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Handyman Guide To Installing A Light Fixture

  
  
  

light fixtureIt used to be that when you bought a house, there was a plastic cover over the pre-wired location for the light fixture. Boy, have times changed. As a Las Vegas handyman, now we find dangling wires coming out of the ceiling where the light fixture was, since the previous owner removed the fixture when the bank forced him out during the foreclosure process. Regardless of a ceiling cover or not, the new light fixture installs like it always has. By the way, it's a good idea to test the wires to make sure they aren't live while you are working on them.

You will find three wires coming out of the ceiling, a black hot wire, a white neutral wire, and a green wire (or bare copper wire) for ground. You might also see a red wire. If you do, you can install a ceiling fan and have separate switches to run both the fan and light independently. If you won't be using the red wire, screw a wire nut on it and neatly tuck it into the junction box.

Typically the light fixture will have mounting holes in it where it gets secured to the junction box in the ceiling. Loosen the screws in the junction box until they stand proud by ½ inch. Then you can place the fixture over the screws, turn it slightly and tighten the screws down to hold it in place. On some fixtures, you will wire it first and then secure it to the ceiling, but this is challenging trying to hold the fixture will connecting the wires.

To connect the wires, simply hold the black hot wire to the black fixture wire and screw on a wire nut. Do the same for the white neutral wires, and finally the ground wires. Then just install the bulbs and glass globe.

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