Can you just complete your work. Placing inlets where they go and let the concrete guys finish to it? Pool guys place skimmers and such. Then gunite crew takes it from there.

Paul - Thank you!  This is the kind of thing I was looking for.  Not clear from the description if the inlet is compatible (or can be modified) to work with a powered "SuplerValve".

I left a message this morning to get some more information.

The concrete guys only have their form board to work with.  It's 3/4" thick and if used to build a box around the vac inlet, the hole in the concrete will be too big for the vac inlet to cover.

We're already doing some stainless steel boxes to recess other stuff in the concrete walls, but the cvac is different because the inlet is small and requires vac pipe, plus high & low voltage conduit and then it all has to line up and fit once the wall is poured so seems more complex than what we're doing in other areas for TV back boxes, shades, keypads, etc.

The link Paul sent is exactly what I had in mind to fabricate, so if it's compatible with the inlets I'm using looks like there is an off-the-shelf piece available.

I think the difference is the pool guys are are just spraying and then hand trowling/finishing around things that are already set in place.  With the formed/poured walls that I'm dealing with everything has to be attached to the inside of the form board and sealed up well enough that concrete can't get in and then the concrete is poured around everything.

Laying this all out has been tricky because everything is reverse of what's shown on the plan because it's all on the back side of the form board so you have to think of everything in mirror image.  Keypads, wallboxes, outlets, thermostats, etc. are all dimensioned off seams in the concrete and concrete ties which aren't even in place yet when we set the boxes.

On thing I would suggest - when putting the PVC together use sweep elbows instead of the regular 90s. I used the regular 90s and snaking it is a bit?h! Why would you need to ever snake it? Ever have a longhair dog? You'd think the hair would just fly through. Nope. Any little globs of hardened glue become a major trap.

...any little globs of hardened glue become a major trap.


Only applying glue on the male portion of the connections prevents glue problems on the inside of the raceway or in this case the cvac pipe. Glueing the female portion causes the glue applied to be scraped forward into the fitting and hardening into a ridge that can collect debris and eventually form a clog.

Thanks guys... I'm not new to installing central vac, just new to installing central vac in a concrete house.

I talked to the company that Hasbeen found with the concrete style inlets.  Unfortunately they aren't designed to be used with an electrified inlet (SuperValve), but I ordered a few of them anyway to see if they could be modified or at least used as an example to fabricate something on my own.

Paul, call me when you get a chance.
I have some questions and want to start a dialogue.
Or we can wait until CEDIA.

Hey Mario, I'll try to give you a call today between appointments.

So it looks like a year has passed and this project has been moving along and nearing the end of concrete work.  All the walls have been formed and poured and all that remains to pour is a final section of slab so focus has been on finalizing the underground work in that area.

I ended up buying a bunch of the metal inlet boxes that Hasbeen found (THANK YOU!): [Link: builtinvacuum.com]

They weren't designed to work with a powered SuperValve and were setup for the pipe to come out of the top, so I had to cut & grind them up and combine 2 boxes to make one and then sort out fittings for high & low voltage using liquatite and then fit 2" sch 40 PVC to the back to be used as a sleeve for the central vac pipe.

Looks like it's going to work out.  I fit the inlet last week, but trim out won't be for another 12-18 months.  Here's a few photos...

Big pimpin!!!