Lighting and Ceiling Fans in Columbia, TN

01

Signs you need this

People call when the fan wobbles, the dimmer buzzes, or a room never had a light in the first place.

02

What the job involves

Stay off the ladder if you are not sure the power is off, and do not trust a wall switch as the only way the power is off.

1. Turn the breaker off, not only the switch

   That is the homeowner step. Test that the light is dead. If you are not certain which breaker it is, stop.

2. Open the box only if you are the electrician

   In an older house the cable above a light can be knob and tube. Pulling on it cracks insulation that is still working. The electrician should be the one in the attic.

3. Change the box if the fan needs it

   A fan rated box is braced to the framing. That is a small opening in drywall and a larger headache in plaster. Ask which ceiling you have before you buy the fan.

4. Add a switch or a circuit if the room needs it

   A new switch leg is ordinary work. A new circuit from the panel is a larger one, and it dies if the panel is full. See the panel page if the electrician says there is nowhere to land it.

03

What published prices say

We are not going to invent a Columbia price for hanging a fan. The national repair guides we used for panels and chargers do not give a clean fan price we trust, and a copied number from a forum would be worse.

What we can say is what changes the bill: a new braced box, plaster repair, a new switch, and a new circuit back to the panel. Ask for those as separate lines. The fan you bought at the store is not the electrician's price.

• Fan replacement on a sound box, versus a box that has to be rebuilt.
• Ceiling height and whether the fixture is over a stair.
• Plaster versus drywall.
• A new circuit because the old one is knob and tube or is already full.

Sources

• Angi, cost to upgrade an electrical panel. Puts a panel upgrade at $1,200 to $2,000. Also lists a breaker replacement at $100 to $250, a subpanel at $400 to $1,750, and a meter box at $200 to $800.
• Tennessee electrical permits. The State Fire Marshal section explains electrical permits and inspections, including the CORE system, and gives 615 741 7170 for people who do not use the online system.

04

Ceilings in older Columbia houses

Houses near the square and along the older residential streets often have plaster ceilings and very little slack in the cable. A fan install that is an hour in a Spring Hill drywall ceiling can be a half day in that plaster, and it can turn into a rewire if the cable is knob and tube. The electrician should look before you cut a hole you cannot easily patch.

Spring Hill and the newer streets on the south side of Columbia are the simple version: fan rated boxes are common, attics are trusses, and the work is a device change. Still turn the breaker off. A new house can have a loose splice too.

Porch fans and wet location lights are a Mount Pleasant and Columbia request on houses with deep front porches. The fixture has to be listed for the wet or damp spot it actually sits in. A living room fan on a porch rusts and is the wrong product.

05

Questions

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Related pages

07

Call or send a note

Call (555) 555-0100. Calls may be recorded. Or use the form at the top of this page. Sample site. This number is a placeholder, and the form does not send your message.