Upset with electrician, round junction boxes

9 years ago

He installed round junction boxes when most of my sconces are rectangular, and now will not cover holes. I asked him why he didnt ask me which shape i had, and he said 90 percent of fixtures are round. Not in this case... some of these round boxes,are in paneling! I bought the lights quite a while back, so cannot return and dont want to. Should i be upset,or is,this something i should have known and made clear. Im just a lady building a house. I do have a GC. Of course, i will have to pay for all changes made due to his mistake.

Featured Answer

rwiegand

9 years ago

How are you supposed to know? You're not.

The way to handle this and similar situations is to have the material to be installed on site, in advance, so that the plumber/electrician/carpenter can look at it and determine what's needed and take actual measurements. A far second best is to provide the cut sheet for the item to be installed, if it exists. The pros will, I'm sure, argue for buying all fixtures through them so they know exactly what they are going to install. We've installed lots of odd, antique, or custom made fixtures, windows, and built-ins in our various remodels and the chance of error is dramatically reduced when the object to be installed is sitting right there to be inspected and measured.

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Comments (6)

greg_2015
9 years ago
I'm not a pro, but I always thought that all light fixtures mounted to the round boxes. I guess that's not the case, but yours are definitely not the norm.

So unless you gave him the fixtures before hand and said that was what you wanted to mount, then I think he probably did the right thing (or at least the 'normal' thing). This could probably just be chalked up to an unfortunate situation with neither party really being 'wrong'.

Personally, I'd get different lights instead of making the changes to the boxes/paneling.
greg_2015
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I thought I'd just add that this situation is the danger of buying and supplying the materials in a build. It means that you are taking on some responsibility in a process that you aren't experienced with.

If you had simply chosen the fixtures from a list that your GC gave you or pointed to the fixtures and told your GC to buy them, then it would be your GC's responsibility and this 'mistake' should be fixed on the GC's dime, not yours.
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Vith
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Get a mounting block, and cut a hole in it. Typically done for exterior lights and siding, but can be done for interior.

That or have them router an edge to a 1x board, cut a hole in that and use that for a mounting block. Stain to whatever color you like.

Lights are typically round box. Not a rule but typical. If you want atypical you have to let them know what you want ahead of time, they cant read minds.
rwiegand
9 years ago
He did the usual and expected thing. Vith's suggestion of a mounting plate of some sort is probably your best solution at this point. In plaster or drywall you could swap the boxes and patch, but in paneling that's tough without replacing whole boards--doable, but not cheap or easy. .
cpwrapidreader
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks, all. Im using a 3/8 masonite rectangular backing to cover the box, so it is a solution.... these sconces were a splurge, pottery barn, hudson valley, etc, so i really don't want to replace. The thing is, how am i supposed to know as a newbie home builder there are different sized boxes? I will spread the word to other newbies. Thanks.