Old work electrical box in baseboard
 

Hi,

In addition to the usual ears, my old work box (Carlon B120R) has 4
tabs projecting out of the corners, with holes in them. Are these
tabs for screwing the box directly to a solid wall surface (e.g. a
baseboard)? The manufacturer's website doesn't mention this
installation method, so I thought I'd double check here.

Thanks, Wayne

- Wayne Whitney -
In addition to the usual ears, my old work box (Carlon B120R) has 4
tabs projecting out of the corners, with holes in them. Are these
tabs for screwing the box directly to a solid wall surface (e.g. a
baseboard)? The manufacturer's website doesn't mention this
installation method, so I thought I'd double check here.

- Nehmo -
Carlon B120R pic:
http://www.carlon.com/scripts/emAlbu...es&img=19&tn=1

The ears on the screws go inside the wall and clamp the wall material
between the ears and the tabs.
Explained:
http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/e...oldworkbox.htm

If the wall material is something more solid than sheet rock, sure, you
can put screws in the holes in the tabs to mount the box. Often in
construction, you have to make-do in a given situation. Many things can
be mounted in several different ways. A box with an accurate box hole in
solid baseboard with screwed-in tabs will make a more solid mounding
than one with the ears-behind-sheetrock method. But usually the
baseboard level is not where a box is positioned.

The best method is to figure out where the stud is and mount to that
like with a new-work box.
http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Shop/Har...ble/Item/SB1G/

Usually people don't install old-work boxes correctly and they end up
being loose.

--
*********************
* Nehmo Sergheyev *
*********************

On 2005-01-20, Nehmo Sergheyev wrote:

If the wall material is something more solid than sheet rock, sure, you
can put screws in the holes in the tabs to mount the box.

OK, great, that's easier for my application, and as you say, stronger too.

But usually the baseboard level is not where a box is positioned.

My baseboards are 1x10s, so it works out OK, the boxes are maybe 3"
above the finish floor. Anyway, a previous owner already made the
choice of locating the boxes for me; I'm just updating the circuits.

Cheers, Wayne

Wayne Whitney wrote:
On 2005-01-20, Nehmo Sergheyev wrote:


If the wall material is something more solid than sheet rock, sure, you
can put screws in the holes in the tabs to mount the box.


OK, great, that's easier for my application, and as you say, stronger too.


But usually the baseboard level is not where a box is positioned.


My baseboards are 1x10s, so it works out OK, the boxes are maybe 3"
above the finish floor. Anyway, a previous owner already made the
choice of locating the boxes for me; I'm just updating the circuits.

Cheers, Wayne

Wayne
Make sure that your boxes are large enough for the number of wires,
devices, and interior clamps that they will have to contain. As an
example a 3" X 2" device box that has a receptacle served by a twelve
gage, twenty ampere, circuit with the cable held by internal clamps and
Equipment Grounding Conductors in the box would need to be three and one
half inches deep to have the requisite number of cubic inches capacity.
--
Tom H

On 2005-01-23, HorneTD wrote:

Make sure that your boxes are large enough for the number of wires,
devices, and interior clamps that they will have to contain.

Yes, this is always good advice. One advantage of the fact that my
receptacle boxes are mounted in the baseboard is that I can fit a 3.5"
deep box in my 2x3 walls (1908 house). I had a heck of a time getting
a big enough double gang switch box for a light and (separate) ceiling
fan control in a 2x3 wall, since I could only use a 3" deep box. 7
conductors, EGC and 2 yokes makes 12 allowances, which is 27 in^3 for
12 gauage wires. Most shallow PVC boxes are 25 in^3, I had to track
down a fiberglass box from Allied Moulded that is 28 in^3.

Even with the 3.5" deep boxes, it seems hard to stuff the wires into a
single gang box, since it is difficult to push the EGCs all the way
into the very back, as the box is not that wide and the device is
somewhat in the way at this point. Is there any secret to this?

As an example a 3" X 2" device box that has a receptacle served by a
twelve gage, twenty ampere, circuit with the cable held by internal
clamps and Equipment Grounding Conductors in the box would need to
be three and one half inches deep to have the requisite number of
cubic inches capacity.

My understanding is that the volume stamped on a non-metallic box
already takes into account any clamps built into the box and that no
allowances are required. The clamping allowances would apply when
dealing with a metal box of standard sizes, with the internal clamps
at the back of the box, since these boxes are available with and
without internal clamps. Is this correct?

Cheers, Wayne