We've been in the house going on two years now, and what I have realized is that we like using our laptops in a place where the power for them has to cross a walkway. The room is carpeted right now, but I'm leaning towards a hardwood floor someday, mainly because part of the room is over the basement and part isn't, and it's obvious where the basement foundation wall is due to the house settling.

Unfortunately where we need the power is over the concrete slab portion rather than over the basement portion, otherwise I could got with a Wiremold OmniBox system with armor cable in the floor between the joists, but since it's the concrete section that's not as practical.

Is it code-feasible to hollow out a hardwood floor board, run a romex bundle in the cavity, and core out a bit of the concrete where the floor box needs to be positioned, so that the romex bundle drops into the cored section and the brass faceplate can be flush with the wood floor?

 

You'll need an approved floor box, which is pretty deep, since it is adjustable for floor levels. It won't be a matter of putting in a pancake box with romex. Can you core completely through the concrete and gain access under the slab for your wiring?

 

You would need physical protection for the cables like a metal conduit. Too easy to hit with a nail.

 

Yeah, I don't think that I'll be able to do it. Oh well.

 

One way is to saw cut the concrete from the outlet location to gain access to the basement or possibly an interior wall,then run conduit to the floor outlet. Floor can be cut with a worm drive saw and a diamond blade, a bit noisy but it works.

 

I was mostly trying to avoid too much modification of the concrete. I live in an area with expansive soil issues, and there are already cracks in some of my outdoor patio and driveway slabs, and I'm worried that if I weaken the concrete inside that it'll just crack and heave.

 

Never say never!

For example, you could use an above-floor pedestal. If you're planning to install sleepers under your hardwood floor and use dimensional flooring, you might be able to have an outlet fed on top of the concrete and with its face plate flush with the surface of the flooring.

There's also Flat Conductor Cable (Type FCC), also known as undercarpet cabling. Type FCC is permitted under Article 324 of the NEC, but I think it's not permitted for residential use, among others. It isn't nail-resistant, for one thing. But what if you laid it through the sleepers and covered the run with a nice wide sheet of steel - essentially a really big nail plate.

You could ask your AHJ if they'd allow you to do that?

 

What about the ceiling instead?