Got called in to finish a mudroom addition on a house that went into foreclosure and has since been sold. Addition is framed, sided and roofed (all butchered but that’s a different story). No more inspections, it’s been too long and house has switched hands too many times. On the inside there is the main breaker box mounted on the outside of the existing houses siding (pretty common around here for houses that have mudrooms). Currently there is a mixture of MC cable, conduit and 8 romex lines going into the box. The MC and conduit are fine. I can’t have the romex exposed and have a question about getting it into the box. My one option is to run a few pieces of conduit into J-box’s that are in a accessible area and joing the romex to conduit there. That idea is fine but don’t like the idea of all those wire nut connections if I don’t have to. I was thinking can I bust out a 2″ hole in the back of the box and put a PVC bushing and then run romex down the inside of the wall and through the back of the panel. The only problem I see is that it won’t be clamped until 18″ up the box but seems alot better than making 20+ wire nut connections. Does anyone know if this is allowed.
Thanks for the help, Chuck
Replies
i would dout it as you would be altering the box from its origional approval condition
ask the inspector !
If I understand you correctly, you should be fine. If the wire is in the wall and entering through the back of the panel it shouldnt be a problem. If the wire was exposed fastening would be a different story. Just make sure you protect the wire from chaffing as it enters the box.
Here's another solution. We have a rental that had a new panel surface mounted in the dining/ kithcen / laundry room. We didnt open the walls cause the whole room was knotty pine and wanted to keep it. Instead of conduit, we just framed a chase above and below the panel. This essentially put the panel in the wall and gave us plenty of room to run wire.
If I ever need to run another wire I can just cut the drywall and install a plastic access panel from Lowes.
"No more inspections, it's been too long and house has switched hands too many times. "
Do you mean that all inpsection have been done?
Or do you mean that the building permits, if there where any, have long expired and that AHJ does not know that construction is going on although it should have permits and inspections.
My main concern is the location of the main disconnect. It appears that panel was on the ouside of the house and is not well within the house.
That means that there are unprotected wiring of some length within the house. Code requires that it be as short as possible. Typically that would be less than 3ft.
Some local amendments don't allow for any and have external disconnects/overloads.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Thanks for the responses. Ran it by the inspector today at breakfast. Even easier than I thought. brought the romex down the inside of the wall to about 12" away from the box and stapled. Busted out 2 of the 1 1/2" punch outs and put a bushing in with insulation caps on both sides. Took apart every breaker and re-ran the whole box. Looks like a million bucks.
Chuck