Mounting electrical box to column?

[Dan Hintz]

Phil,

It sounds like you and I are in the same boat... fixing the mistakes of the last "handyman". I estimate I've removed around 75% of his stud walls, drywall, wood paneling, and drop ceiling.

I have found countless mouse droppings on top of the drop ceiling panels, and while tearing down part of a wall night before last I came face to face with a mouse as I slowly turned around... he was dead (I don't think we have a mouse problem anymore), but he was a few inches from my face as I turned my head to survey the prior damage. There was also a significant crack running between several blocks that allowed me to view the outside world, along with a hole drilled (more than likely) for an old TV cable entryway... have to fill that in. We also appear to have several major hornet nests (old and dead, thank God) between the basement ceiling joists and the walls, no doubt helped along by the open spaces to the world through the block.

Seems the morons who installed the wood stove years ago (I'm sure this guy helped) just cut straight through the joists with little extra blocking to take up the weight. I'll have to get an engineer in to see if it needs more shoring up now that the stove is going bye-bye.

[Ben Hatcher]

Phil, I think that the same guy must have done my basement. He hung drywall using about 9 screws/4x8 sheet. I couldn't reuse a single stud because he twisted every one of them with his strange toenailing technique where he put a nail into just the base plate presumable to keep the studs from moving when he nailed them from the other side. Not a single electrical wire was stapled and whenever possible he'd run them behind the walls instead of through them. I guess he made my removal job easier.

[John Coloccia]

My house has interesting "features" too. Some if it is very well done, and some of it was TERRIBLE.

Here's an example. He ran about 25' or PVC for the dryer vent. It went through a wall, around the perimeter of a closet, into the other part of the basement and out. That was one of the first things I fixed when I moved in. I could have knitted sweaters for all my friends with the lint that was in that PVC pipe.

I'm always afraid to start a project in the house. I never know what I'm going to find. I think a lot of it is the original builder's fault, not the last owner (just to be fair to him).

[Bob Eddy]

I believe that I would weld a 1/8" plate to the post then install the box. Being that close to the floor things will probably be bumping into it including ankles.(ouch)

[Robert Reece]

I boxed a steel column with 2x material, by cutting two of the sides just ever so slightly smaller than the diameter of the column. When the other two sides get screwed down, they squeeze the column. Then I ran EMT down the 2x to surface mounted boxes (I have about 3 or 4 boxes all stacked up so I could plug in everything in my little tool island I made around the column).

[John Coloccia]

For what it's worth, I used PVC boxes and just screwed right through the back of the box directly into the column. That's how my electrician buddy recommended I do it, and my inspector had no problem with it. It's solid. Why go through the trouble of mounting wood, welding plates, etc? I'm not suggesting you don't do that; I'm just curious why.

Is it OK to actually weld to the column while it's supporting the house?

[Phil Thien]

Think I'm going to use two u-bolts to attach a block of wood, to which I can attach the box.

I really don't want to screw into the column because I may want to rearrange things in the future and there is no sense to adding holes that I may not want to use beyond a year or two.