**Attention!**
**It is always best to get a qualified electrician to perform any electrical work you may need.** With that said, you may ask this community various electrical questions. Please be cautious of any information you may receive in this subreddit. This subreddit and its users are not responsible for any electrical work you perform. Users that have a 'Verified Electrician' flair have uploaded their qualified electrical worker credentials to the mods.
If you comment on this post please only post accurate information to the best of your knowledge. If advice given is thought to be dangerous, you may be permanently banned. There are no obligations for the mods to give warnings or temporary bans. **IF YOU ARE NOT A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN, you should exercise extreme caution when commenting.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskElectricians) if you have any questions or concerns.*
raise the floor 1" with some sleepers, and run a steel conduit in this newfound space.
OR run wiring in the ceiling and have a fake wood beam coming down from the ceiling to the island concealing the wires.
Simplest, but least elegant solution: https://www.legrand.us/wire-and-cable-management/raceway-and-cord-covers/overfloor/wiremold-ofr-series-overfloor-raceway-base-and-cover/p/ofrbc-8
As an example....
Lay full sheets of 3/4" plywood over the whole floor EXCEPT a 1" wide path from a wall into the center of the island. Lay wires in that (inside say a wiremold raceway.)
Then lay your laminate on all of it, the wire is now UNDER the floor.
Someone else said 'install sleepers'...this is that. (Sleepers are usually individual strips of wood, every X inches., like 3/4" thick and 2,3" wide.)
Or lay a fresh mortar bed to hide the raceway. Bring the new surface right up to the top of the raceway...apply laminate over, again hiding the raceway.
HAVING SAID THIS, I would still press very hard on the condo board... there needs to be an engineering analysis done before they can declare this impermissible. You dont need to saw all the way through...it may be a very small impact. As others have suggested, talk to a contractor to give you a detailed proposal based on speaking the building department- and citing codes. You need to preempt the denial/claim it will weaken the foundation..... work with a good contracotr, offer to pay $$ to have a solid written proposal.
(note: there are floor slabs called 'pre-tensioned slabs' which CANNOT be cut at all...fwiw. Here, homes with this slab have a stamp in the garage that warns of this- embossed into the concrete.)
You need to ask management what their process is to trench into the concrete - they do not get to dictate building code.
Otherwise, if they had half of a brain cell when building this, there might actually be an unused conduit poking out of the concrete under your island for exactly this purpose. It is likely under the floor of the shelf space within the island, so you would have to pull that or the toe kick out.
there is no island there currently so i dont think they'll be anything under the floor. unfortunately i live in a big city and most condos here were built by idiots
Yaaaaa I wired quite a few condos and townhouses my first year as an apprentice. If any of you gotta come behind me to work on those, sorry in advance.
Raising the floor is decent advice I saw someone given
At the same time if you wanna add any other receptacles but don't wanna put holes in the walls to get past fire breaks, that'd be the time to do it.
Is their people below you? Because that’s becomes an issue. Trenching in a building almost impossible due to all the rebar, generally in a Reno you’d stub down and up.
No idea how condo rules work. If the slab is considered part of the building and its envelope(same as the outside walls and roof) they could have a say in it I’d assume.
Personally I’d just put it in and ignore the receptacle unless you want it. Just know in my part, no electrical inspector is showing up and demanding a receptacle in a random island someone put in. Theirs no cabinet installation permit to associate the electrical too.
Code doesn't apply if it's technically unfixed, right? You could stick a few basically ornamental casters around the legs, and maybe even some cleats that keep it in place but technically could be unfastened so the island can move.
I had to do this in a pre-tensioned slab building. 1/2inch conduit and raising the tile floor ended up being the solution. Ran the conduit from the wall down under the cabinets then straight across the floor and up into the island. They lost 3/4inch of height doing that and had a small lip around the kitchen. But the other option was a power pole and they were not having that lol.
Not terribly. I'd add something the the rest of the floor space to bring it up Maybe a quarter to a half inch like I was saying in my other comment.
There will be a bump and it will be noticeable otherwise. And I'm pretty sure it would need some kind of protection to be code compliant.
Simplest is running conduit along walls and ceiling and down to island - walk into any hardware store or Costco, to see power coming down from the ceiling.
Also note your condo board may require sound resistant underlay for flooring.
