It’s been a while since I updated you on the kitchen progress. There’s still a lot to do but it’s super duper functional as is so I’m working on other things right now while it’s so dang cold. One super awesome functional doohickey that I wanted is a toe kick vacuum port for the central vac system. I don’t use the central vac. I don’t get dragging around a 500′ hose. The one feature of a central vac system I would actually use, this house didn’t have so you can bet I had that in the plans for the new kitchen. My plumber, James installed this one in the window seat and I snapped some pics to share.
I moved the window seat out of the way, giving opening up access to the base which is my “toe kick”.
Before drilling any holes or tearing into the project, we first checked to make sure the parts purchased for this spot would fit. Like a GEM!
This next step in this process is apparently to make a big mess!
James drilled a hole right through the wood floor and subfloor. He measured carefully from down in the basement where we still have no ceiling so it’s easy access for all this kind of extra work.
It’s all pvc so of course we got to use the stinky pvc glue to glue it all together and seal the seams.
The whole process took about an hour and now we just nudge the lever with our foot and the vacuum sucks up all the dirt after we sweep the floor. No dust pans here!
But sometimes I still forget it’s there and go off searching for that dust pan.
I’ll be sharing the whole “China Hutch” progress with lots of tutorials next week so stick around — this is going to be good! Happy Friday!
Wait! Where does all of the dirt go?? Is there a bin in the basement or is this some sort of witchcraft and the dirt just disappears??
Love this and I can’t believe how easy it was to install!
Well, you have to have a central vac system that you tie into. There’s pvc pipes and low voltage wiring that run to the motor and collection canister. (Mine are in my garage.) But it seems like magic because you don’t see anything but that little port.
Love it! 🙂 I’ve never even seen a central vac being used so I don’t even know what I’m missing 😉
LOL Well I like the sweep port but don’t use anything else so you’re not missing much. 🙂
Officially jealous now! 😀
I’d love to have one of those in my kitchen.
I haven’t seen a central vac either. Do you have to use a broom, a brush, something else to sweep the dust towards the port? In an ideal world you would have to press a switch and the dust would be sucked from anywhere in the room. But I suspect it is too much to ask for 🙂
LOL Yes, you sweep with a broom and then open the port and sweep in that direction. It’s got pretty good suction. Maybe a robot vacuum is what you need. 🙂
Wow, how clever. I have an outlet for my vac in the kitchen . Never thought to suck up from there. Maybe I can just get a small hose rather than dragging in the big one. My outlet is about a foot off the floor.
I wonder if there’s an attachment you can get to insert into that port to make it a sweep port. ? it is handy.
I love my central vac! I never had one before and one day I just decided that I wanted one. The suction is incredible and the noise and dirt are out in the garage. I have a 35 ft hose and for me it’s less to move around than a vacuum cleaner. The first day it was installed, I vacuumed everything in sight. When we redo our kitchen there will be a port added!
Okay, I am a small town girl…and it’s showing!! LOL! I had no idea you could even do something like this!! I guess maybe because we don’t have basements around here…does that matter? I think this is the most ingenious thing EVER!!!! Great job Sandra, you taught me something incredible today!! Thank you ma’am!!
No, you don’t have to have a basement, you can have the motor and collection canister in a closet or somewhere else. Like I said, I don’t use the vacuum ports but I do like the sweep ports – a lot! 🙂
Sandra,
I’m so glad you posted this! After leaving my comment about adding a sweep port when we redo our kitchen, it dawned on me that I can add one now in the baseboard! The main pipe is in the attic and it will be so easy to tee off that and drop a new pipe into the wall in the kitchen. Thanks for inspiring me to think of another way to do something!!
That is an attractive looking vac pan – do you have the same one linked somewhere? on amazon? I wonder if we can have a plumber come up and easily (cheaply) move our central vac outlet (that is about 2 feet up on the wall) down to the baseboard and hookup that doohickey.
I think my plumber supplied it.