# Can I run electrical under concrete slab without cutting a trench



## starfish

Hi, I am new to this forum.  We bought a house and will *hopefully* be closing on it by the end of this week.  It is a relatively new home that was a forclosure.  It has tile (the same tile) throughout the home.  There are no "leftover" tiles that we can find and we don't know where the tile came from.  It's a little unusual.  We are planning on redoing the kitchen and would like to have an island with a cooktop.  But, we don't want to disturbe the tile by cutting a trench through the concrete slab, since we don't have any way of replacing the tile.  Is there any way to bore under the slab and install a conduit for the electrical and just cut a hole in the concrete where the island will be?  Many thanks for any help/advice.


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## JoeD

If you have enough money you can do anything.
I could see this being done from outside possibly. They would bore from the outside in a line that would cross both locations and then bore down to meet it. Might be cheaper to just retile the whole area.


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## nealtw

Always willing to try anything once. I would drill thru the foundtion below the leval of the floor and foam and see if I could work a pipe into the area of the island. If that doesn't work you have done little dammge, and if it does work you could cut hole in the floor under the island and cupboard, If no cupboard in that area then dig into outside wall chip away some concrete so you can install conduit or underground wire.
I would try it.


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## CallMeVilla

If you cut out a larger section from under the existing cabinet, you "could" dig under the slab and get to the location of the island stub-out.  "Boring" is too limited because you cannot make the turn.  However, the tools to make that 90 degree dig don't exist!  If you start outside, you could dig a trench large enough to undercut the foundation  --  but that means under the footing depth.  I wouldn't crawl in there for all the $$$ in China.


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## edlank

Is the kitchen tile floor really on a concrete slab?  No framing and crawlspace under there?


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## nealtw

Ed, this is pan slab or slab on grade floor. What I have seen here is the slab on grade will have foam on the inside of the foundation or under the floor or both and a pan slab has all that foam and another on the outside. The bottom line is the house is built on a basement floor.
Let me make this clearer. If you drill into the foundation with 1 1/2 drill 6" down, 8 or 10 inches in you will find sand. Drive a 1" diamiter steel pipe in there to the area of the island. Remove that pipe and put in the conduit with string in it. Dig a hole in the island area and at the wall so you can put the elbows on your conduit.


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## reillypainting

No you can't, because you will have city codes that will need it below 8-16." It'll depend on the type of conduit or wire you will be using. Cement slab could be on top after.


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## nealtw

Reilly is right , check with local inspectors first.


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## Raindem

Is it possible to work a pillar into your design?  Then you could run the wires through the ceiling and bring them down from above.


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## Ithinktoomuch

Could you possibly run the wire upwards into the ceiling? (Do you have low ceinings?) if you run the wire upwards (center of island) you could frame around the conduit and incorporate a tiled (pillar) inthe middle of the island! Just a suggestion!


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## nealtw

Starfish: We're all sitting on the edge of our chairs, what did you do?


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## donaldr

tell momma to pick out some new drapes


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