ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Replace boxes in brick?

A customer has an outdoor BBQ/Bar made out of concrete with brick over it and tile counters. There are 4-5 1 and 2 gang aluminum bell boxes (WP) embedded/grouted in the brick with sch 40 PVC going into them. Well, they are all corroding inside (near a pool), to the point that the aluminum is disolving into powder and the screws don't stay into the steel plates due to rust, etc. Customer (and myself!) would like to replace these with a longer lasting setup.

Do you guys have any ideas on how to extract these old boxes out, put something new in, and connect the PVC to them? I am at a loss on what to do. I will probably have to get the grout re-done. Oh yeah, money is not much of a problem, he wants it done right, so is there an industrial product or something esoteric I'm missing? Any creative ideas would be excellent. I really don't want to have to rip up a ton of brick and concrete just to replace these boxes. Shame on the original guy for using aluminum in concrete!

Thanks for any help, Mike

If you can get the old ones out, the new ones should probably be pvc. I can't think of any magic tricks to remove them without some demo.

I had do remove 1 round FS that corroded. We chipped it out in pieces, put in plastic and used Rocktite (setting concrete). Worked fine.

You'd be surpised what you can carve out of brick/concrete with careful use of a rotary hammerdrill.

Providing the conduit is stuck in the concrete, you may be able forgo the box connector and just have the conduit protrude through a hole in the box.

(I worked on a new prison project where the inspector allowed us to omit the box connectors as the conduit and box were embedded in concrete.)

I think I will try to chip them out with a rotary hammer plus a pneumatic chissel (mine jackhammer!) I agree that they shouldn't NEED the connectors, as it will be a plastic box with PVC conduit...my only worry is that the insulation may be damaged when I repull the wire. Do they make PVC boxes w/o the slip on hubs, where I can just punch my own KO's ?? A guy on another BB said there is a fitting that looks like a threadless PVC chase nipple that will fit in/around the pipe, anybody know what fitting he's talking about? Seems like it would reduce the internal dia of the conduit.

In any case, if it proves too tricky, it's a call to the mason!