Speaking of electrical improvements

I put up a ceiling fan in our bedroom a few weeks ago. The fixture I replaced was, I believe, original. Our house was built in 1925. The electrical ‘box’ (I don’t really think this cast iron thing actually counts as a box) had been installed before they had plastered the ceiling. After I busted out the plaster around it, I get to find out that not only is the thing plastered into the ceiling, but there is also a sort of iron (or some metal) rod or bar running through the box that’s holding it up. Well I don’t want to tear out that much plaster, if I can keep the hole smaller than the can for the fan that would be ideal. So the only other option for removing this box is to cut through the metal rod. Hello Saws-All, this thing really does saw all, it went through the metal rod pretty quickly.

In addition to the crazy ‘box’ there are three armored cables coming into it to power one light bulb. I don’t understand why but that’s the way it’s wired. From out of the three armored cables there are seven wires protruding, one of the cables had an extra. Of the seven wires there are three with black insulation indicating they are hot and four wires with white indicating neutral. Two of the black wires are wrapped together with one of the whites, I marked these with a bit of masking tape so I’d know to re-wrap them up later. The other lone black is the hot wire for the light and the three other neutrals are all wrapped together and are collectively the neutral for the light.

Now, I have the old ‘box’ out and it wasn’t really attached to a beam as far as I could tell. So, there’s not really a beam to attach a new box to. The hole in the ceiling is also dumping out vermiculite insulation all over our bed. I got the idea to cut a piece of wood about twice as long as the hole in the ceiling. I can insert it up into the hole and move it over so it’s centered over the hole while navigating it through three armored cables attached to the new box and then screw them together. That means the wood slats that the plaster is stuck to are also holding up our fan. Not an ideal solution but it worked out and the fan has yet to come toppling down on top of us in the middle of the night. The fan also doesn’t wobble so I don’t expect it to fall anytime soon.

Great Success!