Mounting exterior wall light on a brick wall

[woodmats]

I'm planning on adding wall lights on both sides of my garage door. The wall is brick on siding. My thought is to drill a hole through the brick for the wires and mount an electrical box on the inside of the garage for the connections. Then drill 2 more holes to in the brick for anchors to hold the mounting plate for each light. My question is if i need to protect the wires through the brick, maybe in conduit or the threaded pipe you often see on light fixtures? 

Mats

[Robert Adams]

I drill drill a 4" hole and mount a box then fill in around the box with grout to make other more solid. In fact I finally did that to our house last year after having the lights for years. 

      I put up the pair of led lights that Sam's was selling. $14 pr and very nice for the price. Even have another pair to find a home for.
     
      Didn't see where you are but if you are near me I can lend you the drill bit. 4" masonry hole saws are pricey.

[Herb G]

NEC says all splices shall be made in an approved box.
Unless you're running underground cable.

[EricU]

seems to me that he's saying he wants to make the splices inside, in a box.  I was thinking about doing this under my deck, but just surface mounting an outside rated box.  I couldn't decide if I needed to run the romex out in conduit or not.  Probably not. But I don't know if I need to have a waterproof fitting at the exit of the box

[woodmats]

I drill drill a 4" hole and mount a box then fill in around the box with grout to make other more solid. In fact I finally did that to our house last year after having the lights for years. 

     

Robert, 

Thanks for the offer! I'm in Denver, I don't know why my location disappeared but I've added it back.

I watched an ATOH piece on YouTube where the electrician drilled 4 holes in the brick at the corners for a box and used a masonry chisel to punch out a chunk to make room for the box. She then used mortar to seal around it. That's certainly one way to do it and it makes everything else easy after that and I might do that. I got the LED light fixtures from Costco and my wife and I find them very attractive.




Mats

[fredhargis]

Code questions aside, I think you'll be fine doing just as you plan...thought I would probably fill the surface of the holes with something (likely silicone) to keep critters from crawling in.

[woodmats]

seems to me that he's saying he wants to make the splices inside, in a box.  I was thinking about doing this under my deck, but just surface mounting an outside rated box.  I couldn't decide if I needed to run the romex out in conduit or not.  Probably not. But I don't know if I need to have a waterproof fitting at the exit of the box

Eric,

I have already run Romex for the first light inside of the garage, directly behind the spot where I want to mount the light, just need to add a box and continue the Romex to the other side. My garage is not insulated at that end, so I have easy access to the framing inside, just a matter of getting through the brick. The instructions that came with the fixtures say to mount the supplied typical round mounting plate to an octagon shaped electrical box, for everything else, call an electrician. On the ATOH segment, they used a square plastic box, which makes sense.

Mats

[woodmats]

Code questions aside, I think you'll be fine doing just as you plan...thought I would probably fill the surface of the holes with something (likely silicone) to keep critters from crawling in.

Fred, I will definitely make sure that the lights are sealed all the way around and through the brick. We get a lot of wasps nests everywhere otherwise. The wires from the fixture are not long enough to reach inside the garage so I will need to make a connection on the outside, even though it would not be that difficult to replace the wires all the way from the actual LED unit with longer THHN wire.

Mats

[Robert Adams]

Robert, 

Thanks for the offer! I'm in Denver, I don't know why my location disappeared but I've added it back.

I watched an ATOH piece on YouTube where the electrician drilled 4 holes in the brick at the corners for a box and used a masonry chisel to punch out a chunk to make room for the box. She then used mortar to seal around it. That's certainly one way to do it and it makes everything else easy after that and I might do that. I got the LED light fixtures from Costco and my wife and I find them very attractive.




Mats

             The new software for the bulletin board reset the location to not shown. 


          I know the fixtures you are talking about and I looked at them as well but they were a little big for our house and the sams ones were much smaller. 

           I know the episode you are referring as my dad asked me about it when it was on. That method is how I usually do commercial buildings but for our lights the rectangle box was a little too big as the corners would have stuck out. I prefer it to drilling a big hole. I still had to do some chipping because our house is made from goofy brick and it's thicker than normal but softer.

           Everything here is brick (by code)so it's a pain to do any additions or repairs on the outside of houses. 


          I really wish they would start making those wall mount fixtures dc and use a seperate power supply inside the garage. That way all you need is a small hole for the power and then screw the fixture to the brick. 
        You could retrofit some to run on dc and do it yourself but only if you know how.

[Foggy]

I would [and have done so] use a 1/2" pipe nipple with locknuts and bushings, or thinwall conduit with connectors, from the back of the box thru the wall to the fixture bracket. With access in the garage I would put a strap on the pipe for additional support. Seal around the conduit and a small tuft of insulation in the conduit after inserting the wires. Stranded wire is easier to work with in the back of the fixture.