DIYbanter - View Single Post - how to run electric to island in basement

Pete C.

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:

"Pete C." wrote in message
...
wrote:

On Dec 11, 9:33 am, "Pete C." wrote:
wrote:

I have a concrete foundation, and am finishing the basement. We just
decided on putting in a bar, with an island bar about 4 feet off the
nearest wall. I will need to run electric to the island in order to
power the fridge and wine chiller, but just don't know what the code-
friendly way to do this is. Can I just put the electric wire under
the
final flooring (seems doubtful), or do I need to break up the
concrete, put in some sort of conduit, and put the wire inside it,
then re-concrete the top? Is there another easier way I'm not
thinking of? Thanks.

If the finished flooring is going to be raised off the concrete for
insulation you should be able to run conduit in that gap just fine. If
not, then you would cut a small channel in the concrete with a suitable
masonry blade in a circular saw, angle grinder or similar and remove
just that thin strip to install the conduit and then patch over with
fresh concrete.

Of course the easiest option would be to drop down to the bar with a
decorative column like polished brass tube. You could disguise this
further by using two of them and installing some nice shelving for
bottles on them, perhaps 1/2" thick glass shelves with brass rails
front
and rear. Most of these components are available as standard items, and
any good glass place can produce the shelves (you could also use wood
shelves).

In any case, if you're going to all this effort you should put a sink
in
the island as well. Running PEX supply lines and a drain line from a
small pump unit of the type often used with laundry sinks should be
easy
enough.

We will be having a dry SS sink in the bar, figuring that there's
really nothing we'd need a running faucet for right there. As for the
glass shelves, these will be on the bar back, which will be up against
the wall. I plan to have two outlets right above the counter on the
bar back, but since that's up against the wall, that isn't the issue
so much. The keg box and wine chiller will be in the island, which
will stand alone with no connection to the ceiling or walls. I'll be
putting in an engineered wood floor over a Delta-FL underlayment, but
I don't think that will provide enough clearance to lay conduit
underneath. So it sounds like I'll have to put the conduit into the
concrete and re-pour new concrete over the top, right? Thanks for the
help.

How about raising the bar floor up above the surrounding area by an inch
or so? That should provide the additional clearance necessary and not
look particularly out of place, especially if you finish the bar floor
in a different material like vinyl/linoleum tile.

He still needs a way to run the wire from the raised thing you suggested, to
the wall or ceiling, or wherever he's sourcing power from.

He indicated the shelves were on the bar back, which would seem to
indicate the bar consists of two cabinet sections, one against a wall
and one parallel in front of it as an island with a walkway between
them. This would make it seem reasonable to raise the floor level
slightly and use different flooring in that walkway area between, which
would allow conduit to be run from the wall side cabinets up to the
island ones.