How to Install a Portable Generator Enclosure
The Generator Box is built to be installed once and left in place. This guide covers placement, the pad, anchoring and first start-up. Always follow your generator’s manual and your local codes. If you’re connecting to your home’s wiring, have a licensed electrician install a transfer switch or interlock.
What you’ll need
- The Generator Box
- A level concrete pad or compacted paver base, slightly larger than 42″ × 33″
- Four masonry anchors or concrete lag screws (with washers) sized for your base
- Hammer drill and masonry bit
- Level, tape measure and marker
- A helper
Step 1: Choose the location
- Outdoors only, on your property, away from doors, windows, vents and air intakes. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends running portable generators at least 20 feet from the home with the exhaust pointed away.
- Choose a spot that doesn’t flood and where you can lift the lid easily for refueling.
- Leave clearance around the side air windows so nothing blocks airflow, including shrubs, fences and snowbanks.
- Plan your cord or inlet route to the house.
Step 2: Prepare the base
A poured concrete pad is best, and a precast pad or well-compacted pavers also work. The surface should be level so the box sits square and the doors close cleanly. Slope the surrounding ground away from the pad so water doesn’t pool under the generator.
Step 3: Position and mark
Set The Generator Box on the pad where you want it, lift the lid and fold out the side air windows, then roll the generator in. Check that the exhaust points away from the house and toward an air window. Mark the four base holes on the pad.
Step 4: Drill and lag it down
Move the box aside, drill the four holes to the depth your anchors call for, and blow out the dust. Set the box back in place and drive the anchors through the base holes. Snug them down, but don’t overtighten.
Step 5: First start-up
- Open the side air windows fully.
- Lift the lid and check oil and fuel.
- Connect your cord or inlet cable.
- Start the generator following the manufacturer’s instructions and let it run under a light load.
- Check that air moves freely and that exhaust leaves the area, away from the house.
Every time you run it: open the side air windows first. Shut the generator off and let it cool before refueling, and keep working CO alarms inside your home.
Seasonal checklist
- Clear leaves, snow and nests from around the windows and base.
- Exercise the generator monthly according to its manual.
- Check the anchors and hinges once a year.
- Rinse the powder coat with water now and then, especially near salted roads or the coast.
- .080" aluminum, white textured powder coat
- 42" W × 33" D × 30" H · 85 lbs
- Hinged lid + fold-out air windows
- Padlock-lockable, bolts to your pad