To all:
Just wondering if anyone has any tips or suggestions for roughing in electrical, data, cab/tel, A/V wiring etc. Just trying to avoid the, “I wish a had run another circuit/switch/outlet …..”after the board goes up!!!
Things like conduit from utility room in the basement to the attic for future runs, exterior security lighting switched from the MBR, home theatre prewire/layout etc….
Thanks for any advice.
TN
Replies
when you think you have enough
pipe chase,
nipples,
spare cables,
sw. legs,
switched receps,
receps,
GFIs,
openings,
phone lines,
data,
coax,
exterior power
garage outlets
...add one more.!
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, wer ist jetzt der Idiot ?
Yeah, the main thing is at least two spare conduits between the various utility areas. Don't forget about the garage or any area you might use for a shop in the future -- run an oversized conduit there for power, in addition to at least one smaller one.
Thanks Dan....got that (60 amp sub panel with extra conduit to garage/shop)
don't for get to fire caulk any pipes or penetrations between floors.
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., wer ist jetzt der Idiot ?
In my new house I'm running two, 2" conduits from the basement to the second floor. After I get in and do my extra media wiring and such I might change that.
If you have a basement you can get to most of the first floor areas without a problem as long as you don't drywall the basement ceiling. And like Maddog said. Fire caulk.
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Whale Oil Beef Hooked.
Thanks...fire caulk..good call.....will have finished bsmt ceiling but only one floor above with continuous attic access over entire main including garage so a good size conduit into attic should suffice.
Home Run the LV stuff and loop the electrical
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, wer ist jetzt der Idiot ?
I like to make sure every ceiling box has both switched and unswitched power, in case later on you want to do a ceiling fan or something like that. I also like to have a neutral in all switch boxes for future changes.
on tv coax, run it in 1 1/2 inch pvc in every wall so you can pull and replace at later date.Haga su trabajo de fricken
OK ...just to understand the possible "replace" option...this is for??? upgrading cable type or??.....just wondering.
I took old coat hangers and bent a circular coil on one end that would fit inside my PVC chases, pushed it inside the pipe leaving a few inches hanging out and bent that trailing end over the outside of the pipe.
Next I packed fiberglass insulation inside the pipe. Now it's fire blocked and I can easily pull on the coat hanger and remove the fiberglass wadding when I want to run additional cabling. Beats the heck out of removing dried up caulking.
I also ran switched outlets under each front window and in the corner of the sun room back to my wife's walk in closet. Now when it's time for bed, cut the switch and all the Christmas lights on the front of the house and the 2nd Christmas tree in the sun room all go off at once. No climbing stairs and bending over unplugging every flipping plastic candle every night.
Pleeeze make these outlets "in addition to" your code requirements. I know someone else that put this type of thing in place only to realize a computer in one of the bedrooms could "only" go where one of these outlets had been traded for a full time on unit. Now the switch to the outlet stays on all the time and they're back to plugging and unplugging plastic candles.......
Of course you could split an outlet and get the same result but the extra outlet was actually easier to wire in my case.
I also put a switch in the utility closet for "my" Christmas "stuff"......outside. I have multiple outlets under the porch that feeds the Grizwalds competition.
The inside switched outlets run through bedrooms & bathrooms thus I had to put "both" GFCI and ARCFault protection in place. The outside is GFCI only.
Pedro the Mule - Thinking of a White Christmas and my little female reindeer in her little red miss santa ......whoa mule whoa mule.........
Next I packed fiberglass insulation inside the pipe. Now it's fire blocked and I can easily pull on the coat hanger and remove the fiberglass wadding when I want to run additional cabling. Beats the heck out of removing dried up caulking.
That wouldn't pass as fire stop in my area. The EI would fail me on it. If the conduite is empty, it is better to run it a little long on both ends, then cut it off when you need to remove the fire stop. The other solution is add rated boxes to both ends and only f/s the box knockouts you use.
Dave
Hi Dave,
"That wouldn't pass as fire stop in my area. The EI would fail me on it. If the conduite is empty, it is better to run it a little long on both ends, then cut it off when you need to remove the fire stop. The other solution is add rated boxes to both ends and only f/s the box knockouts you use."
The rest of the house we used the red fire caulk.....top and bottom of each hole.....but simply packed about 10" of fiberglass on both ends of each pipe. I figure if a fire made it beyond that, it would have burned through the pipe above any fire caulking anyhow....I'm actually quite surprised that around here they'll stuff a small wad of fiberglass about the size of a stick of chewing gum in a wiring hole on one end and pass it.
The other advantage, for areas that it'll pass, is you pull the plug, run wires, put the plug back; now you can run more wires at various times in the future. Of course your suggestion of a f/s box would allow the same advantage but not quite as easy to get to when you're trying to flex that last inch of cable through.
Some things in NC building are quite strange....ex. HVAC - made 'em go from seer 12 to seer 13 ......many builders went ballistic being forced to install energy saving devices.....said it would totally kill their profits.....do you really think they ate that cost? All the while pushing low-e glazing would have been a more energy saving move for less money......
Pedro the Mule - Geez! Anybody ever heard of the chimney effect and flame drafting.......with all those bean burritos I take in we're liable to have an explosion.......
We install smurf-tube flexible conduit to several locations in every room, and either pull it back to a central data/voice box or run them all to the attic overhead. Never met a wire we couldn't pull later.
"A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something."--Marcus Aurelius