Connected Craftsman LLC
Ceiling Fan and Light Fixture Installation in Exton, PA
In a lot of Exton builds this job is not a replacement at all. It is putting a fan where the builder only ever put a light.
Prefer to text? Feel free to include a few photos — it helps us give a faster, more accurate estimate.
A light box will not hold a fan
The box in the ceiling that a light fixture hangs from is rated for a static load. A fan is a moving load — it is spinning, slightly out of balance, all day. Hang a fan from a standard light box and you get a wobble that gets worse, and eventually a fan on the floor.
A fan needs a fan-rated box, usually fitted to a brace that spans between the joists. The good news is that in Exton builds it can nearly always be done from below, through the existing hole, without opening the ceiling or disturbing the room above.
That is the Whiteland Woods and Marchwood pattern: bedrooms wired with a light box only, and a fan hung from one by whoever came before.
What the job includes
- checking the box in the ceiling is fan-rated — a light box will not hold a fan
- replacing the box with a brace where it is not
- high ceilings, sloped ceilings and stairwells
- switch and remote setup, including where one switch has to run two things
- hauling the old fixture away
The two-storey foyer
A lot of these houses have an entry that opens up through both floors, with a fixture hanging in the middle of it. Changing that fixture is the job people put off for years, because there is no floor under it to put a ladder on and the drop to the tiled entry is genuinely dangerous.
It is a manageable job with the right equipment. If you have a bulb out up there and have been living with it, that is a legitimate reason to call — and worth pairing with anything else on the list so the trip is doing more than one thing.
One switch, two things
Bedrooms in this vintage often have one switch on the wall and now need to run both a fan and a light independently. Depending on what is in the wall, that is either a remote-controlled fan, a smart switch, or pulling a new cable. Which one is right depends on what the builder ran, and we check rather than assume.
Often paired with: Smart Thermostat Installation
Frequently asked questions
My bedroom only has a light. Can I have a fan?
Yes. It needs a fan-rated braced box, which we can almost always fit from below without opening the ceiling.
My fan wobbles. Is it broken?
Usually it is the box, not the fan — either not fan-rated or not tight. Occasionally it is a blade balance issue. We can tell quickly.
Can you reach the foyer fixture?
Yes. That is one of the more common reasons people call us in Exton.
Do you take the old fixture away?
Yes.
Serving Chester County
This page covers Exton. See all of our ceiling fan installation work, or what we do across Exton and the rest of Chester County.