Light Fixtures, Fans & Faucets in Cary, NC

Height is the job

Cary is full of two-storey family rooms and double-height entries, which makes fixture work here a different proposition from a house with eight-foot ceilings throughout.

The fixture change itself is the same. Everything around it is not.

Getting to it safely

On a flat floor, a fitting up to fifteen or twenty feet is reached with scaffolding or a properly rated platform, assembled on the floor and worked from a stable base.

Over a staircase, there is no flat floor. That needs a platform built to span the stair treads with its legs set to the different levels, so the working surface is level and stable over the flight.

What it is never is a ladder leaned into a stairwell with one foot on a tread. That is how people end up in hospital, and it is worth declining anybody who suggests it.

Which means: do it all at once

Setup and takedown are a real part of the job and frequently more than the fixture work.

So when the access is up, use it:

• The fitting you called about
• Bulbs in the other high fittings in the same space
• The smoke alarm nobody has been able to reach to change the battery in
• The cobwebs at the top of the window
• Anything else at that height

Getting the access up twice costs nearly twice. It is the single most useful piece of planning on a job like this.

Getting the fan height right

The other thing tall rooms change is where the fan should sit.

A ceiling fan works by moving air past people. In a room with a sixteen or eighteen foot ceiling, a fan mounted tight to that ceiling is stirring the air well above where anybody is sitting, and the effect at seat height is close to nothing.

The aim is roughly eight to nine feet above the floor — high enough to be safely out of the way, low enough to move air where people are.

In a tall room that means a long downrod, and the length gets worked out from the actual ceiling height rather than by using whatever came in the box. Fans are sold with a short rod as standard because most rooms are ordinary; longer rods are available separately for exactly this situation.

Blade span matters too. A large room wants a larger fan. A small fan in a big two-storey space looks lost and moves very little air.

Sloped ceilings need a mount rated for the pitch, and the rod length gets calculated from the lowest point of the fitting rather than from the ceiling.

The box the fan hangs from

Worth checking on any fan installation, and easy to miss on a high ceiling because nobody can see it.

A fan weighs several times what a light fitting does and it vibrates continuously. It needs a box specifically rated for supporting a fan, either screwed directly to a joist or carried on a brace bar spanning between joists.

An ordinary light box is not that, however long a fan has been hanging from one. Retrofit braces can be fitted through the existing hole without opening the ceiling.

Chandeliers and large fittings

Cary entries frequently have a substantial fitting, and two considerations come with them:

Weight. A heavy chandelier can exceed what an ordinary box will hold, and the same fan-box logic applies.

Servicing. Where a fitting is genuinely inaccessible, an aftermarket lift mechanism lets it be lowered for cleaning and bulb changes. That is a fitted device rather than a fixture swap and it needs the same access to install, so it is worth considering while scaffolding is already up.

The rest of the service

Light fixtures at ordinary heights, throughout. The things worth checking are weight, how much cable is in the box, and whether a recessed fitting has restrictions on insulation contact — relevant in Cary attics where insulation has been topped up.

Minor plumbing. Faucet replacement in kitchens and bathrooms, toilet fill and flush valves, traps and supply lines.

The recurring surprise is shut-off valves that will not close. The small isolation valves under a sink or behind a toilet sit untouched for decades, and when they are finally turned they either seize or fail to seal. In the established Cary neighbourhoods that is common enough that we check them before starting.

Replacing a seized valve is straightforward where it is a compression fitting on a copper stub. Where the connection needs altering or soldering, that is a licensed plumber and we will say so.

Where we stop

Swapping a fixture for another on the same circuit, replacing faucets, valves and traps, and like-for-like work is ours.

New circuits, altered wiring, panel work, moved plumbing and anything requiring a permit go to a licensed trade. You will hear which at the quote rather than halfway through.

Getting a price

Photograph the fitting from below and from as far back as you can get, so we can see the height and what is underneath it — floor, stairs or landing. Measure the ceiling height if you can, and tell us what you want to fit.

Cary is about fifteen minutes from our base in Apex.