36007 9th Ct SW, Federal Way, WA 98023
Monday - Friday 08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Ceiling fan installation
We install and replace ceiling fans in Federal Way and the surrounding King and Pierce County cities. Our shop is at 36007 9th Ct SW, so for most of Federal Way we are a ten or fifteen minute drive, not a dispatch from Seattle.
Most ceiling fan calls we get are one of three things. Someone bought a fan and opened the ceiling to find a box that will not hold it. Someone has a fan that wobbles or hums and wants to know whether it is the fan or the mount. Or someone wants a fan where there has never been one, which means new wiring rather than a swap.
All three are routine for us. The first one surprises people.
ElectON Enterprise · Washington electrical contractor license ELECTEL765MN · Licensed, bonded, and insured · 5.0 rating on Google
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Hanging a ceiling fan is not the same job as hanging a light fixture, and this is where most DIY installs and a fair number of handyman installs go wrong.
A light fixture hangs still. A ceiling fan does not. It puts a constant rotating load on the box, and the box has to handle that load for years without loosening. The National Electrical Code addresses this directly: an outlet box supporting a ceiling fan has to be listed and marked for fan support. A standard box is not, and neither is the thin pancake box that a lot of builders used for flush mount lights.
We open a lot of ceilings in Federal Way homes built in the 1970s and early 1980s and find a plastic old work box with two drywall screws holding it in place. That box was fine for the dome light that was there. It is not fine for a 45 pound fan turning at 200 RPM.
When we find one, we replace it with a fan rated box mounted to an expanding brace between the joists. Fans over 70 pounds get independent support, separate from the box entirely, which is standard on the larger great room fans people put in vaulted living rooms.
This is also why a fan installation quoted over the phone is a guess. Nobody knows what is above the drywall until it is open.
Scope of work
Six versions of the same call. The price and the timeline depend entirely on which one you have.
We pull the old unit, inspect the box and the mounting, and check the wiring for heat damage at the connections. Old fans that ran for fifteen years frequently leave scorched wire nuts behind. If the existing box is fan rated and sound, this is a straightforward swap. If it is not, we tell you before we go further.
The existing wiring usually powers the fixture through a single switch, which means one 14/2 cable to the box. That gives you one control. If you want the light and the fan on separate switches, that requires a three conductor cable back to the switch box, which means fishing new wire.
Where the walls make that impractical, we install a canopy receiver so a remote or a smart switch handles the two loads over the existing wiring. We will lay out both options with the price difference before you decide.
New box, new circuit run or a tap from an existing one after we confirm the circuit can carry it, new switch location. This is the version that requires a permit. If your panel is already full and there is no room for a new circuit, that is a panel conversation before it is a fan conversation.
Most fan canopies handle a pitch up to roughly 15 to 20 degrees out of the box. Steeper than that needs a sloped ceiling adapter, and the downrod has to be sized so the blades clear the slope and still leave adequate headroom. Vaulted rooms usually need a longer downrod than people expect. Get it wrong and you either bump your head or you get a fan spinning eleven feet up moving no air where anyone is sitting.
Anywhere in this climate, an outdoor fan has to carry a UL damp location listing at minimum, and a wet location listing if it takes direct rain. An indoor rated fan on a Federal Way covered deck will pick up moisture in the motor housing and fail. We have replaced several that did. Outdoor fans often want their own dedicated circuit, especially on a patio that also runs a heater or a hot tub.
A wobbling fan is usually the mount or a bent blade bracket, not a bad motor. A humming fan is often a dimmer that was never meant to control a fan motor. Both are fixable and neither usually requires a new fan.
Measurements
The measurements that determine whether you like the fan afterward. We check these before we mount anything.
It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a fan you use and a fan you look at.
Permits
Usually not, and we will tell you when you do not.
Replacing a fan or a fixture on the existing circuit and the existing box is maintenance. It does not require a permit.
Adding a new outlet box, running a new circuit, or adding a switch leg where none existed is new work, and that does require an electrical permit and an inspection. In Washington these go through the Department of Labor and Industries for most of King County. We pull the permit, schedule the inspection, and stay with it until it passes before we call the job finished.
If a contractor tells you a brand new fan circuit does not need a permit, that should end the conversation. Unpermitted electrical work is a problem when you sell the house and a bigger problem if you ever file an insurance claim.
