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View Full Version : Has anyone installed a central vacuum in existing house?


Robert Gift
Jul 22, 2010, 03:14 AM
If possible, I would like to do this:

Holes can be drilled up through the floor plywood and bottom plates and PVC pipes can be run up interior walls from the basement.
For second floor wall inlets I would have to run pipes down interior walls from the attic.
Presumably I would have to get a main trunk pipe from attic down to the basement through the furnace vent chase.

Any special difficulties which I am not considering?
Can I glue the wall inlets to the pipes in the wall without tearing out drywall bigger than the inlet covers?

Instead of a wall-mounted central vacuum machine, I found a shop vac with much higher vacuum and air flow and for much le$$. Plus, I could disconnect it and use it elsewhere.

(I used an upright floor vacuum with its dirt bag tube connected to a long flexible hose instead of running up into a filter bag. I connected the long hose to a shop vac. With the upright vacuum sucking in air and pushing it out the dirtbag tube, and shop vac sucking air, it worked amazingly well.)

Thank you.

Robert