New construction lighting options

We are building a new house and I hate to say it but I'm only now having major second thoughts about the ceiling lights getting installed. We are probably a week out from electrical being done. These are the lights that will be installed:


They are SeaGull Traverse II lights. The fact that they are not flush with the ceiling gnaws at me more day by day. Additionally, it does not appear that you can replace the bulbs with traditional bulbs. For instance, we wanted to replace all the ceiling lights with Philips Hue bulbs.

Here's the current progress of the electrical as of this afternoon. They just have the boxes up:


I've asked our construction manager what could possibly be done to switch these lights out with traditional canned recessed lighting before anything gets installed. I haven't heard anything back. One way or another these lights will be gone from our house. I'd much rather avoid it altogether by not having them installed in the first place.

Here's my question: what are my best options for swapping out these Traverse lights and installing recessed canned lighting after they are installed? I can't really say I have high hopes of our builder agreeing to change things at this point in time.

 

Welcome to the forums.

You need to make the changes now. It's called a change order. It will be a separate charge to remove those junctions boxes and install recessed fixtures.

Money may be a little tight but it needs to be done now..... before sheetrocking.

The construction manager works for you. Tell him what you want.

 

This is where my lack of experience comes into play. We've never done new construction before so I'm not certain what's allowed and what's not. For instance, would any city/county permits come into play here? Can they change stuff like this if the permits were submitted for different lights, etc?

Honestly, I wouldn't mind a little extra cost and/or time for them to change this.

Edit: oh, and thanks for the welcome!

 

I've made changes in lighting like that before with no inspection issues.
Usually the permit is based on the quantity of fixtures.

Remember this.... YOU pay the electrician. He is working for you.
It should be important to him that you are satisfied.

 

Ok, that's reassuring. We are having our weekly construction update this week--hopefully we'll be able to work something out. I'm guessing he won't be exactly happy, but I have the same thoughts you mentioned: we are paying for this. It's important that we are happy with the results.

Thanks again.

 

Hey..... changes happen. That's part of the building process.

Let us know the outcome.

 

Well, no luck. Talked with the construction manager today. He said they really don't offer any other lighting options for that particular community. I guess the LED lights are part of the whole Green marketing. So, yay, I get to tear all these out right as we move in. Now I just need to find out the easiest and least expensive way to go about replacing these.

 

This is an energy star community ??

I've never dealt with that before and in my house I install what I want !

You may have to tear the ceiling down. You have boxes with wires stapled to them.
The cable will be too short for the new fixture. You would most likely need to replace the plastic box with a metal one for splicing.

I guess you plan on staying there a while or you'll need to change those lights again for resale.

 

Yeah, we do plan on staying there for a while. So it's worth it to me to get what I want. I may just hire someone to do this right before we move in. I'm sure it would be a LOT quicker than if I did it. Any ballpark on what that might run? I think we'll have about 20 of these to switch out.

 

They do make LED can lights.
-----------------------------

 

What we're going to end up--one way or another--is some sort of recessed lighting that accepts BR30 bulbs. We have a Philips Hue set up that we want to use in the new house.

 

They also make BR30 LED bulbs What you really want is cans with a medium base socket. That way you can install almost any lamp you want.

 

Oh yeah, the Philips BR30 is LED. It looks like now it's just a matter of finding the most effective way of taking out the Traverse lights and installing a base for the BR30.

 

Pjmax is right in everything he told you now what I think is you have a traditional recessed can behind the led trim. That is just a trim light combo and you can change it just like any other bulb in the house. It's all one unit so simply pull down on it and in hook it from the can and socket you will see what I mean when you get into it, it's supper easy. After that you can put a regular trim up with a normal can bulb.(incondecant) if that's what you want.

 

@ cfelty...... The first picture is what he WILL end up with.
The second picture is the current unfinished ceiling.

The community has chosen those types of mount-over-a-box fixture because a user cannot put in a regular bulb.

 

Please note that when you use a traditional recessed light set up when you put the trim in there is a special flood style bulb that is made just for that application so don't use a common like 60 watt incondecant that you would use in like a table lamp or something like that

 

Ok I understand what your saying. I missed that big time. I didn't pay enough attention to the unfinished picture and text explaining the picture. Pjmax is right about everything I'm sorry about that there isn't an easy fix but like pjmax said that electrician works for you and now is the time to deal with it because if you have to pay a little extra now it's worth it because it will cost 2 or 3 times more after the drywall is up. Again I'm sorry and we are always here anytime you need help.

 

Weird. I didn't get any email notifications saying there were new comments so I missed these last few comments. In any case, thanks again for all the input. It's just gut wrenching that the home builder is being so stubborn on this and won't do anything to replace the lights. Everyone I've spoken to just says, "sorry, this is the only light we offer for this community. There's nothing we can do." Oh well, it is what it is. I'm talking to several electricians to get estimates on fixing this either right before or right when we move in.

Thanks again