|
Posted by John Grabowski on March 24, 2007, 6:36 pm
>
> > Eigenvector wrote:
> >> I was just about to ask about one of the junction boxes I have in my
> >> garage.
> >> See the electrician though it was a good idea to run the Romex on top
of
> >> the
> >> drywall and then splice it with another wire within a surface mounted
> >> junction box. I was honestly thinking the work was crap and then
> >> considered
> >> the task of burying the box in the wall so that it wasn't exposed.
> >>
> >> Then I read that in fact the junction boxes have to be exposed and in
> >> fact
> >> the electrician may have done perfectly to code work. Well aside from
> >> the
> >> extremely long Romex he left flopping around in the wall and the handle
> >> of
> >> Romex that he kinked into the box, and the fact he didn't ground a
metal
> >> box
> >> containing wire splices. I'd very much like to get those wires back
into
> >> the wall, but since the box needs to be exposed for inspection and
work,
> >> is
> >> it acceptable to only have the lid of the box exposed?
> >
> > Yes.
>
> I was thinking about this some more as I continued to uncover the rest of
> the drywall and when you think about it outlet boxes, light boxes, switch
> boxes are all basically junction boxes - so it makes sense that they would
> be allowed to only have a cover plate exposed.
>
> >
> >> Also when I trim the wires to put them back into the wall, how much
slack
> >> is
> >> acceptable assuming that in the future I may have to do other work?
I'm
> >> thinking 6 inches of romex plus slack with unsheathed wires in the box
> >> itself.
> >
> > The Romex is supposed to be attached to the framing within, IIRC, 9"
> > of the box. There's no benefit to having lots of excess wiring in the
> > wall or in the box. Since it's new wiring, I wouldn't be worried
> > about it being too short as it's unlikely that you'll need to trim
> > back the wires to freshen up the outlet in your lifetime.
>
> Hmm, I guess that was my frustration speaking. Past experiences with the
> outlets in this house, with the exception of one very nicely done 20 A in
> the garage, the outlets only give you absolute minimum slack to pull the
> outlet out of the box, never mind cleaning the wires and installing a new
> one.
>
> I'll keep it tidy then.
The NEC requires a minimum length of 3" past the edge of the box. I prefer
to use deep boxes and have more slack than minimum. It is easier to attach
devices to longer wires.
>
> >
> >> Basically I'm cleaning up the "work" done when they installed my gas
> >> furnace
> >> in the early 80's. Basically they removed the oil furnace in the
garage
> >> leaving the wire, installed the gas furnace, ran the connection wire 25
> >> feet
> >> to the garage and punched through 2 inches of concrete and 6 inches of
> >> sill
> >> plate, spliced it to the old oil furnace connection, which then runs 25
> >> feet
> >> to the breaker box. All I can think of is that the HVAC installer must
> >> have
> >> owned stock in a copper mine and the previous owner was deathly afraid
of
> >> drywall work.
> >
> > Copper used to be a lot cheaper than it is now. Can't tell from your
> > description, but the labor involved surely outweighed the cost of the
> > copper, and that most likely dictated the installation method. If it
> > was a T&M job, reverse what I just said.
> >
> > R
> >
>
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap