Recessed lighting - costs?

depends on how much cutting and patching to get to the outlet. I had 6 put in my living room (4") and 4 in my bedroom (same size) with minimal cutting and he patched up perfectly and it cost me $2500. I bought the hats myself as he instructed me to which werent too expensive (i think around 500 or so)

Needmort,

It seems a bit high but:

Are they being connected to an existing switch?
Is he installing dimmer switches?
Are they going to be 3-way switches
Are your walls/ceilings Sheetrock
Is the electrician the one who will patch and paint his cuts?
When you say including materials are you talking about the light fixture as well, if so who picks out the light?

Primer's question are all legitimate and will play a major role in determining if your price is reasonable or not. I went through the same process and received multiple quotes with varying factors of who would be doing the patch work, purchasing the fixtures, repainting...etc. Basically, $250/light was the high end I was quoted and I have existing recessed lights and majorly dropped sheetrock ceilings. All were connected to existing switches with a couple dimmers added.

My best quote was from my A/V guy who did all my TV and stereo installation, and they also happened to be carpenters and electricians, so it was a true one-stop shop. I was my own GC/CM, so that also helped with the discount. Ended up more like $125/light including all materials and labor...yeah, seemed eerily cheap for manhattan but they did a great job. Helped that I did all the A/V stuff too which was mostly labor work, but hopefully that gives you a sense of the range I experienced.

I agree with the points Primer05 and NYC10007 make that there are so many variables that will determine if the price is fair.

It sounds high to me too, even if it was done the most expensive way possible i.e. a licensed insured electrician (who is at about the top of the trades totem pole on an hourly rate) is taking his time to buy the lights, patch all the ceilings, waits for them to dry between sandings, leave the site then come back to paint, either wait for that to dry or come back to give a second coat of paint. Rather than the patching/painting guy who gets the electricians hourly rate for a full days work.

Ask the contractor how he is coming to that price, there might be something we are missing.

Also if you haven't selected your recessed lights yet, I was pretty impressed at the recessed lights at home depot. I am a very detailed person and I needed my lights to be able to handle.

1. A light that gives off a pure "white light" like halogen as opposed to a yellowish cast like standard. (even thou you then have to buy that "white" bulb separately)

2. That it could work on a dimmer system (i.e. fluro systems can't)

3. That is have a slight swivel capability about 30 degrees, so you can point it to wash down a particular wall or art work. However not the more common "eyeball" type, which I thinks looks ugly or stationary that you can't move at all.

4. Size about 4 inch wide not the old 6 inch cans.

5. That it have a small white surround that blends into the ceiling so it doesn't become the feature.

6. Under 5 inch depth so I didn't have to lower my ceiling.

7. I also needed 59 of them in stock to take.

Bottom line, home depot has a recessed light that has all these features, under or about $10. I was blown away. Sorry I noticed I got a bit off track of the question.

NYC10007 I would love the name of your AV / carpenter / electrician shop if you would be able to share.

needmort I am sure the recessed lights will look great. While they are chopping up your ceiling be sure to get anything else i.e. speakers installed at the same time, with the guys there it should only cost a few hundred more to have it wired for sound, then you can always connect when you want down the track.

I have 3-inch recessed everywhere from ylighting - http://www.ylighting.com/lowvolreclig1.html.

I'm not a lover of recessed lighting in prewar spaces, but I've found it immensely practical and saves me from having to figure out how to get adequate lighting in each room.

There are numerous interesting LED recessed light solutions available in terms of 100 lumen/W or even higher, allied at interesting throw ability and light projection for LED recessed lights up to 100W.

One such company that recently seems to be on the rise in this high power market is LedsUniverse, at least popping up on Google searches related to high power.

Anybody heard anything about this company or tried their products? They might be worth checking out if what they state is true.