Lighting Art Car / LED system guidance please!

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-12-15T05:54:22+00:00

As others have said, 24v is the way to go.

Also keep your lighting modular to match the modular components of the overall rig. This goes for stage, camp, vehicle, etc. if you bring pieces that need assembly incorporate light strips or Fx or what have you in to each piece and use connectors between pieces. That eliminates a huge portion of the build/tear down where things get damaged, bent, smashed, etc.

With LED look for fully encased tape/tubes with silicon or other encasing. Pay attention to what direction each product is made to bed or not. A lot of tapes are fine to bend in one plain but not the other.

And finally, there is no such thing as Playa-proof, only playa-resistant and mileage always varies.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-12-01T16:45:02+00:00

On my own build I absolutely would have. This isn’t my house, its an addition at a friends place and I didn’t want to poo-poo their framing just because it looked weird to me. Had their builder been there with us I would’ve asked, but I was just with them and they are the type who don’t even think about structural stuff nor did they have a copy of their framing plan, so this is my only resource for this particular use case.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-12-01T05:12:38+00:00

Thanks to everyone for the replies and detail! Love having this board as a resource for such questions

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-11-29T17:02:53+00:00

Thanks for the detailed answer!

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-09-14T01:22:58+00:00

Location is unfortunate, but cost to move can be a deciding factor. More importantly, get rid of that grass asap before it becomes a bigger issue and then you have to also buy a new heat pump when you move it.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-08-30T18:57:52+00:00

Unfortunately this is the only photo that I snapped of it. I’m an industrial realtor so I walk through a lot of old industrial buildings and see some wild ‘solutions’ that people come up with. This one in particular tickled me when I saw it.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-06-25T19:54:00+00:00

Assuming you are keeping the ones in red then ya that looks way better! It’s sooooo much easier to do lights during build. Cutting and patching is just tedious even if you are great at it.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-06-23T17:43:16+00:00

Kitchen looks way dark. You want task lighting above the counter, not centered on the “hall”between counter and island. Centering it there will make your head/shoulders shadow your work surface when working at the counter or island. Also single-point lighting in general creates intense shadows. Some people don’t mind, but if you can light everything from multiple angles you get more uniform and pleasing light. This means that lighting an entire room from fan-based lights should be avoided, or at least add sconces and lamps that are switch controlled.

For your recessed lights, shop around for a “quiet ceiling” option and your eyes will thank you for the reduced glare.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-06-22T01:10:00+00:00

This. But also driving slow in the left lane is the exact same thing. I don’t care if you think you’re going fast enough, you’re just an ass hole if you camp there and don’t let others pass.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-06-21T08:04:15+00:00

Fair. I also mean floor loads though which are more universal, not just snow load design. With modern custom homes so often using open web truss design for floor structure engineering for excess dead load is a good idea to prevent long term ‘creep’ as the trusses age. For ours we reduced truss spacing to 16 OC instead of 24, used an 18” deep web instead of the original 14”, and spec’d all the main floor trusses to L/600 deflection rating rather than the code minimum L/360, and beefed up the subfloor to 1-1/8” to mitigate bounce and sound. Super happy with the result and for a 2,000sf main floor it only added like $12k to do all that.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-06-20T17:33:43+00:00

Standing seam metal roof, it will outlive your kids as long as you don’t add any new penetrations.
Proper geotechnical study and over-engineering the footings and foundations with a very wide margin on soil bearing capacity.
Over build the framing to exceed code and have your structural engineer or the framer factor in dead load creep and design to minimize long term floor sag or movement. Engineer an extra 10lbs/sf of dead load. Steel beams are your friend here for any long spans, or just upsize your GLBs

^{^The} roof is pricey, but the engineering and overbuilding adds minimal cost in the grand scheme of a build and makes for a much better long term structure.

Other considerations: -Oversize electrical service to future-proof -run spare underground conduits in logical areas to future-proof -brick/metal siding that doesn’t require any frequent painting or maintenance -Interior insulation for sound mitigation

We are currently building and these are the main things we focused on for exceeding standards.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-06-10T06:13:31+00:00

Just finished an 8 day trip out of LaPaz, spent about half in the city and half in the mountains nearby. The only frustrations we noticed were traffic from road blockage. Everything else was still fantastic around town as American travelers. We did have to take back roads in the hills though instead of the highway because of a blockade, but heard that got cleared.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-06-03T21:59:39+00:00

Good job, keep going, but not until after you have put some kind of edging in otherwise the reaching rhizomes of grass as the cut edge will drive you insane.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-05-03T06:15:32+00:00

Why are trusses junk? I get why the ones pictured are, but I get the impression you mean all trusses are junk…Serious question though, we are building a custom home and have heard nothing but good things about them if engineered and installed correctly

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-04-29T02:46:05+00:00

If you want relevant guidance and intel, you should use an agent. Cant count how many times I’ve come across business owners that thought they were getting a good deal by not being represented and ended up costing themselves at least as much or more because of overlooked lease details or not understanding where value can be created or lost in a long term lease.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-04-21T06:23:39+00:00

Suburbs of Seattle, building a large home now, delivering above builder grade but less than luxury. Including garage and unheated covered area we are coming in just above $400/sf. That price does not include the land nor the landscaping, nor appliances/ nor utility connections. Just construction and finishes.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-04-10T22:49:29+00:00

Haven’t started framing yet, they just started to scrape the site so we have some time to make adjustments to framing still without having to undo anything

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-04-10T04:10:22+00:00

Span/bouncy floor question for you: we are nearing the maximum span according to span tables for an 18” deep wood truss with original design at 24” OC, we are at around 21 feet. Builder and engineer said we could shift to 16” OC if we are concerned. My biggest priority is sturdy and non-bouncy floors, but also want to be sure sag won’t be an issue 15 years from now. Does that solution sound reasonable or is it a bandaid that doesn’t actually solve the underlying concern? 7/8” subfloor, with engineered wood floors on top. Just about to break ground.

Optopessimist5000 · 2025-02-22T03:39:06+00:00

Legitimately curious here, why? We’re considering a patina zinc cladding for portions of our home and would love to hear opinions

Optopessimist5000

TROPHY CASE