Ceiling Lights in the Basement

[Jon Sr]

I decided that I needed more light in the basement, so I installed some led lights in a “suspended ceiling”. For the ceiling, I used Plaskolite, white corrugated plastic, from Lowes. It comes in 30” x 36” sheets for $10.48 per sheet. It’s located in the hardware section, next to the Lexan. I ordered the led lights from Amazon. As the Plaskolite was 30” wide, I simply cut it in half and each section is 15”. If I had been able to locate a 4’x8’ sheet of Plaskolite, I would have probably made each section 12” wide. I determined the length by measuring the distance between the aluminum frame members, and made sure I was always ending the cut in the center of the framing so I could add more Plaskolite to the existing to make a longer “suspended ceiling”. I suggest that if you are going to attempt this project, make a cardboard template for your first piece of ceiling.

After cutting the ceiling pieces, I cut holes in the Plaskolite for the lights, and wired them together using Wago connectors. Next, using ½” 3M Extreme double sided tape from Lowes, I applied 2 layers. The extra layer gave me the depth needed to run the wires directly from light to light and not interfere with attaching the Plaskolite to the overhead framing - so the ceiling is perfectly flat after being attached using the tape. I wired the lights to a switch and now I have a lighted basement!

Led Lights from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Canyonlight]

Jon Jon Sr - nicely done and it looks like it works well. We rarely get into our basement area where we need more light but I really like this approach if things change with our 303 or next RV. Thanks, for sharing the narrative and pictures.

Dan