central vacuum system
UncleMac
Posts: 13,757 Member
The main purpose of my renovation of the lower level of my house was the foundation had no insulation or vapour barrier. When I removed the old drywall, I found the old framing was awful and a hairline crack in the foundation... but I digress...
Since I had everything apart, I decided to retrofit a central vacuum system. As I'm finally starting to put things back together again, time to tackle installing the system. In a way, fitting in the tubes for the vacuum is similar to plumbing for water. The better the airflow, the better the system will work.
The fun part (and by "fun" I mean "not whatsoever fun") is locating and aligning. For example, here's where I installed the wall outlet for the upper level hallway..
And here's where the tube comes up from below after I carefully located, then drilled up through the subfloor hitting the middle of the wall above.
Since I had everything apart, I decided to retrofit a central vacuum system. As I'm finally starting to put things back together again, time to tackle installing the system. In a way, fitting in the tubes for the vacuum is similar to plumbing for water. The better the airflow, the better the system will work.
The fun part (and by "fun" I mean "not whatsoever fun") is locating and aligning. For example, here's where I installed the wall outlet for the upper level hallway..
And here's where the tube comes up from below after I carefully located, then drilled up through the subfloor hitting the middle of the wall above.
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The pipe from the previous picture goes behind the furnace vents to the wall and then runs down the wall...
Now here's the tricky part... this lower part looks like it aligns with the one coming down the wall but it's actually a completely separate pipe. The two lines join together behind the wall. I'll grab a picture of that tomorrow.
The white wire is a low voltage system which will automatically start the vacuum head up when the hose is plugged into the outlet.
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Passing through the subfloor and wall sills etc means using a large hole saw mounted on an oversize drill. Here's my hole saw and the assorted pieces of floors and walls I drilled through to make this all happen... lol
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I made the two lines join together a short distance away from where the lines came together in order to prevent anything flowing down the upstairs lines from falling down into the downstairs line. The only reason I knew to do this was the central vac at my previous house had that issue. Each time I'd use the lower level outlet, it would have dust & dirt sitting in it.
I pulled all the low voltage wires in ready to go. I have one outlet left to install in the front hallway but we've having guests for supper so I've stopped early for the day.
And here's the head unit, neatly parked on the wall beside the furnace...
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Still so funny to me that anyone even cares about the central vac system. When we bought our first house in 1979 it had that and an intercom system. Old school tech!
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Hmmm.... intercom system... maybe I should...Still so funny to me that anyone even cares about the central vac system. When we bought our first house in 1979 it had that and an intercom system. Old school tech!
The newer tech is things like Ring doorbells; video & audio along with motion detection. We have one at our house in Texas which is handy for the AirBnB purposes.0 -
I finished up the central vac install. The system works really well. It seems a bit loud now due to the lack of drywall in the lower level. One step at a time...0
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I think it's a great idea and hopefully it will be quieter going forward!1
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When I was in CO last time I went out to the front porch to watch some weather coming in and my son talked to me from work................without my phone................LOL1
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When I was in CO last time I went out to the front porch to watch some weather coming in and my son talked to me from work................without my phone................LOL
Pam handles the AirBnB. The door has an electronic code lock and some folks struggle to get it to open... so she usually leave the Ring motion detection on until they arrive. If they unlock without issue, she doesn't say anything but if they're struggling, she coaches them thru. lol0
