A new fan hung on a box built to hold it, or the one you have fixed — a wobble, a hum, a dead light or a pull chain that quit. We hang and repair fans across Portland, Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, and surrounding communities.
A ceiling fan is heavier than a light and it moves, so it cannot hang from an ordinary light box. It needs a box listed for fan support, fastened to a joist, or to a brace spanning two joists. Most installs start with a light someone wants to swap for a fan: the wiring is usually there, the right box usually is not, so we fit one before anything goes up. A fan in a new spot means running cable from a nearby circuit, setting a box and adding a wall switch, or two so fan and light each have their own.
Repair starts with what holds the fan up. A wobble is usually a loose mount, blades out of balance, or a box never rated for a fan, and that last one we fix first, because the box is what keeps the fan up. Clicking and humming come from loose canopy or light-kit screws, a worn capacitor or a failing speed control. When the fan runs but the light doesn't, or a pull chain spins without catching, we trace it to the switch in the housing, the light kit, the canopy wiring or the wall control. If the motor is gone, a new fan may make more sense.
Many Portland houses built before 1940 have one ceiling light on one switch, with no neutral in the switch box, and that decides which wall controls will work — we check it first. A new box, a moved switch or a new circuit is new wiring, and we pull the permit for it. Then we balance it, set the direction for the season and test every control.
