A fixture of that size must be supported by the structure, not the box. A bigger concern would be the shoddy wiring your "electrician" did. There is no cable clamp, the unsheathed wires extend outside the box and I'd be surprised if there is a staple anywhere close by. You may have a lot more work to do than just fasten a box to the framing.

You have a lot more trouble than a poorly unsupported box if an electrician installed this. Th wires should have been run through a clamp to hold the stripped part of the wire inside the box. I'd be checking other boxes to see if this is a problem elsewhere. Was the house inspected when built? If so, a trip to your building department with this picture is in order. It would have been tough to miss this in an inspection.

With a 150 pound fixture the box will not support the load. A fitting called a hicky is installed that allows the chandelier to be hooked to it from the bottom and the top is hooked to a threaded rod or cable that is supported from above. I'd suggest letting the electrician do the whole job as adding 2X4s here will likely do nothing but put things in the way of the hardware that needs to be installed.

I would actually look into hoisting gear for the chandelier.
The ability to raise and lower large and heavy fixtures with either an electric (or manual) winch comes in very handy.
The location above stairs makes it even more useful.

I see a lot of thing wrong here. I hope the rest of electrical system was installed better.
1. no clamp on the cable.
2. cable jacket should be inside the box.
3. no vapour barrier around the box or even on the ceiling. Maybe they don't do that in your area. Here in north the entire ceiling should have a vapour barrier and the boxes are suppose to be wrapped in plastic as well to continue the barrier.

That is obviuosly a truss. Don't let them cut into it install a bigger box or hoist.

Thanks for all the replies.

I knew things did not look right and you guys confirmed it for me.

The house was inspected but honestly around here that does not mean much.

I have had several issues with the electrical and plumbing since we built so I am not that surprised.

The electrician that wired our house is long gone.

The electrician I use now has found and corrected quite a few problems and really knows his stuff.

He is just so busy that I wanted to try to do some of the basic work myself. It appears this is not so basic....

My electrician hates correcting other peoples mistakes and I do not blame him.

I will do research on a chandelier hoist as I think it would help a lot- especially with cleaning.

Actually it is pretty basic. You have good access from above.
Get yourself the proper box. Install it with cable in the proper clamp and you are good. If that cable won't reach to properly clamp it, install a new box in the attic where the cable will reach and run a short 1 or 2 foot cable from new box to your chandelier box.

I did a search for chandelier lifts and came up with Aladin and Wilshire.

I looked at the instructions for the Wilshire and the installation involves the unit being centered over the electrical box which can not be done since the attic rafter meets the joist at that point.

I am so discouraged.

Boxes have a weight rating of how much they can support. Visit your local electrical supply house and ask them for one that can support the weight of your chandelier.

lsst

Since you have rulled out a hoist, re-read itsunclebill's post and do what he says. You cannot hang 150 pounds from any electical box.

Again, get a pro to handle the project. The middle hole on the box is visible and could potentially handle a hoist cable. Unclear from your picture is overhead clearance to the roof that might give clues to the available options. It is also well within reason the box could be moved out from under the truss. Patching the drywall to cover the hole and not having it look like a patch is a pretty small part of a project like this. There are a number of boxes that will support a 150 pound lighting load but none I'm aware of would fit under the truss in exactly the same place as the existing box. Quit stressing and call somebody that knows how to do the work. Some of us are pretty good at it.

Here are some more photos to give a better idea of the location in relationship to the attic structures.
{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}
The red and white piece of paper is right above where the box is located.

{{gwi:1449658}}
The current fixture is centered between the railings and middle of steps. The ceiling medallion is plaster and con not be removed without tearing up the medallion.

Thanks for all the replies.

We hung a very heavy wrought iron chandelier for a friend of mine. That thing was HEAVY! Took six of us and scaffolding to get it up. We built supports for it by tying to the joists and roof trusses. Most of the load was being carried by the roof trusses. Since the roof was designed to hold several feet of snow, this was no big deal. We just spread the load across several joists and trusses. I can't see why you couldn't do the same thing. You have a lot of braces, joists, trusses, etc to distribute the load. The vertical supports offer a great opportunity since the load won't be in sheer. Just distribute the load as much as possible. And don't use screws or nails, use bolts. If you're uncomfortabe with tackling the project, a competent contractor should be able to do this for you in an afternoon.

Note all that wood around the box (with the exception of the stub 2x4 that seems to support one side of the box) is not rafters or joists, but part of a truss system. Be very careful what you do there. It amazes me that you've got what appears to be a rather expensive upscale house and the shoddiest of construction both by the electrician and by the builder. Jeez those are the crappiest trusses I've seen in a long time.

Do fix the wiring problems mentioned because with the crappy nail plate installation right above it, you've got probably 15 minutes before that whole structure fails if there is a fire.

