Shop Light, Ceiling and Under Cabinet Light, Corded Electric with ON/Off Switch, ETL Listed

https://www.amazon.com/Barrina-Inte...=1547176172&sr=1-4&keywords=LED+garage+lights

 

I have these.

10/10 would buy again.

 

I have something very similar mounted to my garage door. I posted a picture earlier in this thread of the output. Great lights to supplement work areas and I’d definitely buy them again, but not sure if they’d be enough as your only light source at ceiling height. You should definitely buy them, but only you will know if they’re enough for your needs.

 

I was just looking into those

 

I have them as my sole garage light.

@jAndyMendo bought them for his home gym.

I used 7 in my wide single car garage and it is perfect. I think it was $52 for 8 4 ft lights.
Hard to beat, plenty of light. For $100 you’ll be hard pressed to find better, even with LED conversion tubes for a large shop space or 2+ car garage.

 

I used three on my door, but I have the shorter ones.

Awesome lights.

 

I assume they are hard wired into the ceiling? I used one of these to replace an old burned out fluorescent and it works great!
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commerc...-Powered-57-Watt-multivolt-54677141/207050927

 

I just bought a Stihl Kombi today, for some heavy duty weed whacking. I already modded the trimmer head, got the Echo 400 speed feed. And I'm making a harness out of my old wild land fire fighting rig. Come Saturday some weeds R gonna pay.

 

We are installing Lifebulb in the hospital. They look like a 4' fluorescent (they will retro fit existing 4' fixtures) and are available in a variety of color ranges and eat straight 120VAC. No ballast.

 

I pulled out my two big florescent lights and added 6 out of 8 of these lil guys. I did the hardwire to the existing switch with @916TacoTruck expert remote electrical assistance. They are a lot brighter and bigger coverage than the previous. And they were cheap.

 

I have a question for the building/insulation experts.
I just bought this house and am looking for ideas on how to insulate this crawl space. I can feel cool air when standing in the basement near the access hole. My first inclination is to put foam on the concrete foundation walls. It's about 30*20' with about 3' of exposed concrete foundation wall and plumbing and heat runs. They insulated the plate area with fiberglass already but the walls have nothing. I live in Wisconsin.

 

2lb spray foam to the walls and rim joists bays would be the most effective

 

Yep, spray foam if you can swing it.