Spacer for ceiling box

N

nizak

Senior Member
I’ve got a newly installed fan support that ended up being 1” above the ceiling finish.

It’s on a outside porch and the ceiling finish is aluminum soffit material.

Siding contractor ended up firring down the trusses 1” and never said anything. I could have easily lowered it.

Removing the ceiling at this point isn’t an option.

Was thinking about cutting a 4 1/2” dia disk out of a 1” thick pvc plank and then drilling out the center 3 1/2” for the wires to pass thru.

Would use 2” 10/32 screws and sandwich the disk.

Thinking the PVC would be better than wood.
Ceiling fan weighs about 20 lbs.
Thoughts?
 
jim dungar said:
Why not use a ceiling box extender, like this one from Arlington?

Arlington | Ceiling Box Extender

For set back ceiling boxes. Fits 3-1/2" and 4" round or octagonal boxes.
www.aifittings.com www.aifittings.com
Click to expand...
The 1” gap between the ceiling soffit material and the outlet box needs to be rigid.

The fan bracket will simply pull up to the existing box and greatly distort it.

The ceiling material is about 22 gauge aluminum and offers no support.

If the ceiling material was fir instance 3/4” T+G or something similar that Arlington might work.

Listed octagon metal box extenders are 1.5”. That wouldn’t allow the canopy a tight fit against the ceiling.
 
Would also like to keep the 10/32 screw size.
The fact it’s a fan and not a fixture makes it more challenging
 
If you use the home made spacer can you still use a box extender? The combination of the two would be code complaint.
 
I had to fur down an interior fan box recently. The builder decided to add 1x6 V-rustic to a dry wall ceiling in the family room of a new home.

I took a 4/0 plastic box and placed it upside down against the existing fan box then traced around the box at the ceiling line.
Cut the box at the line then drilled out the holes so the 10-32 screws would pass through. Obviously this was not a listed extension I felt it was the best option.
 
infinity said:
If you use the home made spacer can you still use a box extender? The combination of the two would be code complaint.
Click to expand...
This^^. Make a _mechanical_ extender out of PVC plank, just as described in the original post. Use the Arlington extender to meet the code requirements for a box. IMHO the original concept makes perfect sense, and is probably just fine, except that it hasn't been _evaluated_.
 
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