Old work LED cans

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Farmfly

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Location
North Carolina
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Electrician
Question, when installing old work LED pancake cans. They’re going on the first floor. Do you guys blindly drill through Joists with a long drillbit or do you cut holes to get through the joists. So you don’t have anything. Trying to figure out the best and efficient way
 
Drywall is cheaper than drilling through their copper piping and then repairing drywall anyway. I usually look how things are framed and then will do a 1ft wide trench on the ceiling from above switch location too last spot I have to to reach the last can. The only time I will blindly drill is when absolutely all other options are exhausted and I have deduced that the risks are low and even then maybe not take the job.
 
This might help explain:
 

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Just verify bathroom location and then drill blindly and fish and can go up to 4 bays from hole to hole 2 bays in each direction catch fish tape in the middle . If you try to drill thru three floor joist you can end up drilling thru the floor. Always warn customer of potential sheetrock damage and try to minimize it.
 
I quit trying to be the "hero" and just explain there will be some drywall patching. I will go as far as screw the drywall plugs back in if they wish. But I won't blind drill anymore. I will minimize the holes needed if the ceiling layout lends to that. I didn't have an accident when I did it but it is time consuming and makes me nervous.

I did one and ask the owner if there was any plumbing overhead as I know there was a bath in that area. He said the bath was not in that area. I got to the last hole and drilled it. When I pulled the plug out, there was the trap for the bath toilet! At that time, there were no LED wafer/disc lights and even a short can would not fit there. Had to change the layout and they ended up with drywall patching anyway.
 
Will try to get thru area covered by the crown molding as first choice. Pull down the crown and open area covered by the crown to fish the wire thru. Then put sheetrock plug back in and put back the crown, and hopefully none or minimum patch and painting needed. Same at baseboard to get across walls.
 
Also inform owners that it will generally cost more to minimize rock damage than it will to get someone to fix the drywall after lights are wired vs the extra time to make work arounds trying to minimize the rock damage.
 
There isn't any cookie-cutter approach that fits every scenario unless you do damage.

Sometimes you can drill blind, sometimes it's not wise. That's where good instinct is useful.

Sometimes you can pull carpet avove the area, cut subfloor and put it back. I just did that in a house with very large open ceiling and knockdown texture. The carpet stretching was much cheaper than patch and paint.

Sometimes you don't know until you vut all the holes for the lights.

Up-front communication is key
 
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