ARLINGTONIndustries 8100LP-1 8100LP Wall Plates, MEGA, White

I just received this today. I had originally ordered the  Arlington 8141DBL Siding Mounting Kits with Built-in Box, White, 1/2-, 1-Pack,  because it came highly recommended and I was installing a light fixture on our siding that already had the wood octagon box for the cheapo builder light.. That did not work on our siding, as we have normal aluminum siding and the slat angle didn't line up at all with that piece.Read the review that this fits over any octagon box so I thought perfect!This took me roughly 2 hours to install over the standard wood octagon box that is currently on the siding. This was such a PITA I can't even begin to vent my frustration with this piece. The directions are TWO pictures. Shoddy at best. They don't tell you where or if you have to use other mounting plates.So my situation was that I had the + (cross) looking swivel bracket on the old light. Directions state that you have to mount this over top of the Arlington siding plate, the problem is the holes and posts don't line up at all with the slits on the plate. The new light fixture has a round mounting ring, which 99% of the time is super easy to install and takes me 5 minutes.I had to rig this up as the following. Install the + (cross) swivel mounting bracket on the junction box. Since it didn't have a setscrew to STOP the movement, it would continue to turn. I think put the Arlington plate over top since now that I could swivel the cross bracket the holes would line up. I then took the round mounting bracket and installed it OVER the Arlington siding plate, which then needed screwed into the cross bracket under the siding plate but attached to the junction box.Because my cross bracket didn't have a setscrew to stop it from moving left and right by about 12 degrees I then caulked the siding plate to the siding on the top and bottom. I then attached the light fixture to the round bracket that was on top of the siding plate.Overall from a distance the fixture looks fine on the mounting plate, but it doesn't follow the angle of the siding at all and there are gaps which looks bad. Standing to the side of the mounting plate you can see the original wood octagon underneath it.Customer service was a joke when calling them because they couldn't explain how to install it and kept referencing the two picture instructions that are horrible.The light fixture is up but wow I've NEVER had this much trouble trying to install a light fixture. Looking at it now I could have easily made a wood siding plate that matched the shingle angle for less and not nearly as much time involved as trying to make this work. I'm not an idiot when it comes to installing things nor do I have much trouble figuring stuff out but this thing had me almost punching holes in the walls with how frustrated I was getting trying to make it work.Perhaps my problem stemmed at not using the Arlington junction octagon box but since this states it will work with virtually any octagon box I figured it would be a 20 minute install, which it clearly wasn't. I will post pictures tomorrow of the side profile and how bad it looks. I'm surprised no one posts any pictures... If this was on a brick wall or flat I am sure it would look way better, but siding, not so much!

First, this is a review for the siding plate from a resident of Canada. It is exactly what I needed to cover an Arlington octagonal square box. The original Arlington square housing was impossible to remove because it was extending in all directions under the siding of the house. No Canadian DIY outlet could get what I wanted to remedy my light mounting problem (light base was too large for standard square box)..Amazon.ca was $80 bucks for this thing.Amazon.com was $20.Shame on you Amazon.ca retailers, good for you Amazon.com retailers.Fits over the Arlington octagonal box to provide a solid backplate for light fixtures that are too big for the original electrical housing on the side of your house. It is basically a plastic cover that will fit over the Arlington octagonal (square) electrical box.It prevents water from getting behind the siding while providing a stable and attractive backplate for your light fixture. You can paint it any color using the same paint as your siding or trim.Note: It will fit over almost any square or octagonal box that has dimensions smaller than this plate. You may have to "McGuyver" the mounting screws, but it should work.

Had to change out very old lights on front porch. The base is a lot bigger than the old lights. I just took of the old trim from the old base and screwed the new bigger base the old mounting block...PERFECT! looks great and really adds to entrance. Huge difference between the new and the old! The price is good too!

I now own 7 of these Siding Plates. I found that I needed them after purchasing some new fixtures for outside. The base on the new light fixtures were bigger than the siding blocks that I had. I looked around for new bigger siding blocks and found these. What I love about these is that they go right over the top of the old siding blocks. This means that you don't have to worry about the spacing and pitch of your siding. Additionally, they look great. In fact they look better than the siding blocks they are hiding. The bottom line is that these well designed industrial strength siding plates more than do the job and they look great doing it.

When my stucco house was built the electricians surface mounted round pancake boxes on either side of my garage door for the light fixtures. Unfortunately the fixtures would not fit flush against the wall and mud daubers would get in and built their nests. The gap was too big for caulk. The mega plate worked out perfectly. I didn't even screw it in place. Just placed in over the pancake boxes, remounted the lights and caulked around the plate and stucco. They're nice and strong also. The long dimension really helps when you have a fixture base that is not square or round.

not user friendly, whole is too big in the middle, you have to line up everything before screwing anything in and plan on not using the guide lines on the plate as they don't line up with elec. box. But after all the fussing around it does look very nice. it has a good presence that says better than basic.

I had existing blocks on the side of my house that I could not remove, and that were too small for the lights we had chosen to install. This is designed to fit over those.The holes for installation were oddly placed for my electrical box, but I used a drill to place a new one that worked fine. Looking at it, I couldn't envision how the holes/slots they provided would work for anyone, but it was simple to "adjust" it for my use.

I used these mounts to cover some smaller wooden mounts (not the octagonal mounts from Arlington). They worked great. There is a gap between the edge and the underlying siding (Hardieplank) that I plan to eventually fill. But, as it is, they accomplished what I needed (creating a larger base for big external lights) without having to pull the siding, cut it, etc.