Ceiling Fan Installation Problems

Hello All,

I spent last night trying to install a ceiling fan in a bedroom in my house. The spot that I am installing the fan in had a light fixture there previously, so no cutting was necessary. However, the junction box for the fixture was not mounted in a way that lead me to believe it could support my new ceiling fan. As a result, I crawled up into the attic and installed a metal brace that I bought, and hung the new junction box from it. The metal brace is basically a metal bar that has a extending screw from one end. Both ends of the brace have feet, that have claws meant to dig into the joists. There are two questions I have: one, the junction box is extremely close to one of the joists, so al the weight of the fan will be supported on one side of the metal brace; is this ok? And two, The fan installation guide says to screw in a 2x4 brace between the joists, and then mount the junction box to that wooden brace; is this necessary, or can I still use the metal brace that I bought?

-jw

 

The metal brace is fine, and the way you've installed it is fine. I'm assuming you used a fan-rated box that came with the brace. It probably wasn't necessary to climb up into the attic as these things can normally be installed from below.

 

Another issue that I didn't mention before was that the fan came with a mounting plate that is suppose to mount up to the junction box or the support brace. I can't obviously mount it to the metal support brace, so I was going to mount it to the junction box, but the fan only come with wood screws. Is it normal for ceiling fans only to comw with wood screws for installation? Would it be alright to get some screws to just mount the fan directly to the junction box?

-jw

 

The brace kit should have come with appropriate screws for the box in the kit. Use those. Throw the wood screws in your spare screw coffee can.

 

Unfortunately, the screws that came with the brace kit are far to short to even reach the screw holes they need to go in to. The issue is that the mounting plate comes with little rubber feet which are about an inch tall. These feet go between the ceiling and the plate itself. Therefore, I am not able to use the screws that came with the mount.

The ceiling fan is a Hunter fan, in case that is helpful.

-jw

 

In this case, I would probably not use the bar that came with the kit (but use the fan-rated box). Go back up in the attic and put in a 2x4 cross-brace between the joists, and mount the fan-rated box to it. Then you can use the screws that came with the fan to screw through to the 2x4.

 

Had the same problem. Home Depot sells a solution that doesn't require any additional bracing provided you don't mind moving the location of the fan to the nearest joist. It's called a 8" Mounting Block, made by Arlington. You'll find it near the ceiling fan display section. It looks like a medallion only it is structural and it functions as a shallow electrical box too. You locate it at the nearest joist and screw it to the joist. Next run a short piece of romex from the existing electrical box to the Mounting Block. The rest is filling-in the ceiling where the existing box is.

 

I finished installing the ceiling fan this weekend. In fact, I installed a new switch too, so that I can turn the fan and light on and off seperately. I spoke to a guy at Lowe's about the support bar, and he said that the bar is rated to hold up a 70 lbs fan, so it was more than enough to support my fan. All I had to do was get 1 1/2 inch screws to screw through the ceiling plate and into the junction box.

Thanks for all the help.

-jw

 

How do I know if I have a ceiling fan rated box?

I have a celing light (simply globe) in my bedroom. I'm planning on replacing it with a fan. It is prewired with a 2nd wire so I can run the light/fan separetly. I went in the attic and found that the box is metal and is attached directly to the bottom of a rafter. I assumed this would be more than sufficient for a fan, but after reading this post I'm now a little unsure. Should my existing box be OK? Thanks.

Mark

 

That is the same senario that I had. I believe you are suppose to put in a support to meet code. The metal support that I used seemed to work out pretty nicely. You can pick one up at home depot or lowe's. Alternatively, you could just install a 2x4 brace between joists and mount your new box to that.

-jw

 

Mark, you're probably okay. At least you have a metal box. As long as you don't hang a really heavy fan, you should be okay.

Boxes designed for fans are not only metal, but have sturdier threads than a normal metal box for the screws that hold up the fan.

But I'll bet a lot of fans are mounted to ordinary pancake boxes such as you have.

 

mark,

your box should hold as john says, many are up this way.

how the box is attached to rafter is priority! you should run some at least 3" screws though box to rafter


If your not comfortable with it, then go to home center, fan section, just check to be sure as to where the box located, (on rafter or between rafters) they will have fan rated boxes for each aplication.

 

OK, I really didn't want to have to cut a new hole in the ceiling in order to use a metal brace that goes between the rafters. Installing 3" screws through my existing box sounds like a good idea. If the fan comes crashing down on me in the middle of the night then I guess that means I should have done more!