Lighting installation for London homes

Lighting is the electrical work you actually see. A downlight thirty millimetres off the line of the units, a wall light that sits proud of the plaster, a strip of LED that reflects as a row of dots in a gloss cabinet — these are not electrical faults, but they are what you will look at every evening for the next ten years.

So the setting out is treated as part of the job, not an afterthought. Downlights are positioned to the room and to what sits below them, not to whichever joist happened to be convenient.

Lighting we install

• Recessed downlights, including fire-rated and adjustable fittings
• Wall lights and picture lights, surface or recessed
• Cabinet, shelf and plinth lighting
• Cove and coffer LED strip lighting, including drivers and dimming
• Pendants over islands, tables and stairwells
• Chandeliers and heavier decorative fittings, with the right ceiling support
• Kitchen and bathroom lighting appropriate to the space
• Outdoor and garden lighting
• Dimming, two-way switching and circuit changes to go with it

Signs the lighting needs looking at

• LED fittings that flicker, buzz, or will not dim smoothly
• Downlights that have failed one by one, or run hot
• Dark worktops, because the light is behind you when you stand at them
• A single pendant lighting a room that is now used for three different things
• A fitting you have bought that the existing ceiling rose will not hold

Getting LED right

Most lighting problems we are called to are not wiring faults — they are mismatches. The wrong dimmer for the driver, a driver undersized for the run of strip, or fittings from three different suppliers with three different colour temperatures in one ceiling.

Where you have chosen the fittings yourself, we will check the drivers, the dimming and the loads before installing, and tell you if something will not behave. It is far easier to change a dimmer before the plaster goes on.

Why lighting work needs a qualified electrician

Recessed fittings cut holes in a ceiling that may be doing a job — fire separation between floors, or acoustic insulation. Fire-rated fittings exist for that reason. Loft insulation laid over the top of a fitting that is not rated for it is a genuine fire risk, and it is common.

Bathrooms add their own requirements, because how close a fitting is to a bath or shower determines what may be installed there at all. All of this is covered by the 18th Edition regulations, and all of it is invisible once the ceiling is painted.

Lighting installation across London

Lighting is installed for homeowners across London, from a single fitting through to a full scheme carried out alongside a rewire. Photographs of finished lighting work are on the projects page.