soffit Lighting Project

Sinusoidal

Hello everyone,

I am looking into installing some lighting around the soffit of my house. However, I have no clue on how to access it to take a look on how I shall run the wires to my roof. Does anyone have any idea on how to accomplish this project. I am not familiar at all with how the soffit is build or how to take it apart to add the soffit lighting. Please advice of any internet sites or any other resources that might be of help to me. Thank youin advance.

Leftyho

Hi,

What kind of soffit?

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rwa

sinus, post photos if you can, if not give the best description of the age of your house, roof structure, overhang, the dimension of your soffit, the soffit material, height and so forth ... its a fairly easy task so long as you have adequate access

Sinusoidal

Please see the attached pictures for details of the soffit type? The House was built in 2004 and additional details might be able to be determined by the pictures. Please advise as appropriate. Thank you

Attached Thumbnails

         

 

iMisspell

These links might help you understand what a soffit does and how they are built.

http://www.inspect-ny.com/interiors/atticcond9.htm
How to hang screws from soffitt - the underside of the outer edge of the roof
http://universalbuilders.net/sub/soffit.html

searching google images and videos will return you more results.

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Sinusoidal

imisspell,

Thank you for your response along with the informative material you guided me to. It appears that in order to gain access to the soffit I must remove the gutters and the facial cover. Once such items are removed then I shall have access to the soffit so I may modify it to add the appropiate lighting fixtures to it. Do you guys agree with my statement above or is there any other easy way to add the lighting fixtures to the soffit? What are the typical or code mandated dimensions for the eaves? I am concern with the heat generated by the light fixtures! Please advise and thank you for your time............

Scuba_Dave

How many lights are you going to add & where?
Everywhere in the pictures shown?
What will the purpose of the lighting be?

To avoid heat build up use CFL's
Myself I'd put lights on the ground to wash the house with light
Easier to install & much easier to change bulbs

ryanh

Sinusoidal you can use retrofit reccessed pot lights, either drop the soffits and cut out the required size , or you can attempt to cut into the soffits while they are still installed.. Remember that 14/2 cable should be stapled no more than 6' apart though. You can tap into a indoor circuit if you want but remember no more than 12 devices on 1 circuit

Scuba_Dave

The 12 devices on one circuit is not true for residential setting
If the wire is fished in a concealed space then stapling is not required

Sinusoidal

I am not planning to add a lot of lights. I will probably only add about a total of five lights around the parameter of the house's soffit. However, the number of lights will be limited by the accessibility to route the wires through the eaves. As mentioned above by some of you, Fishing the wire is an option but where to fish it from and to where is going to be a challenging task. Any ideas or advice? Thank you

Scuba_Dave

Here & how you will beable to fish the wire is directly related to how the house & soffits are built. Without being able to see the rough framing & not knowing where you want to install the lights its very hard to give any advice. If several lights are going in one area & the soffit is "open: once past the venting then it's relatively easy to fish the wires
But many of my soffits the rafter ends were cut to make the soffit area
Fishing wires in my case would be very difficult
If you have an attic area near the soffits it might be easier to go up into the attic & thenout to each light

220/221

The soffits are all accessible from the attic area.

If you want recessed cans, watch out for framing that extends out to the facia.

If you want surface mounted lighting, it is possible to drill back toward the house, into the attic space without removing the siding.

SOMETIMES the siding comes off easily.

Sinusoidal

Thank you everyone,

As I have expressed, I do not want to take the structures around the soffits apart to gain access to them in order to make the appropriate holes for the lighting fixtures. As a result, I am going to take the advice you guys provided. This weekend I will go into the attic to take a look at what I am dealing with.

Scuba_Dave

My last roof was low slope, absolutely NO access to the soffit area
I couldn't even get close crawling
Looks like your roof is higher