Thanks everyone

Cobraguy,
I will look into your suggestion. My husband and I are very DIY and feel very comfortable doing the support part once we decide what will work best with our attic layout.
I plan on having my electrician correct the electrical
issues. I am sure he has dealt with this problem before.

As far as the truss system, I will inquire with my county's building inspection dept. as to how it passed inspection with the "crappy nail plate construction".

We are in SC and have a mild climate. I do know at the time of construction, Vapor barriers in attics were not required by code and I have never seen one used in an attic here. The first time I saw vapor barrier used other than crawlspaces was the Holmes on Homes show. I wonder if this is something used in colder climates.

The pre engineered truss system with the nail plates is apparently accepted in this area as I have seen it
used in all homes of all price ranges.

The pre engineered truss system with the nail plates is apparently accepted in this area as I have seen it
used in homes of all price ranges - not all homes. I do wish we had an edit feature on this site.

The nail plates are an industry standard, but by and large one that is problematic. In this case, the thing seems to even be misapplied. It seems to miss much of the bottom chord in addition to being damaged.

My warning is to keep fire away from them, and don't let whatever BUBBA put that box/wiring in start drilling holes in them to beef up the box/lamp support.

Thanks Ron,

The electrician that did the original wiring is long gone. I had heard he had passed away.

We did hire a structural engineer to look over everything during the build so I will contact him.

The reason that electricians do not like to try to correct errors of others in completed structures is that finding all of the potential problems probably will not happen. Some errors will not be discovered until and unless some failure occurs. But the typical homeowner holds the new electrician fully responsible for the entire system as soon as he sets foot on the premises. I had one who wanted to blame me for failing to correct a problem installed by others that we had only discussed off-premises.

Bus-driver,
I am not the typical homeowner and am very grateful for the problems he has corrected.
I do not hold him accountable for things the first electrician did. If I blamed anyone it would be my builder for hiring the first electrician without checking him out first.

1sst, when we built the support for my friend's chandelier, one of us was a structural engineer. We let him plan the support system we built. It wasn't very complicated either. We also used some chains and turnbuckles. Chains don't stretch like cable. We used those to tie to the roof trusses. We tied them to boards fastened across several trusses to support the load. When we finally let the fixture hang, the thing didn't even groan! It was rock solid. And it weighed a whole bunch more than what you are installing.

Thanks cobraguy!

I cannot help the how to support the load in or around the box but lifting the load is easy..if you know some one with a sail boat. just to borrow the mainsheet lines and pulleys or the boom vang. both will lift 150+ pound with a cleat so you can stop at any point on the way up.

they also work great for taking down heavy fixtures.

dkenny

A common method for spotting the lift line for large fixture is to attach the lifting gear to the ceiling joists in a convenient location, then run the lift cable over to a pulley supported by the rafters and spotted exactly were needed.
Even a heavy light fixture is usually a relatively small structural load.
In residential work the rafters often need some blocking near the point load to limit torquing of the rafter, but tying into two rafters is normally more than adequate.

You do need to consider how the loads will be applied to all the components. No wood fastener should be loaded in tension (withdrawal). Even wood screws.
Actual screws and bolts can be loaded this way if needed.
I often use pieces of angle iron down the sides of the ceiling rafters and joists and then through bolted to hold this type of equipment in place.
The lift cable can even rub against the side of a joist if needed.
If it is dead center you may need to cut the joist and splice it on each side to create a passage for the cable.

If you have trusses an approval will be required from the truss manufacturer, but it should only require a bolted double splice of the same dimensions as the member you are cutting.
Believe me, this should be pretty minor compared to other things they have had to deal with

Brickeyee,
Thank you for your reply.
Ironically, this is the route we decided to take.
We had the electrician look at it and did lots of research and decided almost exactly what you described would be the best option.

Glad you worked it out.
In many cases it seems that residential electricians and 'commercial' electricians are on separate planets following different codes.

'Spotting' of lifting gear over a pulley is very common in commercial work.
The lifting gear need to be accessible above a drop ceiling near the catwalks, while the fixtures are spread all over a room.
I cannot remember the number of times I have had to replace the lift cable with a longer one to reach over to a fixture 20-30 feet from the hoisting gear location.
Some of the manufacturers have gotten better and allow you to call out a cable length AND a lift distance, but special orders take time and cost money.
A few minutes to replace a short cable is not bad.

I sure like your idea Brickeyee. The fixture we installed took a lot of manpower and scaffolding to get it in place. A winch would have been very nice...and doable. Now, before everyone thinks about what a waste of money just to put a fixture in place, think about how easy it will make it to lower and clean the chandelier, especially since this one is over stairs and you can't use a ladder. I can see a huge advantage to this idea.