If you have a basement it is not difficult to do a floor outlet afterwards. We had one in our previous house that we did during the build and my interior designer wished we would have waited because she wanted to shift things around once we were actually living there. This time we waited but we do have a basement that is unfinished. Our great room is pretty large, but we did do a few recessed. I hope this helps.

What type of foundation do you have? If not a slab then you should be able to add the outlets fairly easily. I would test your layout and get them in the general area. If you will be using an area rug then you can cover unused ones with that. Also get the ones that are flush with the floor so you don't have them sticking up.

My in-laws have their plugs underneath the sofa and underneat an end table on one side and the other is covered by an area rug where they ended up not putting their furniture.

I think for most great rooms there are only a few ways to arrange furniture with the TV and fireplace so it shouldn't be that hard to get them in the approximate right spot.

Our great room is similar in size to yours and all of our furniture is floating except one chair. We just figured out where furniture would go and put it there. We have two floor outlets, and we put one under where we knew our couch would go (it faces the hole for a recessed TV)--we put it in the middle of under the couch so that if we replace the couch with two chairs and a table between them that the outlet will work--we know that that spot will never be open. The other outlet is under the chair that sits perpendicular to the couch. We know that that spot will always have a chair, couch or loveseat, because it faces the fireplace. The floor outlets are brass and if you aren't using them you put a brass cover on them and the covered up outlet is flush with the floor so even if you put it in the wrong spot it will not trip people. If you have a basement, you could run the wiring to the general area where you think you will want an outlet and then wait to cut the hole in the floor for the outlet until after the furniture is in.

Thanks all! We don't have a basement but we do have crawlspace and the Great Room will be carpeted. So, it sounds like waiting is the better option to figure out where we need them. I like the idea of running the wiring now though so all we have to do is figure out where to cut the hole once the furniture is in.

We have a crawlspace as well. The electrician ran a line in the general area for a future floor plug.

"I like the idea of running the wiring now though so all we have to do is figure out where to cut the hole once the furniture is in."

Just put in a junction box for feeding the floor receptacles.
The rules for wiring are a bit of a PITA when in comes to fastening and drilling joists.
You could easily end up with a cable that is to short to get where you want it.

lindy,

Building, there's so much hind-sight to it isn't there! LOL And, often there's no way to go back and redo things. You're lucky though that you have a crawlspace where it won't be that big of a problem to do it now when you're almost finished with your build.
We have 3 floor outlets but we're on slab. And, I was one of those people your electrician mentioned that had to figure where to put them before the framing was even started on the house. I remember looking at this huge piece of slab. I wasn't sure if I was placing them in my kitchen and GR or if I was way off and I'd wind up with floor outlets in my shower! LOL
In my kitchen I have two islands. the smallest is a rolling island that will have electricity to it. I placed that floor outlet perfectly over where I want that island. The other 2 (in the GR) I got in the basic area I wanted but they're not "perfectly placed". Still, once the furniture and rugs are in I don't think anyone but me will know where these two outlets are. I would much prefer to be a bit off then not have them at all.

We put two in our great room which is 20 by 23. The placement in the slab was a wild guess. When the floor people installed our hardwood floor, which required a plywood subfloor, we decided they were wrong, and using another wild guess we moved them by running the wires under the new hardwood (they say they do this all the time).

We don't have furniture in there yet so don't know how it will work out, but I'd rather have them showing then not there at all. Otherwise you would have to stretch extension cords across the floor to the wall.

Unfortunately doing it this way resulted in wall plates in the floor rather than the brass outlets. If we step on one it will break. They will probably influence furniture placement.

You could go to Lowe's and get one of those furniture templates at 1/4 inch scale and layout your furniture as you envision it using your plans. The reality is that what you like now may change as you do your annual rearranging of furniture and then the FP may not be in the right place.

We have several rooms where furnture will be floating, hence the need for a floor plug. We picked places where we knew we would likely always have something like a table or chair or sofa to define the traffic areas and put them there. We also limited them to one per room that we are using them in.

"...running the wires under the new hardwood (they say they do this all the time)."

Not without physical protection from nails and damage.

Because of our concrete slab, we went to a lot of trouble to make sure all of our 5 floor outlets were properly located, and properly installed. The two under the kitchen island were easy because of the broader tolerance, but the others were a little more tricky. Yes, we made scale drawings of all the furniture placement. But, my wife decided to move the sofas, and I had to move one of the outlets. Just be glad you have a crawl space, as I had to cut into the concrete to move this one:

Lindybarts,
Our great room is the very same size as yours. We used the Jordan's room planner to decide where things would go and then measured out where to put the outlets. This room planner is really neat and fun to use. You can even measure your furniture, and change the dimensions on the templates so they will be correct. We also used this room planner when we bought our bedroom furniture last year (six months before we even started building)--it is really good for those of us who have trouble visualizing what we'll do in a room. Hope you can put in your outlets--that's one thing I am so looking forward to--getting rid of extension cords everywhere!
Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Jordan's Room Planner