Central Vacuum near you

The easiest time to install a central vacuum is during construction or a gut renovation, when walls and ceilings are open. The installer runs the pipe and the low-voltage wire before insulation and drywall, places inlets where the hose can reach every room, and leaves the rough-in ready for the power unit. Even if you don't buy the power unit right away, roughing in at this stage spares you from opening finished walls later.

Retrofits in finished homes are common as well. Installers route pipe through closets, the basement ceiling and the attic, fish it inside walls, and often put upstairs inlets in hallway walls or closets and main-floor inlets in the floor or low on a wall. A bungalow over an unfinished basement is usually simple; a multi-storey house with a finished basement and plaster walls takes more planning, and some patching may be unavoidable. Ask how many inlets the layout needs to reach every corner with the hose length you plan to use.

A central vacuum motor is a substantial electrical load, and manufacturers set out the circuit and receptacle it needs, often a circuit of its own. Adding that circuit is electrical work. In Ontario, the Electrical Safety Authority says a notification should be filed before the work starts, which the licensed electrical contractor you hire takes care of; in Quebec, the CMEQ reminds homeowners that only an electrical contractor may do electrical work for others.

The low-voltage wires between the inlets and the power unit are part of the vacuum installation itself, but the connection to the house wiring is not a homeowner project. If an older unit keeps tripping its breaker or the receptacle feels warm, stop using it and call an electrician before the vacuum installer.

Many central vacuum problems can be repaired. A unit that won't start from one inlet often has a broken low-voltage wire or a dirty inlet contact; a unit that runs but pulls weakly usually has a clog, a full canister, a clogged filter or a leak; and a motor that has turned loud or smells hot may need new brushes or bearings, which a technician can often replace.

Replacement makes more sense when the motor has failed and parts are hard to find, when the housing is cracked or corroded, or when the unit is too weak for a house that has grown with an addition. The pipes and inlets hidden in the walls generally don't need replacing along with the unit, so a new power unit can often connect to the existing piping and wiring; have the installer confirm that the inlets, the hose and the circuit suit the new unit.