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can you wire a light weight ceiling fixture without a j box?

can you wire a light weight ceiling fixture without a j box?


  #1  
Old 05-29-07, 09:35 AM
L
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Question can you wire a light weight ceiling fixture without a j box?

We are remodeling a kitchen and are replacing old florescent tube fixtures with incandescent ceiling mounted fixtures. The electrician removed the old fixtures and rewired but left us with just the wires sticking out of a hole in the bead board on the ceiling. Can we surface mount a flat j box or direct wire the light weight fixture without having to tear out the new bead board and put up a regular junction box?
 
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Old 05-29-07, 09:53 AM
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Some lights have a built in junction box. If they do, you do not need to have one. If the lights do not have a built in junction box the you need one. There are many types, including pancake boxes which are very shallow and work well in shallow walls or surface mounted.
 
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Old 05-29-07, 10:03 AM
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It would be a rare incandescent fixture that included a junction box. Assuming this is a cable assembly, like NM (Romex), and not really just wires, I'd also recommend a pancake box, if you can mount it to the bottom of a joist. They are the same thickness as the ceiling drywall so you can still have a surface-mounted fixture when done.
 
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Old 05-30-07, 11:43 AM
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If the light you're using doesn't have an integral box, and if a pancake box won't work for whatever reason, you can use an "old work box". You cut the round or rectangular hole in the beadboard/drywall, and mount the box using the ears that get screwed down. Nice and simple (but probably still not as simple as the pancake box).

Certainly no reason to take the ceiling down.
 
 

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