A Comprehensive Guide to Installing an Electric Floor Box

Electric floor boxes provide a practical solution for bringing power, data, and communication connections to various locations within a room. Whether you want to add convenience to your living space or enhance the quality of a commercial area, installing electrical floor boxes is a worthwhile project.

A floor box can come in a variety of different floor outlet options, including single gang, duplex, and combination floor boxes that combine ports for internet, USB charging, network connection, and other features. Floor box outlets also come in square and circular styles.

These convenient fixtures eliminate the need for an unsightly extension cord, making your space safer and more stylish. Most floor boxes also include a cover plate to protect the floor outlet when not in use. They often come in stylish nickel or brass, but you can also find colors such as stainless steel, black, and white.

This article will guide you through the step-by-step process of installing electrical floor boxes, ensuring a safe and efficient installation.

Make sure that the circuit you want to use can handle the additional outlet. It’s important to know just how much the circuit can handle as you do not want to overload the circuit. Keep in mind that circuit breakers only handle about 80% of their overall amperage.

Always make sure to shut the electricity off to the area before installing floor boxes. Leaving it on poses a serious risk of electrical shock and can be extremely hazardous. Shut the power off at the electrical service panel or circuit breaker. Additionally, test the circuits with a voltage tester to make sure that there is no power currently running before you begin work.

Unless you are an electrician, we recommend contacting a licensed electrician to perform electrical work such as electrical wiring and electrical connections. Additionally, if you are uncomfortable with any part of the process, please contact a qualified electrician to complete the floor box installation.

If you have large, open-concept rooms, wall space can be far from where you want to put an outlet and using extension cords can be unappealing at best and hazardous at worst. A floor box outlet offers a simple, easy solution. Often called a poke-through or drop-in outlet, floor boxes recess into the floor with a mounting plate that fits close to flush against the floor. Floor boxes allow you to plug devices and light fixtures into a power source without needing to be close to a wall.

Before you begin your floor box installation, carefully select the ideal location for your electrical floor box. When choosing a location for the floor outlet, consider factors such as accessibility, proximity to nearby outlets, and furniture placement. If you have or plan to have furniture placed in the center of the room with no easily accessible outlets, consider installing a floor box outlet nearby. Ensure that the chosen area does not interfere with structural elements, plumbing, or other utility lines.

Additionally, choose an area where you can reasonably create electrical connections and where a power cable and wiring can reach. This may require the advice of a qualified electrician. A floor over an unfinished basement or crawl space allows for easy access from below while floors with a finished ceiling underneath can pose a problem due to their lack of access. However, it's not impossible to have floor boxes in these locations! They just take a little more elbow grease to pull the cables through.

However, if you want to put floor boxes in concrete floors, we recommend contacting a professional. Unlike a wood subfloor, which requires you to only cut through, concrete floors require trenching into the concrete. Because of this, we recommend following a professional's advice and instructions when it comes to installing floor boxes in these locations. They may also require special floor box outlets capable of working in concrete.

Before you begin the installation process, gather all the required tools and materials. The list typically includes:

• Measuring tape
• Utility knife
• Screwdriver
• Hole saw or reciprocating saw
• Electric drill
• Electrical wires
• Wire connectors
• Floor box kit (which includes the cover, mounting brackets, and hardware)

Additionally, make sure to install floor box outlets instead of regular electrical sockets or receptacles. Floor boxes come with additional protection that a regular electrical outlet doesn't have, like a cover plate and moisture-proof cover to protect against moisture. Most boxes use flip covers or screw-in covers to protect the floor outlet when not in use.

To create a neat and flush installation, prepare the floor by cutting an appropriate-sized hole for the new floor outlet. If the area has carpeting, you will have to cut a hole through the carpeting or padding in order to access the wood subfloor beneath it. If you have a round or circular floor outlet, use an appropriately sized hole saw to cut a hole into the floor. If it's a square shape, you can use a reciprocating saw instead.

Before you begin cutting, locate the floor joists. Avoid cutting into the floor joists as you can't install floor boxes into them. Instead, choose a space between the joists.

Use a hole saw or reciprocating saw to carefully cut through the flooring material. Ensure that the hole dimensions match the specifications of the floor box kit you have chosen.

We recommend contacting a certified electrician to complete this part of the floor box installation.

You will have to run wiring for a new circuit or circuit extension in order to supply electricity to the floor box outlet. An electrician may be able to find the necessary wires or cables in a nearby junction box. They may need to use a voltage tester to check the voltage in order to determine which fuse or circuit breaker to turn off in order to stop the flow of electricity in the space. Because this can be a complex process, we recommend allowing the electrician to complete this step along with any other electrical installation or electrical work.

We suggest contacting a licensed electrician to complete this step for you.

Carefully run the electrical wires from the power source to the electric floor box. Ensure that the power is turned off at the circuit breaker before making any connections. Using a wire stripper, strip the wires and connect the corresponding wires using wire connectors. Typically, you should connect the white wire to neutral (silver screw), black wire to hot (brass or copper screw), and the ground wire to the green grounding screw located on the receptacle. However, we recommend following the advice of a qualified electrician to ensure a safe and secure electrical connection.

Following the manufacturer's instructions, attach the mounting brackets to the electrical box. Slide the floor box into the prepared hole, making sure it fits snugly. Secure the box to the floor using the provided hardware or screws. Ensure that the box is level with the floor surface.

Once all the connections and cover installation are complete, turn on the power at the circuit breaker. Test the electric floor box by plugging in a device or using an electrical tester to ensure everything is functioning correctly.

If you choose to use a voltage tester, make sure that the voltage tester is in good working order. Be careful not to damage the voltage tester. Do not touch the exposed wires with your bare hands.

Floor outlets can provide convenient access to electricity in areas where wall outlets are not available. They can help to reduce the clutter of extension cords and power strips.

Floor outlets work great in open concept rooms. Large, wide-open rooms don't have the same access to wall spaces that smaller rooms have. A floor box allows you to plug lamps as well as other fixtures and appliances into an electrical source even when they're located in the middle of the room.

Replacing a standard outlet typically costs anywhere from $80-$200. When installing a brand-new outlet, expect to pay more. They can range anywhere from $100 to $500 or more depending on the type of outlet and the amount of work required to install it.

Keep in mind that the amount that installing outlets cost depends on how expensive the outlet is, the outlet's voltage, and how much work goes into installing it.

We recommend contacting a professional to install a floor box in concrete. If the subfloor is wood, then it's easy to cut through but when you are installing a new outlet in concrete, it requires cutting a trench into the concrete to install the conduit. Additionally, it may require special electrical boxes rated for use in concrete.