Apartment with no ceiling lights?

jayjay2010

I recently viewed an apartment in a development that dates back from the early 90s, but during the viewing it was apparent that all of the lights in all of the rooms were not on the ceilings but on the walls. I found it very odd and I am wondering if this is just due to the previous owner's design choice or wether there is an issue with the lights going on the ceiling.

i viewed several apartments in the same development and they all had normal, ceiling lights.

Has anyone heard of this type of light setup and also how much would it cost to get it all rewired? All rooms are small, 330sq apartment, 1 bed.

The estate agent didn't know why this was set up like this and they weren't very helpful, they didn't seem to know much about the property.

Thanks

dbagman

Most likely personal choice of the first owners. I assume it's not a top floor apartment and as such has no attic space? Messy job involving a bit of patching ceilings and walls to re route cables. Unless the job was done after the original purchase of the property you might be lucky and the original cables might still be in the ceiling.

jayjay2010

thanks for your reply dbagman.

No its not top floor, its first floor and the development is only 3 floors high.

I just found it very strange, I don't know if it puts me off the property or not...am I being too picky? :-/

stateofflux

I work for a lighting design company.

Usually when there is no recessed ceiling lighting its either because of structural beams above ceiling or the ceiling being made of concrete with no plasterboard below it. (To recess into)

If it is Concrete we usually just surface mount a light on the ceiling and run surface conduit to the power point.

This sounds like cost cutting by the electrical contractor on install to me.

dbagman

stateofflux wrote:

This sounds like cost cutting by the electrical contractor on install to me.

OP has said he viewed other apartments in same block with ceiling lighting. It sounds like a personal choice made by original owners. The cost of running the cable is the same regardless of on wall or ceiling and I'd imagine you'd be hard pressed to find a wall light cheaper than a standard pendant.

If you're looking at it again OP look to see if you can see any sign of the ceiling patched in the centre where there used to be a light. If so chances are cables are still there. If not you're going to have to open up ceiling in places to fish a cable across

Lumen

I hate overhead lighting so this would be a positive for me.

Mellor

jayjay2010 wrote: »

Has anyone heard of this type of light setup and also how much would it cost to get it all rewired? All rooms are small, 330sq apartment, 1 bed.

The estate agent didn't know why this was set up like this and they weren't very helpful, they didn't seem to know much about the property.

It's probably a design choice, but no way to know for sure.

Similarly, without knowing whats going to behind the finish surface there's no way to know how much it would cost. Any thing from awkward job to a simply fix.

stateofflux wrote: »

I work for a lighting design company.

Usually when there is no recessed ceiling lighting its either because of structural beams above ceiling or the ceiling being made of concrete with no plasterboard below it. (To recess into)

If it is Concrete we usually just surface mount a light on the ceiling and run surface conduit to the power point.

This sounds like cost cutting by the electrical contractor on install to me.

None of that sounds likely tbh as the other units had normal lights. Probably surface mounted ones.

TheDriver

I don't live in an apartment but I have ceiling and wall lights in sitting room and only ever use wall lights

76544567

Fairly standard in America.
Its rare to see ceiling lights over there.

The last house I had had only wall lights in the sitting room and kitchen it didn't make any difference the whole house had odd little design quirks like that some more bizarre that others. The person I purchased it from fancied themselves a bit of an interior designer very mixed results some of which cost money to put right.