A central vacuum cleaning system having a floor level debris pickup valve preferably mounted in the bottom of a cabinet and connected to a tubular conduit of a vacuum producing unit by a connection assembly. The connection assembly includes a flexible and expandable hose having a pair of end connectors. Each end connector preferably is a bayonet connector. The hose is connected at one end to the rigid tubular conduit of the central vacuum system and the other end connector is pulled through an opening formed in the cabinet by expanding the hose. The expandable hose enables the pickup valve to be attached easily to the other end of the hose, after which the hose is retracted back into a restricted space below the cabinet bottom wall and the pickup valve then attached to the cabinet.