Lighting, Fans, and Fixture Installation in St. Louis

Pure Home Electric installs and replaces lighting, ceiling fans, and electrical fixtures in St. Louis homes, whether you supply the fixture or we do. Some of this work looks simple from the ground. Swapping a light, hanging a fan, adding a few recessed cans. The part you cannot see from the ground is what determines whether it is done right: the box rating, the wire gauge, the load on the circuit, and the clearances the National Electrical Code requires. A licensed electrician handles those as a matter of routine. That is the difference between a fixture that works and a fixture that works and is safe to leave running while you sleep.

Master Electrician Benjamin Marchiony holds Missouri Electrical Contractor license 2026007355, and every job runs to the 2023 National Electrical Code, adopted by the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County in January 2025.

Exterior lighting is a genuine safety and security upgrade for a home, and it is also where outdoor-rated everything matters, because a fixture, box, or connection that is fine indoors fails fast when it is exposed to St. Louis weather. Outdoor electrical work has its own NEC rules, including weather-resistant fixtures, in-use weatherproof covers on any exterior receptacle, proper sealing against water intrusion, and GFCI protection where the code requires it. We install to those standards rather than treating an outdoor light like an indoor one that happens to be outside.

We install motion-activated security lighting at entries, garages, driveways, and dark side yards, dusk-to-dawn fixtures that come on automatically, floodlights for coverage, and low-voltage landscape lighting for paths and the front of the house. For motion and floodlighting we place and aim the fixtures so they light what you want lit without blasting your neighbors or your own bedroom windows, which is the complaint we hear most about security lights installed without thought. New exterior fixtures often mean a new exterior circuit or a new weatherproof box, and running that properly, sealed and protected, is the part that keeps the install safe for years rather than months.

Recessed lighting, often called can lighting, sits flush in the ceiling and gives a clean, even wash of light without a fixture hanging into the room. It is one of the most requested upgrades we do, and it is also the one where installation quality matters most, because the housing sits up inside the ceiling against framing and, in most St. Louis homes, against insulation.

That insulation contact is not a detail to gloss over. A recessed housing that touches insulation must be rated IC, for insulation contact, or the trapped heat becomes a fire risk. Older non-IC housings require a clearance from insulation and combustible material that the NEC spells out, and a lot of the problems we get called to fix are non-IC cans buried in blown-in attic insulation by someone who did not know the difference. We install IC-rated, air-tight housings in insulated ceilings as standard, which also stops the fixture from leaking your conditioned air into the attic.

The install itself divides into two situations, and the price and approach follow from which one you have. New construction and open ceilings, where the framing is exposed, are straightforward. Retrofit into an existing finished ceiling is more involved, because we are cutting into drywall, fishing wire through closed framing bays, and working around whatever is already up there. We do both, we tell you which your project is, and we lay out what it takes before we start. Most St. Louis homes, with their older framing and full attics, are retrofit jobs, and we do a lot of them.

We install dimmable LED recessed lighting with the correct dimmer for the fixture, because a mismatched dimmer is the usual cause of the flicker and buzz people blame on the bulb. Layout matters as much as the fixture. Spaced wrong, cans leave dark gaps or scallop the walls. We plan the layout for even coverage before a single hole gets cut.

A ceiling fan is heavier than a light and it moves, which is exactly why it cannot hang from a standard light box. A fan requires a box listed and labeled for fan support, rated to carry the weight and the motion, mounted to framing or to a listed fan brace. This is a specific NEC requirement, and it is the single most common thing done wrong on a DIY or handyman fan install. A fan hung from a plain light box works right up until the day it does not, and a wobbling forty-pound fan coming out of a ceiling is not a small failure.

We install ceiling fans correctly, which means the right box, secured to structure, every time. That includes the harder versions of the job: replacing a light with a fan where there was no fan box before, which requires opening the ceiling to install proper support, and fans on high or sloped ceilings that need a longer downrod and, for the tall ones, a real plan for safe installation. We also handle the wiring for fan-and-light combinations, separate wall controls for fan speed and light, and remote or smart controls so you are not stuck with a single switch running both.

If you already own the fan, we install it. If you want us to supply it, we can. Either way the mounting and wiring are done to code.

Beyond cans, fans, and exterior lights, we install and replace the full range of household fixtures. Chandeliers and dining fixtures, including the heavy ones over a two-story foyer that need proper support and safe access to hang. Pendant lights over islands and counters. Vanity and bath lighting, where the fixture and any nearby receptacle have to meet the code rules for damp and wet locations. Flush and semi-flush ceiling fixtures throughout the home. Under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen. Track lighting. Wall sconces. Closet lighting, which has its own NEC clearance rules between the fixture and where clothing can be stored, a rule most people have never heard of and that exists because of exactly the fire it sounds like.

Two situations come up constantly and we handle both. Replacing an existing fixture with a new one is usually quick, as long as the box and wiring behind it are sound, and part of our job is checking that they are rather than assuming. Adding a fixture where none exists, a light in a room that never had an overhead, is the bigger job, because it means running new wire, adding a box, and tying into a circuit with capacity to spare. We assess the circuit before we add load, because overloading a circuit is how a lighting upgrade becomes a tripping breaker or worse.