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I am planning to add drywall to a basement in a new home.
The customers would prefer to save as much spaceas possible
and we thought a 2×2 would be plenty strong since it is against
the block wall. I plan to use a Remmington stud gun to secure it
to the block. I saw some electric work boxes in the lumber store
that were 1 1/2″ deep. I will use 14 gage wire and a new 15 amp
breaker. Is this acceptable? Should they be g.f.c.i. protected?
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you can get a 4 inch square.. with a mounting ear that will nail onto the side of your 2x2,
then u use a 1/2" drywall collar that screws on to the top of the 4 inch box, lots of room for wires..
and a real neat installation..
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John,
Take Mike's advice. A 4x4x1.5 box will give you enough volume that you'll be hard pressed to exceed the fill allowances with 14 ga wire.
And don't forget the nail plates where you run a cable through one of the furring strips. No way will you be able to get the required 1.25 inch clearance from edge of framing to the edge of the hole that the cable's running through.
Your questions suggest that you don't know much about wiring. There's a lot more to wiring a basement conversion safely than you can get off this or any other BBS. I encourage you to rely on a good DIY book or two on home wiring, before you start.
Last unsolicited advice--get permits. Without them, your homeowners insurance company could refuse to pay a claim if there's a problem later.
Good luck.
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... and 'yes' to GFCI outlets, unless they have motor loads like washers or sump pumps, which can trip the GFCI.
*What's the sq footage of the finished area? On occasion, sq footage can drive you from a 15 to a 20 amp circuit, and from 14 to 12 ga wire. Your inspector may or may not stick you on that if its applicable in your locale.CAP had a great followup regarding the plates...I honestly didn't think anyone would offer that reminder.
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Thank you very much for all the sensible advice.
I can see the best thing to do is sub out the electirical to a pro.
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A good idea. in general, someone who knows what they're doing can easily fit whatever you need into a 1-1/2" cavity with the right combination of boxes and attention to detail when planning the wiring runs (for example, planning so only need one cable per box). There are lots of tricks like what mike mentioned to fit into these type of walls. We recently had this type of problem on a commercial job fitting into an existing 2x2 wall, and my electrician had several clever ideas and was even able to fit a 3way circuit into the plan.
Good luck. Rich.
*One thing I would do is take photographs of the finished wiring before you put on the sheetrock, then you and everyone later on will know where the wiring is located. This can be handy for a number of reasons, and if you do this for the whole house, put the pictures in a binder and when you sell the place, the prospective buyer will see that you really cared to do things right, and maybe you'll get a better sale.MD
*This looks like a good opportunity to trash 14 gauge wire. Most of us here probably wouldn't even use it for a 50' extension cord. I sure as hell wouldn't use it my house except for some very obtuse reason that i can't think of right now. Just my thoughts on the subject.joe d
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Joe D.,
Ever add up the load on a convenience outlet/lighting circuit in a typical resi occupancy (one that's properly designed)?
The biggest load will be either a vacuum cleaner or a space heater. A 15A circuit will handle either one of those and not much else. With neither of those loads, what have you got on the circuit? Maybe a laser printer for the computer; not "on" (printing) very much. In terms of actual load at any one time, a few light bulbs, a TV, stereo. Nowhere near 15 A (or if loads are on more than 3 hours, 12A) for which the circuit is rated. Now, I'm not talking about the bath or small appliance circuits; those are required to be 12 ga, for good reason (normal, large resistance loads).
BUT, I agree that a cool conductor is a happy conductor, and the insulation will last longer. That's sort of academic. A poor splice or termination is more likely to cause trouble in a circuit than insulation breakdown (in modern cable). But your point is a good one in that a 12 gage wire will give you less voltage drop at the circuit's far end.
My point is, unless you have longer runs (more than 50 feet) or expect unusually high loads, 14 ga is adequate. Of course, when I build my own house, it will be wired with EMT/flex and 12 or 10 ga...
Regards.
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I am planning to add drywall to a basement in a new home.
The customers would prefer to save as much spaceas possible
and we thought a 2x2 would be plenty strong since it is against
the block wall. I plan to use a Remmington stud gun to secure it
to the block. I saw some electric work boxes in the lumber store
that were 1 1/2" deep. I will use 14 gage wire and a new 15 amp
breaker. Is this acceptable? Should they be g.f.c.i. protected?