"Sure! I can install a ceiling fixture for you, dear! The new baby
needs light!"
Seemed like a simple statement. So 4 hours later here's my predicament.

1) I opened a hole for a ceiling junction box intending to use a fan
brace. I have discovered that the joists in this particular building
are spaced very closely. About 12~13 inches. Therefore, all of the
ceiling fan braces I have been able to find for old work will not fit.
They seem to start at 16 inches. Am I going to have to open a big hole
to span the joists with a 2x4? Any other choices?

2) The entire run of where the wall meets the ceiling appears to have a
metal girder all along the header. This precludes me drilling a hole
vertically to drop the BX. Can I notch the header where appropriate to
drop into the wall? It's not like it's carrying any significant
load...the building is poured concrete construction.

3) There is one joist I need to cross. Right now it just happens to be
that there is enough space between the joist and the drywall for the BX
to cross into the proper spot between studs. Should the joist be
notched? Or is it okay to leave it as it appears in the picture below,
crossing between the ceiling joist and ceiling drywall?

Here is a picture of the situation mentioned in 2 and 3.
http://www.hockspot.com/help/joists.jpg

Any/all help is appreciated!
Thanks.
-ben

The Westinghouse (1100) I believe that's the number, fan brace can be cut
down. Just pop out the dead end cap, slice off a few inches of the tube and
a few inches of the screw, then pop the end cap back on. I wouldn't hesitate
to notch a little of the header and for protection, you could sleeve a small
piece of half inch tubing over the cable



wrote in message
oups.com...
"Sure! I can install a ceiling fixture for you, dear! The new baby
needs light!"
Seemed like a simple statement. So 4 hours later here's my predicament.

1) I opened a hole for a ceiling junction box intending to use a fan
brace. I have discovered that the joists in this particular building
are spaced very closely. About 12~13 inches. Therefore, all of the
ceiling fan braces I have been able to find for old work will not fit.
They seem to start at 16 inches. Am I going to have to open a big hole
to span the joists with a 2x4? Any other choices?

2) The entire run of where the wall meets the ceiling appears to have a
metal girder all along the header. This precludes me drilling a hole
vertically to drop the BX. Can I notch the header where appropriate to
drop into the wall? It's not like it's carrying any significant
load...the building is poured concrete construction.

3) There is one joist I need to cross. Right now it just happens to be
that there is enough space between the joist and the drywall for the BX
to cross into the proper spot between studs. Should the joist be
notched? Or is it okay to leave it as it appears in the picture below,
crossing between the ceiling joist and ceiling drywall?

Here is a picture of the situation mentioned in 2 and 3.
http://www.hockspot.com/help/joists.jpg

Any/all help is appreciated!
Thanks.
-ben

Those are good suggestions.
What should I use to cut it? Will a hacksaw do? Can I use a dremel
tool?
Thanks!
-ben

In article .com,
says...

"Sure! I can install a ceiling fixture for you, dear! The new baby
needs light!"
Seemed like a simple statement. So 4 hours later here's my predicament.

1) I opened a hole for a ceiling junction box intending to use a fan
brace. I have discovered that the joists in this particular building
are spaced very closely. About 12~13 inches. Therefore, all of the
ceiling fan braces I have been able to find for old work will not fit.
They seem to start at 16 inches. Am I going to have to open a big hole
to span the joists with a 2x4? Any other choices?


There are fan boxes that do not use a brace between joists, they just fasten
onto the side of a single joist. At first glance they look like standard deep
plastic junction boxes, but they are heavy fiberglass (not plastic), and have
metal brackets built in. Home Depot has them. Of course, you need to have a
hole right next to a joist to use one of them, and you need to be able to get
clearance to put in the screws in the top bracket, so it may not help that much
in a retrofit situation.

There are also shallow fan boxes that screw directly to the bottom of a single
joist, not the side.

Both of these boxes have lower weight limits then the brace type, I think, but
they handle typical fans OK and will be marked for their weight limit.

Dennis

On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 07:01:56 -0500, "RBM" rbm2(remove
wrote:

The Westinghouse (1100) I believe that's the number, fan brace can be cut
down. Just pop out the dead end cap, slice off a few inches of the tube and
a few inches of the screw, then pop the end cap back on. I wouldn't hesitate
to notch a little of the header and for protection, you could sleeve a small
piece of half inch tubing over the cable



Agree with the above. But for the other question,
for crossing over the joist, you ideally want to
drill through the joist halfway up. and at least a
handspan away from where it bears on the I-beam.
you can probably get away with a notch and a cover
plate there, too, but it's a bad habit to get into.

I'm assuming that the power is coming from above,
and this bit headed down the wall is a switch-leg?

'Cause if your power supply is in the wall too,
then it would almost be worth just putting a
half-switched receptacle up there, and hanging
a cord-and-chain light fixture from a hook.
I'm sure you'll eventually find a use for the
extra outlet.

Hmm. Now you've got me worried. Power is not coming from above. (Should
it be?) The way this is working is that I have a switch in the wall
which currently (excuse the pun!) controls an outlet. So I decided to
drop some BX down the wall and essentially extend that switch leg up
into a ceiling fixture. The outlet will still be powered, as there are
enough wires (three - neutral,switch leg,and capped off unused) in the
existing conduit to run a constant hot to the outlet as well. When I
opened the outlet up and the switch, I found that the previous
electrician did me a favor and left a capped third wire in case
somebody wanted to split the outlet and have half controled by switch
and half always on. At least this is what I assume he did it for, but
I'm not complaining because it saves me from having to fish another
wire to the switchbox.

Is all of this proper wiring? I can't think of anything wrong unless
I'm violating some code.
Thanks much! Great advice!
-ben

On 21 Mar 2006 09:15:23 -0800, wrote:

Hmm. Now you've got me worried. Power is not coming from above. (Should
.. . .
no need for that.
and half always on. At least this is what I assume he did it for, but
I'm not complaining because it saves me from having to fish another
wire to the switchbox.

Is all of this proper wiring? I can't think of anything wrong unless
I'm violating some code.

Nope, what you're doing doesn't violate any code that I know of,
it's just that making the wall-ceiling transition around that
I-beam only leaves you about 3/4" of plaster to bury the
cable in, and I don't think I could do that successfully.
At least, not without gluing up some crown molding.

"There are fan boxes that do not use a brace between joists, they just
fasten
onto the side of a single joist. At first glance they look like
standard deep
plastic junction boxes, but they are heavy fiberglass (not plastic),
and have
metal brackets built in. Home Depot has them"


I used one of these, except the box is metal, not fiberglass! They
work great.