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I've removed the old island which had the electric range, with the conduit coming from the crawlspace:

enter image description here

The junction box was attached to the back of the cabinet holding the range. But the new island needs to be moved a foot forward, and this would make the conduit stuck right in the middle of the range cabinet.

What I'm thinking of is to cut this conduit to approx 1" above the floor and cover the protruding piece with the junction box placed horizontally on a floor. From the junction box I'd run a flexible conduit inside the cabinet, where another junction box would be installed which would serve as a connection point for the range.

My two concerns are:

  • Since this is kitchen, a minor flooding is a possibility. To counter this I could use a watertight plastic junction box, but unsure whether it could be connected to metallic conduit.

  • Is this kind of approach allowed by code? I don't need to pass inspection, but codes are generally written by those - or their descendants - who tried a different approach and failed, so I'd rather be code compliant.

ThreePhaseEel
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George Y.
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  • Good question for sure -- and a good way of putting how building Codes work :) – ThreePhaseEel Apr 30 '18 at 23:14
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    Keep in mind that junctions cannot be hidden. So however you do this, you can't have a junction that would require you to remove the island to get to. For example. If you follow your plan, and install a junction box on the floor. You'll have to be able to access the box by simply opening the cabinet door, not by removing the island or cutting a hole in the bottom of the cabinet. – Tester101 May 01 '18 at 11:25

2 Answers2

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It is allowable and you would not need to make it water-tight, however, there are neater ways to finish this job. If anything below seems too overwhelming, call an electrician.

Since you're going to cut the conduit, you'll want to locate the next junction box and pull your wires back from there before you cut. When you use a sawzall or conduit cutter, you should ream the pipe before putting on a new fitting (the wires will get in the way of this).

Here are my suggestions from easiest and least finished looking to hardest but best finished:

A) Use an LB to make a right angle at the floor level and then go flex into the cabinet. An LB

B) If you can install a junction box in the crawl space or ceiling of the room below, do that, and run from that point to the range.

C) Use an adapter for going from metal conduit to flexible conduit, this may be buried. EMT to Flex connectorEMT to Flex compression fitting

If you have the ability to work under the floor, cut the conduit below the floor level, leaving yourself plenty of room for as gentle of a bend as possible. Plan a new route for your flex to come up from the floor under the cabinet and be installed in an accessible location within the cabinet.

If necessary, replace the existing wires with wires that are able to reach your new, concealed junction box location. Considering this is for a range, make sure your wires are the proper size (likely 6 AWG).

Pull the wires through the conduit, then slip the flex and fitting over the wire. Then pull the flex into the cabinet and install into the junction box.

Aaron Raufman
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  • Thank you Aaron. Option A seems to be the best, as crawlspace is not accessible. I'm unsure whether there is any other junction box so instead of pulling the wires, I planned to insert the thinner pipe into it to hold the wires and protect them from damage while sewing with handsaw. – George Y. May 01 '18 at 03:15
  • Keep in mind, you typically can't make splices in conduit bodies. So if you use an LB, you can't make a splice in it. – Tester101 May 01 '18 at 11:26
  • Isn't the LB above considered a junction box if it is accessible and metal? – George Y. May 02 '18 at 19:41
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    @GeorgeY. no -- it's a conduit body (most conduit bodies are not *volume marked*, and those that are tend to be rather on the small side for splicing) – ThreePhaseEel May 15 '18 at 02:52
  • Thank you everyone. I cut the conduit approx 4" above the floor, and placed the junction box at the cabinet floor. The range conduit was long enough to reach it, so the other conduit wasn't needed. – George Y. May 21 '18 at 21:39
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I'd push this all under the floor and run a new wire from the old junction to a new junction in the cabinet. If you are not going to use the junction, I'd still do that and then I'd turn the breaker off, put a piece of tape on it and a note in the breaker box of why it's taped. If the breaker is off, water concern is negated. You could even use a water tight junction box for under the floor.

Micah Montoya
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