How To Install Ceiling Light Without Existing Wiring

Hey , what's up ?

You guys ?

It's Scott with the everyday home repairs .

And today I want to show you how to install a ceiling light when there is no junction box , no light , no fan there to begin with .

In this scenario , we have a bedroom that does have a light switch like the one behind me , but that actually switches the outlets a way to test that is with a simple outlet tester .

And if you guys don't have this , I do recommend getting a voltage tester , an outlet tester like this and a multi meter if you're going to do any electrical work because that's going to keep you safe .

So what you're gonna do is plug this into the top outlet , the lights show you that it's getting no power and then flip the switch , you should see the tester indicate that there's now power at that outlet with no faults .

So what I want to do is leverage the wiring with that switch rewire the outlet .

So they're always powered on and then use the switch and a new Rolex wire coming up to the ceiling to install that light and control the light .

So we have nice ceiling lights brighten up the room and now the outlets are still in place , but they're powered all the time .

So let's jump into it and start working through this install .

Ok .

So let's recap what you just saw in terms of laying everything out .

Now , obviously , you guys don't need to use painter's tape and really diagram everything out , but just wanted to show you what , what I'm dealing with .

Remember , I have no access from the bottom .

I'm on a slab , a concrete slab , I have no access on the top .

There's no attic .

This is a condo .

So I , I can't go in the other unit and access through the floor or anything .

So I need to come from this outlet up through the wall with the Rox cable and then I need to place the light fixture in the center of the room .

So I just measured putting painter's tape in the center of the room .

So right in the middle point is X sparks .

The spot where I would want to put the junction box to hold the light .

Then by using the magnetic stud finder , there's a couple of different versions of this out there .

Look down in the description , you'll see a link to all the tools used here including this magnetic stud finder .

So that's how I found the floor joist .

And I wanted to make sure I'm in a cavity .

And then also that my junction box when I cut out that dry wall that I'm going to be able to insert it and I'm not hitting any floor joy .

So that looks good there .

So I'll run the Rox cable and I'll fish it through this cavity between these two floor joys .

And then I'm going to need to cut out some dry wall , most likely halfway down the stud here all the way over to the corner .

And then I'm going to fish down through past this .

I'm gonna drill through this stud and then bring the Roma Max down to this junction box .

I only need to get the row X to the top of that junction box because the switch wires are running down there .

So I'll be able to one rewire all these outlets and I'll show you how to do that .

So they're always powered on and they don't have that switch outlet feature and then two to use the wires coming up to the switch and how to then control the power going to the Stroma which will then turn the ceiling light on or off .

So now let's cut a few holes .

Mhm .

Ok .

So I think I got it with two holes cut .

Obviously , I need the hole to install the box for the light to sit on .

Now , this box is simply for a led light that's very light .

It can't hold much weight and definitely shouldn't be holding anything like a fan .

So I'm just gonna insert that box .

And what I'll be able to do is run my Rox wire .

And I have actually a drop , a small drop on the other side of this wall for a laundry closet .

So I'm able to run the Ro Max on the outside of this load bearing wall and then come back through where we have the painter's tape , this cavity going down .

And then I have a vent on the bottom here which gives me access to the metal junction box .

So I can pop out one of those sides , I can put a strain relief on there and then run that Rox right in .

That gives me access and then that gives me a full route of Rox all the way up to my light .

And that should be good enough to get everything wired up .

So remember I , I still want to rewire all my outlets .

But first , what I'm going to do is wire up the light so I can prove out that everything works as expected .

And then once it does , I'll button everything back up , I'll rewire the outlets and so new outlets and then we'll call it done , right ?

So I'm using a fishing tape here .

And if you don't have one again , you can look down in the description , see the link for what I'm using and I'm going to fish that through and grab it so I can tape on my 12 2 Rox onto the end of that .

Now , I'm using painter's tape .

That's probably about the worst kind of tape you could use .

Uh You definitely prefer electrical tape or duct tape .

So it doesn't come off while you're pulling the wire , especially if you get into a tight spot where it's hitting something .

So , just take your time .

Uh If , if you had two people , this helps quite a bit , but you can't do it as one person .

And so now we got the Rox through the light junction box hole and now we'll go and fish that through around that stud because I want to go down that cavity on the right hand side and sorry , in the frame here , you can't see .

I'm fishing it through that bottom vent .

So I'm taking the fishing line up .

Now I'm taping the Rox onto it and I'll pull it down through the wall cavity .

