Looking for some opinions out there. I’m a GC/carpenter in Ohio and am going to be rewiring my 100 year old victorian room by room. The question I have is I am concerned with running regular romex behind walls and in chases when I cannot nail them in place (sharp edges, nails, etc. My thought was using exterior grade romex in the blind places I can’t attach to studs for added durability. Other than the slowness of stripping the wire, can anyone see a problem with this plan. Thanks for your help.
Chuck
Replies
Maybe try BX or flexible conduit (greenfield) instead.
+Nah, use Romex. Take off the baseboards; remiove the lathe and plaster behind; run the bulk of your wires there.
Done this, and on my own old house, too - got tips out the wazoo. Bpoxes nicely in old plaeter is the real trick tyhat seperates the men from rthe boys.
Forrest
no dought.
dont even start to do wall repairs till after the last room.
you can get sneeky 90% of the time wich leaves 3 holes per room
room by room not going to happen. your house started on one circuit. go through current breakers i bet you get to one thats 'everything else' likely all the lights are on this circuit. once you terminate for the first light it becomes your only light.
my best advice would be dont try living in the house during the process. if you must go to the thrift store and buy a buncha lamps before you start and check fridge often (this will be easy since that is where beer is and did you figure lots of extra beer into estimate?)
brianWI
sorry missed the cheese wires through dangerous locations part of the last post.
Edited 2/8/2007 7:59 pm ET by BrianWI
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
By "exterior romex" I think you are referring to UF, underground feeder cable. I see no benefit to using it. If you want something stouter, I suggest the flexible metal stuff, called "MC".
What will you do with the ground wires? I expect that you will also need a 'service change' - that is, replace the fuse box with breakers, add a ground rod, etc. This might involve re-locating the the service; PoCo rules have changed over time.
The electric code has changed greatly over the years. I expect that you will need to add many new circuits.
As for the 'hide it behind the baseboard trick,' the only problem with that idea is that it's pretty hard to do without violating the code ... unless your baseboards are made of steel.
You will need to replace every box as well; the old ones don't have enough space in them.
i don't mean 'hide it behind the baseboards, just that old house often have 7-11" baseboards, and you can easily get your HoleHawg in there and drill nice centered holes.
So my elecxtricaioan says
Forrest
sorry thanks for clearing that up you know what i thought and I have seen it.
thanks everyone, appreciate the help
Code permits regular romex to not be secured when snaked for "old work", so long as it's properly clamped at boxes. And regular romex is plenty rugged. I don't see any point in using exterior grade.
wires will flop in interior walls its true. when you pound a nail in itll flop out of the way. existing nails wont likely damage the wire but bend the nail. definatly test each run with a tester before tiing in. after doing my house I can tell you that romex is bad az stuff. a couple of times had to wrap it around a 2x4 to get more pull power. Good luck getting MC tube through you cant pull it or it unravels. maybe there is a pvc lined version of the stuff you could use. but Smurf tube can be pulled it is corregated pvc and is blue i use it direct bury all the time and itll take a beaten from a shovel. still going to be harder.
by the way i have a 1200 ft 1 1/2 story i used 1000 ft 12/2 250 ft 14/2 and 500 ft 14/3 and 200ft of 6/3 . it goes really fast.