I received the central vacuum on Thursday, and installed it this morning. As we have been doing our basement remodel, I have taken the opportunity the plumb the house for vacuum.
I located the vacuum right in the middle of the house, in a closet I added next to the HVAC system (used to be part of the hallway).
The plumbing parts were not very expensive - under $300 in all for an almost 4000 sf house. I was able to run just one line each direction from the vacuum with branches going up and down to serve both floors. I bought the parts from Stark's Vacuum in the Portland, Oregon area. I recommend them without reservation. The cost of the parts was comparable to Internet prices, and the staff is very helpful and friendly.
After a bit of research, I ended up buying an AirVac AVR7500 from Central Vacuum Stores. Price was the best I could find at $290 with free shipping. Delivery was on time to the day committed (UPS tracking info emailed to me right after I ordered it online). We also bought the accessories - everything looks good.
The technical part of the job was not too bad. If you are going to have some of your walls open, I would suggest it an upgrade to your house. The unit seems to work really well so far (only about 30 minutes of use). I will give an update on the blog in about three months.
The picture below shows an attachment rack I made and mounted above the vacuum. I drilled and mounted 1 1/8" dowel pieces (4 inches long) in some scrap wood pieces. This along with the hose rack puts everything in one place.
So when everything is totalled up, this was about a $1000 project.
- $290 for the vacuum unit
- $300 for plumbing - 6 outlets
- $350 for two accessory kits (2 hoses, power rug vac, floor vac, etc)
- about $50 for the electrical, misc.
The cost here does not include the demo, framing and sheetrock, which was part of the overall remodel anyway.
One additional note: we added a power dustpan to the kitchen area...