Now , I have plenty of extra wire on both ends you can see by the wires .

So now we're ready to start wiring up the junction box and also the light .

All right .

So we have the light in , we are fully wired where we have the Rox coming into this outlet down here .

And now I also have all the other outlets at least wires removed .

So I want to spend a little time and show you guys what we got going on and how we're gonna leverage this switch , which you can see it has a yellow and black .

So the black hot wires coming up to the switch and it is returning a yellow wire which is also hot so that yellow wires coming down here and it's going to this junction box , then it branches off .

One thing to know is the wiring on this condo is through Conduit .

So it's all single strand wires .

So it's more of like a commercial installation opposed to residential .

So I no longer need this yellow because I'm using the yellow that's coming down from the switch and I am going to connect that to the hot side .

This is the Rome that I installed the hot side that's gonna power the light and then I'm going to tie in the , the ground and also the neutral .

So I need to take out these switch hotlines that came in here .

And one thing you can notice and why I will also be switching out all the outlets is if you compare a new outlet you'll see on the bronze or gold terminals , which is the hot side .

There is a small tab here that tab needs to be broken off if you have a switch circuit and then that's gonna isolate the top and bottom outlet .

So you could have one always on and then one switched .

We are reconfiguring that .

So we're gonna have hot coming in keeping that tab and this is just gonna be always on each of the outlets will be always on and we'll have no switch capability at our outlets because we're using the switch now to power our light .

So that's what we're gonna be doing .

One thing I'm gonna do is clean up these wires here and a lot of these yellows I'm gonna be able to remove and because they're all in conduit , I can actually pull those , I can pull them through the Conduit and take them out .

So we don't have confusion later on in some ways rewiring uh to why all these extra wires are in the junction boxes .

So let me show you how I do that .

Ok .

So now I have an outlet that was getting fed a hot wire which is yellow from the other outlet box and then I it branches off to one more outlet .

So either one of these I need to remove from , from the wiring , so I can actually just pull these and because I have fun doing it in the wall , I'm able just to remove that .

Now , this one went over to the other outlet and that is why you did not see a yellow wire get pulled from that outlet .

So if I pull this other one , you'll , you'll see over at that original outlet , that wire is gonna come out .

Now , what this also does is it starts to simplify which yellow wire I'm dealing with .

Now , if you have any questions on which wire ends here and goes over there , you can do a what's called a continuity check .

So I'll put a link in the upper right hand corner which will dive in on how to use a multi meter for one of those continuity checks .

Ok .

So once I pulled all the excess switch hots out which I no longer need , all those outlets are gonna be powered always on .

Now , I only have the one yellow which is coming from my switch that I need to connect up with the hot side of the light .

So I'm gonna wire all that up and then test out the circuit to make sure everything's working .

All right .

So we rewired the outlet .

So the switch no longer controls the top outlet on each of the switch outlets .

Now , the outlets are supposed to be fully powered all the time , which will test that and the switch should control the slide .

Now , I really didn't dive too much into rewiring the other outlets .

But if you want more information that just look at this link right here and that'll give you the basics on rewiring an outlet .

So let's test everything out and see if it works first up .

I have the light switch in the off position and I am going to use my outlet tester .

Remember this outlet tester has three lights .

You're looking for the two amber lights that will indicate that the outlet is powered and everything's good .

So I'll test the top one which was a switch outlet before .

Ok .

So we got two amber lights , which is good .

That's indicating power and everything is good and we'll test the bottom one as well .

Right .

So our outlets are , are good .

I'll do that same thing for all the outlets in the room .

And now the moment of truth , will the switch control the light and it does .

So this is one of the best upgrades I think you can do if you have a , a bedroom without any ceiling lights , but you have switch outlets so you can hopefully easily rewire that put in the ceiling light .

And now you have much more light in the room and just a more modern look .

And if you're looking to sell a property as I will with this condo , it's just what homeowners are expecting .

So if you have a different situation , if you have some questions , jump into the comments , I'll happily give you my two cents .

Again .

I'm not a licensed electrician , so I'm just giving you my opinion .

I'm not giving you advice on the code , electrical code in your area , but hopefully you'll have more access than I did maybe an attic or maybe a basement .

So you might not have to do any drywall work like I do , uh coming up to patch that wall and before you take off , don't forget to subscribe to our channel .

We have weekly videos to help you with improvements and repairs around the house and we'll catch you on the next one take care .