I am remodeling our kitchen. We are putting in an island (48x60) and per code, we have to have electrical there. We are on a slab foundation. I'm not against doing this myself, but what the best way to do this? Obviously it has to be in a pipe and bury the pipe. Can this be accomplished with a powered SDS drill with a spade bit or am I going to have to rent a concrete saw and a jackhammer?

Or should I just "hire a pro"? Any clue on what that might run price wise?

You don't want to chisel this out.  Make parallel cuts using a circular saw and concrete cutting blade, then break it out with your chisel.  I have this done by the general contractors crew on jobs all the time.  They don't use special concrete saws for small jobs like this, just a standard 7" circular saw with diamond blade and use a water bottle to wet the cut a bit and keep the dust down if this is an issue.

Once you have the cuts made, the concrete will break out fairly easily.  Lay in your conduit and then fill back in with concrete mix.

This is the best answer! It's easy but it will make a bit of dust.

This will work just fine, but make sure you go deep enough to have 2" of concrete over the conduit. Also, use UF cable in the pipe, since it is considered a wet location. (condensation will make the pipe very wet). Regular NM cable (romex) isn't rated for wet locations and could rot out in time.

Talk to the AHJ, to make sure it's required. Some exceptions can be made for this requirement.

Of course, I'd want it there myself.

Run some conduit for the tv you will install in the island on a lift. ;)

If you want to put in the island, and don't see the need for electrical, there is a way around the code requirement.

There is not a code requirement for a piece of furniture! If you don't attach the unit to the floor, then it is furniture, and code requirements do not play a role.

Honestly, if you are putting in the island, it is probably best to bite the bullet, and get electrical there. Just wanted to make you aware of how to sidestep the code requirement.

Does your floor have radiant heating? If you cut the slab, you'll be cutting that, too, unless you get lucky.

You better make sure you dont have a post tension slab. If you hit a tendon the last thing you're going to worry about is whether your island has a code compliant electrical outlet. If you don't know what this is, you should hire a pro to confirm. Most have a stamp in the garage indicating as such.

All excellent advice. If you take the route of asking the AHJ, learn several approaches first so that you can tell him that you know of several ways to do it but would like to know from him a)what he prefers and b)if there is a less expensive but acceptable way to do it.

The AHJ will feel like you're listning to him, putting you on a better footing with him on all aspects of what he has to inspect, and he might come up with an idea we haven't thought of.

bcf, around here, all islands worth doing have sinks in them, so, there's plumbing, so, these can't be pieces of furniture unless there's a floor sink (as in restaurants to allow reconfiguration). Come to think of it, though, cgav didn't mention this, and it's much harder to get plumbing to the middle of the floor in a slab than to get electrical there.

If it were me I would put in more electrical than I could imagine using.

Thanks guys. I know I need electrical there. It's a pretty big island. As much as I'd just rather not deal with it, I know we'd end up hating that big of an island with no electrical.

We're not doing a sink as we don't really need another sink, the island will only be 42" from the current sink and we never do prepwork on the other side of the kitchen (it's got a desk)

Is there a way to know (other than the stamp in the garage) if I've got a post tension slab?

Is your house a single family home, slab on grade? I've never heard of a residential post tension slab, except maybe in a high rise condo.

If possible, I'd make it a dedicated circuit too. That way whatever you run out there will have plenty of power.

I believe they X-ray for it; if a stamp isn't present or you don't have the original engineering plans. Trust me you do not want to pay guesswork with this.


We have post tension slabs on single family residences all over Vegas; I used to have a home with this...built in 2008.

Not trying to be a SA, but if you are worried about meeting code, and asking how to get wire through concrete you should hire a pro. The diamond blade, some water, shop vac, hammer and concrete chisel should do the trick. messy job. run 2 conduits while you have it torn apart for anything else in the future. What about water and drain?