I have a client that want to me install a ceiling fan using surface wiring (Wiremold).

Was not sure if Wiremold made one or not.

So I stopped an electrical supply house. They had never heard of one and could not find it in their system. But one of the counter guys found it a catalog and they checked it on their wholesale suppliers computer system and they could special order one.

Another counter guy suggested that I use a regular wiremold ceiling box and drill holes through the cover and base and use long wood screws to mount the fan hanger to the joist.

Decided to stop by a nearby HD. Unlike my local HD this one is fairly new, clean and appears will organized.

Had a alarge selection of Wiremold brand stuff. Including probably 2 dozen fan rated ceiling boxes. And they where basically the same as the regular ones, except that they long screw and standoff that attached to the base and the threaded end stuck out to hold the fan bracket.

And they had many other styles of boxes, shallow, medium, and deeper, plus special ones for switches and receptacles. And all of them said that they would work with series 500 and 700 series of wiremold.

Now on the bottom self was a bunch of dusty 700 series accessories. But not one stick of 700 wiremold. Now higher on the rack they had hangers for a bunch accessories for B- series. Both in ivory and white. And B- metal raceway. Now I think that it might be the a consumer relabled version of the 500 but got no clue at the store. I will try and find it at Wiremold website.

Also some of the boxes where dusty and many of the boxes and hanger cards where in the wrong place. So I had trouble figuring out if they had a complete set of parts to do the job.

There was a older OAG there and sometimes you luck out and find one that was in the trades. Not so in this case, at least not in electrical.

Stopped by Lowes and they had Mono Systems stuff. Never heard of them and the metal stuff looked EXACTLY like Wiremolds so I though that they might have been rebranded for consumer sales. But I looked them up and see that they are a full line supplier.

http://www.monosystems.com/

Lowes also had a large number of fan rated ceiling boxes. And a complete set of accessories (at least enough for my needs), but they did not have as complete a line of specialty boxes that HD did. But evererything was neat and in place. (Not that always the same. I often see the small plumbing stuff and mixed up).