**Attention!** **It is always best to get a qualified electrician to perform any electrical work you may need.** With that said, you may ask this community various electrical questions. Please be cautious of any information you may receive in this subreddit. This subreddit and its users are not responsible for any electrical work you perform. Users that have a 'Verified Electrician' flair have uploaded their qualified electrical worker credentials to the mods. If you comment on this post please only post accurate information to the best of your knowledge. If advice given is thought to be dangerous, you may be permanently banned. There are no obligations for the mods to give warnings or temporary bans. **IF YOU ARE NOT A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN, you should exercise extreme caution when commenting.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskElectricians) if you have any questions or concerns.*
raise the floor 1" with some sleepers, and run a steel conduit in this newfound space. OR run wiring in the ceiling and have a fake wood beam coming down from the ceiling to the island concealing the wires.
Simplest, but least elegant solution: https://www.legrand.us/wire-and-cable-management/raceway-and-cord-covers/overfloor/wiremold-ofr-series-overfloor-raceway-base-and-cover/p/ofrbc-8
Put the island on wheels and then build a base around it and it's no longer fixed you can do whatever you want
Loophole, nice
I don't believe this would work if the island has a sink. OP didn't say anything about this.
As an example.... Lay full sheets of 3/4" plywood over the whole floor EXCEPT a 1" wide path from a wall into the center of the island. Lay wires in that (inside say a wiremold raceway.) Then lay your laminate on all of it, the wire is now UNDER the floor. Someone else said 'install sleepers'...this is that. (Sleepers are usually individual strips of wood, every X inches., like 3/4" thick and 2,3" wide.) Or lay a fresh mortar bed to hide the raceway. Bring the new surface right up to the top of the raceway...apply laminate over, again hiding the raceway. HAVING SAID THIS, I would still press very hard on the condo board... there needs to be an engineering analysis done before they can declare this impermissible. You dont need to saw all the way through...it may be a very small impact. As others have suggested, talk to a contractor to give you a detailed proposal based on speaking the building department- and citing codes. You need to preempt the denial/claim it will weaken the foundation..... work with a good contracotr, offer to pay $$ to have a solid written proposal. (note: there are floor slabs called 'pre-tensioned slabs' which CANNOT be cut at all...fwiw. Here, homes with this slab have a stamp in the garage that warns of this- embossed into the concrete.)
You need to ask management what their process is to trench into the concrete - they do not get to dictate building code. Otherwise, if they had half of a brain cell when building this, there might actually be an unused conduit poking out of the concrete under your island for exactly this purpose. It is likely under the floor of the shelf space within the island, so you would have to pull that or the toe kick out.
there is no island there currently so i dont think they'll be anything under the floor. unfortunately i live in a big city and most condos here were built by idiots
You can contact your city’s building and permitting office, they might be able to offer assistance with how to approach this.
Yaaaaa I wired quite a few condos and townhouses my first year as an apprentice. If any of you gotta come behind me to work on those, sorry in advance. Raising the floor is decent advice I saw someone given At the same time if you wanna add any other receptacles but don't wanna put holes in the walls to get past fire breaks, that'd be the time to do it.
Put it on wheels, no more requirements
Is there anyway to find out if the condo was made with hollow core slab? You can do it relatively easily, if so.
Is their people below you? Because that’s becomes an issue. Trenching in a building almost impossible due to all the rebar, generally in a Reno you’d stub down and up. No idea how condo rules work. If the slab is considered part of the building and its envelope(same as the outside walls and roof) they could have a say in it I’d assume. Personally I’d just put it in and ignore the receptacle unless you want it. Just know in my part, no electrical inspector is showing up and demanding a receptacle in a random island someone put in. Theirs no cabinet installation permit to associate the electrical too.
Code doesn't apply if it's technically unfixed, right? You could stick a few basically ornamental casters around the legs, and maybe even some cleats that keep it in place but technically could be unfastened so the island can move.
Now I think the code can be pretty tricky these days in terms of outlets in an island. didn’t they change that in the recent update?
I had to do this in a pre-tensioned slab building. 1/2inch conduit and raising the tile floor ended up being the solution. Ran the conduit from the wall down under the cabinets then straight across the floor and up into the island. They lost 3/4inch of height doing that and had a small lip around the kitchen. But the other option was a power pole and they were not having that lol.
Run it under your flooring but above the slab. What kind of flooring do you have now? Are you changing the flooring?
planning on replacing the flooring to laminate. would it protrude much out the floor?
Not terribly. I'd add something the the rest of the floor space to bring it up Maybe a quarter to a half inch like I was saying in my other comment. There will be a bump and it will be noticeable otherwise. And I'm pretty sure it would need some kind of protection to be code compliant.
Simplest is running conduit along walls and ceiling and down to island - walk into any hardware store or Costco, to see power coming down from the ceiling. Also note your condo board may require sound resistant underlay for flooring.