LED floodlights in terrace roof rafters

Hello everyone,

I am currently building a wooden terrace roof. I would like to install LED spotlights as lighting. The idea is to drill holes in the rafters (8x20 cm - span 4 m) (Ø32 mm approx. 40 mm deep) to install recessed spotlights there. This does weaken the rafters to some extent. Is this a common method or is it not advisable to drill such large holes in the rafters? Has anyone ever done this?

Regards Middendt

So I wouldn't worry about it, you still have 160mm left in thickness. This still corresponds to snow load zone 3. Therefore...

Thank you! We are located in snow load zone 1, so that should be sufficient. Moreover, the weakening does not affect the entire width. On the left and right of the drilling, I still have the full rafter thickness available.

Is there a publicly accessible table or similar where one can look up the rafter thicknesses depending on length and/or snow load zone?