[update] recessed lighting wiring without access

[Bob10]

I'm considering adding recessed lighting to my living room ceiling which has a bedroom directly above it. 

My hope is to do it without damaging the ceiling other than the holes for the cans.
I'd have to run romex across 10 or so joists which means drilling holes in them.

I briefly entertained the idea of doing it with a long flexible drill-bit between the can holes, running "blind" but that seems risky.

It occurred to me that maybe I could roll back the carpet in the bedroom above, use my track-saw with dust collection to cut out a long narrow section of sub-floor, do all my drilling from above, glue/screw the sub-floor back down and roll the carpet back down. 


Is that a crazy idea or actually a reasonable way to approach it?

The question is how far between lights?  If not far you can work from each hole towards the other a flex bit can be used through the first hole to help guide it with one of these 



Or one of the smaller 3/8" right angle drills with a variety of lengths of bits that can be attached in the ceiling. An extension could work but you have to make sure it is secured well

[mound]

The question is how far between lights?  If not far you can work from each hole towards the other a flex bit can be used through the first hole to help guide it with one of these 



Or one of the smaller 3/8" right angle drills with a variety of lengths of bits that can be attached in the ceiling.  An extension could work but you have to make sure it is secured well

There's a tool for everything!

I'd have a 66" run between joists - so I'd be blindly drilling through 4-5 joists.

[Robert Adams]

Thanks for the tips!

My goal here is to do this without cutting any extra holes in the ceiling. It's got a textured finish (not "popcorn" but a mud texture) and would be near impossible (for me at least) to patch invisibly. My hope was to avoid refinishing the ceiling. 

I've actually found a way already to get the line from the switch up into the ceiling without cutting any holes in the wall or ceiling of the living room. There's a hall closet on the opposite side of the living room wall directly behind the switch, so I can sneak up through the back of the closet where nobody ever sees. But even still - I don't mind a small drywall patch on a smooth wall, that's easy.. But a bunch of 4" patches on a textured ceiling, nope!

      That's one of the reasons I hate the this old house show.... They get to work on super easy projects. Oh you need to patch a hole in drywall no biggie just plug it and mud it smooth. Oh you need to add a flu pipe for a new dryer or water heater, just run a hole saw through the floor joist and through the siding. Oh you need to replace a door or a window no biggie remove the trim and siding and replace it...

           If they ever had to work on a typical one story house with no basement and brick walls they wouldn't have a clue what to do. 

 
        Here in TX they love texture because its hard to find a drywall guy that can do good work and texture covers up all those imperfections. I hate texture and you cannot match it no matter how good you are. Every room in the house I have remodeled I have skimcoated and made the walls smooth.

          As for that tool for the drill bit. They are Ok but I just use a piece of pex slid over the bit as a guide instead. Works better for me. When using the bit use the hole in the end to pull a string back. Do not try to pull the wire with the bit. It WILL NOT WORK.

[Bob10]

There's a tool for everything!

I'd have a 66" run between joists - so I'd be blindly drilling through 4-5 joists.

Short bit to get the first joist an 18" extension or 24" from each direction takes a lot of the blind out of your job.  Tape measure should keep you close enough to the same place to fish a wire through.  Not an entirely enjoyable job but manageable

[mound]

Short bit to get the first joist an 18" extension or 24" from each direction takes a lot of the blind out of your job.  Tape measure should keep you close enough to the same place to fish a wire through.  Not an entirely enjoyable job but manageable

Blind on the entrance side.. I worry about what might be lurking on the side the bit bursts through.. although my gut says there's 99% chance there is nothing in this particular ceiling, you just never know.. need a fancy x-ray vision tool!

[mound]

Mission accomplished!

I'd easily do it this way again, worked out quite well and only took a couple hours start to finish.  Ended up using the "Globe Electric" lights SnipeHunter recommended and will put a ceiling fan in the middle.

[Robert Adams]

Looks great. That so much easier than crawling around a 140* attic while being poked by roofing nails.... 

 
        I have another box of 12 on the way for our house. Going to finally do the living room and get rid of the annoying light on the ceiling fan that does nothing but shine straight in your eyes. Also don't forget those can be used in soffits for lighting over the garage doors etc. I think at some point I will pull the cans out of the kitchen and replace them with these as you can get allot more insulation over them.

       Also putting them in the master bedroom but that will have to wait a week or so because I am ripping the drywall down and replacing it at the same time. The room has changed shape and its easier to redo the drywall than to skim coat the ceiling to get rid of the texture. The nice cool 95-98* days are done and it's back to normal summer 105-110* for the next week or so pulling down ceiling when it's that hot isn't a great idea. Too much heat pushing down in the house along with the loose fill rockwool falling down and going in and out the door just adds to it. 
      In the summer here houses go into lock down cabin fever mode. You limit how much you open exterior doors and you don't do any cooking in the house as unless you have an HVAC that is technically oversized you can't cook in the summer. Yeah I have been in houses with everything done by the book and manual J doesn't account enough for cooking heat or computers running etc...

[Snipe Hunter]

Nicely done!.. =17

[brnhornt]

Looks great!

+17

[stav]

Quite the upgrade. Now you got me thinking about it.