Hi Terry, Great job and thanks for the discription, Just gloat at how much money you saved not having a carpenter and an electrician come and do it for you.
Which color identifier do you use that works on wires and will it handle a single wire or do you have to bundle up a bunch of wire to make a larger surface? Thanks Tom Fowle On Wed, Mar 04, 2009 at 04:27:09PM -0600, Terry Klarich wrote: > Hello all: > > I just wanted to send a short email discussing the installation of my attic > or whole house fan. My Wife and I decided to install a > whole house fan to hopefully lessen the need to run the airconditioner. > These kinds of fans are usually placed in the hallway of a > single story home (like mine) or at the top of the stairs in a multistory > home. The fan moves the hot stale air from inside the > home up into the attic. One would open windows or doors to allow cool air > from the outside to move in and replace the evacuated > air. The fan is placed in the ceiling and looks like a flat panel. As the > fan comes on, the suction causes the louvers in the > panel to open. > > The instructions said to mark the ceiling using the template provided. Cut > out the marked opening with a saber saw. Frame up the > opening to fit the fan. > > Obviously, this wasn't going to work for me. There is no way I'm going to > follow a line drawn on the ceiling. My solution was to > measure the frame of the fan and build the 2x6 box in my shop. I then > carried the 2x6 square up in the attic to figure out exactly > where the opening would need to be placed. This box is 33 3/4" on a side. > The ceiling joists in my house are on 24" centers. So, I > needed to cut one of the joist since the 33 3/4" box was not going to fit > between them. I set the box on the joists where I was going > to make the opening. I measured from the cill plate from each wall to center > the box in the hallway ceiling. I next marked the > joist at the point where the outside of the box rested on the joist. To make > a mark, I just use a sharp knife. Setting the box > aside, I used my circular saw to cut about half way through the joist in the > 2 marked places. I then finished up the cuts with a > hand saw. The board that used to be part of the joist came right up. The > nails just pulled through the dry wall. I also had to > re-route 2 circuits that ran across my opening and move a hall light. That > was pretty straight forward. Next, I dug out all the > insulation and set the box on the ceiling screwing it to the adjacent joist > and to the 2 ends I cut. To my immeasurable delight, > the box fit perfect. It dropped into place with just a little resistance. > After running the wire to the opening and fishing the > switch wire to a newly placed 2x4 junction box in the wall, all the work in > the attic was done. I next setup shop in the hallway. > I used a rotary tool to plunge through the ceiling and follow the inside of > the 33 3/4" box I installed. At this point, I had a > square opening perfectly sized. The rest was pretty much uneventful. My > color identifier worked well for the wiring. > > The only other thing I can think to mention is my portable fence I made to > use with my circular saw. It is made from 2 pieces of > wood. It tells me where the cut will be exactly and what square is as > referring to a 90 degree perpendicular cut on something like > a2x4. This is how I accurately cut out a piece of that ceiling joist. If > anyone is interested, I'll write up a description. I'll > have to think about how to put into words how to attach these 2 pieces of > wood. > > Terry