Pricing
Pricing depends on three things: whether the box has to be replaced, whether new wiring has to be run, and how high the ceiling is.
| Type of installation | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Straight replacement, existing fan rated box, standard ceiling | $175 – $320 |
| Light fixture converted to fan, box replaced, existing single switch | $300 – $480 |
| Light fixture converted to fan with separate light and fan control | $420 – $650 |
| New fan location, new box and circuit, permit included | $700 – $1,200+ |
| Vaulted or sloped ceiling above 10 feet | +$100 – $250 |
On a vaulted or sloped ceiling the total usually lands between $300 and $600 or more. Estimates are free and itemized, and the number does not move unless the job changes. There is no trip charge and no dispatch fee. If you have several fans going in at once, the per fan cost drops, so tell us the full scope up front.
Who does the work
Alexandru Goncear
Owner and CEO, ElectON Enterprise
Alex writes the estimates for ElectON Enterprise himself and stays your point of contact through the work and the inspection. He has spent years on residential electrical systems across King, Pierce, and Snohomish County, and he walks the property before quoting rather than pricing a job over the phone.
ElectON Enterprise holds Washington electrical contractor license ELECTEL765MN. We are licensed, bonded, and insured, and the electricians who show up are on our own crew rather than subcontractors.
We hold a 5.0 rating on Google. One review on our profile is from a homeowner who came home to new ceiling fan fixtures wired into rooms that never had them, in a house he was not present for. That is the job.
If the work is not right, we come back and correct it at our own cost.
Service area
We are based in Federal Way and most of our ceiling fan work is within a twenty minute radius.
If you are in Twin Lakes, Marine Hills, Steel Lake, Lakota, Adelaide, or off Dash Point Road, we are close enough that scheduling is rarely the constraint. For work beyond ceiling fans, see everything we handle as your electrician in Federal Way.
Answers
ElectON Enterprise installs ceiling fans throughout Federal Way and the surrounding cities. We are based at 36007 9th Ct SW in Federal Way, we are licensed and insured in Washington under ELECTEL765MN, and we hold a 5.0 rating on Google. Call (253) 508-7529 for a free written estimate.
You can, and plenty of people do. Two things stop most of them partway through. The first is that the existing box is not rated for a fan, and replacing it means cutting drywall and installing a brace between joists. The second is that the wiring in the box only supports one switch, and separating the light from the fan needs a new cable run. If you open the ceiling and find either one, that is the point to call an electrician.
A straight swap onto an existing fan rated box takes about an hour. Converting a light fixture to a fan, including a new box, usually runs two to three hours. A new fan location with new wiring is a half day or more, and adds a permit and an inspection.
Almost always the mount rather than the fan. Either the box is not fan rated and has worked loose, the downrod is not seated, or one blade bracket is slightly bent. A balancing kit hides a wobble. It does not fix the cause, and if the cause is a loose box it gets worse.
Usually a dimmer switch on the fan motor circuit. Standard dimmers are built for lighting loads and they make fan motors hum. It also shortens the motor’s life. The fix is a proper fan speed control or a switch matched to the fan.
Yes. It needs a sloped ceiling adapter if the pitch is steeper than roughly 15 to 20 degrees, and a downrod sized so the blades sit eight to nine feet off the floor. We measure the pitch and the ceiling height and tell you the downrod length before you buy the fan.
They do, if the fan has a reverse switch. Running the blades clockwise on low pulls air up the middle of the room and pushes the warm air that collected at the ceiling back down the walls. In a room with a high ceiling the difference is noticeable. In a room with an eight foot ceiling it is marginal.
Buy it yourself if you have a specific one in mind. You will get more selection and you will not pay a markup. Send us the model number first and we will tell you whether the box, the ceiling height, and the existing wiring will support it, which saves a return trip to the store. If you would rather we supply it, we can.
Yes. Ceiling fan replacement is most of what we do in this category. Motors that hum, fans that wobble, pull chains that have failed, or units that are simply twenty years old and noisy. We inspect the existing box while the old fan is down, which is when problems usually turn up.
Yes. Washington electrical contractor license ELECTEL765MN. Licensed, bonded, and insured. You can verify the license through the Washington Department of Labor and Industries contractor lookup.
Next step
Tell us what you have and what you want. If you already bought the fan, send us the model. If you have not, tell us the room and the ceiling height and we will tell you what fits.
Free written estimate. No trip charge, no dispatch fee, and the price we quote is the price you pay.
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