NM or BX for fishing in 3/4" space between brick and plaster wall of kitchen?

Hi. I'm renovating a rental apartment, and I'm not sure my electrician is correct in his call that NM is fine here, even though he's sure it'll pass. The issue is that the wall behind the counter and appliances is lathe and plaster on 3/4 furring over brick. What I'm planning on doing is spacing the cabinets 1-1/2" out from the wall with a 2x4 and running the water and gas lines in that space. But the electrical needs to be buried in the wall where it exits from behind the cabinets and runs to the counter and appliance outlets and up through the wall to the hood. So the question is: Does this cable need to be BX? My guy says BX isn't needed and not worth the hassle and expense, is he right? It seems to me relatively vulnerable both in the space behind the cabinet rear wall and in a 3/4 space behind plaster. But it's not like anyone is likely to be drilling or screwing into the tile backsplash, the back of the base cabinets or behind the appliances. What do you think?

Unless I am reading it wrong the electrician is fine using nm cable.

If you're the one paying and you want to do the more expensive route it shouldn't matter what your electrician says. Pay him extra because it's extra work to terminate BX into your boxes and the BX itself costs more.

And I don't think we really call it BX anymore.

300.4(D) allows this in furred walls as long as you can maintain 1 1/4" from the furring strip

300.4(D) Cables and Raceways Parallel to Framing Members
and Furring Strips. In both exposed and concealed
locations, where a cable- or raceway-type wiring method is
installed parallel to framing members, such as joists,
rafters, or studs, or is installed parallel to furring strips, the
cable or raceway shall be installed and supported so that the
nearest outside surface of the cable or raceway is not less
than 32 mm (11⁄4 in.) from the nearest edge of the framing
member or furring strips where nails or screws are likely to
penetrate.Where this distance cannot be maintained, the
cable or raceway shall be protected from penetration by
nails or screws by a steel plate, sleeve, or equivalent at least
1.6 mm (1⁄16 in.) thick.
Exception No. 1: Steel plates, sleeves, or the equivalent
shall not be required to protect rigid metal conduit, intermediate
metal conduit, rigid nonmetallic conduit, or electrical
metallic tubing.
Exception No. 2: For concealed work in finished buildings,
or finished panels for prefabricated buildings where such
supporting is impracticable, it shall be permissible to fish
the cables between access points.Exception No. 3: A listed and marked steel plate less than
1.6 mm (1⁄16 in.) thick that provides equal or better protection
against nail or screw penetration shall be permitted.

Click to expand...

And BX/AC or MC is not a fix for this as it is also a cable subject to this same requirment and offers no protection from nails, only 1/16" thick plate or equivalent, but exception #2 will give you electrician the allowance he needs.

When you say BX, are you talking about AC cable or MC? I could see real BX i.e. AC cable protecting the conductors slightly more. AC has a tougher jacket than MC.

MC cable would not add any more protection to the conductors than NM.

Either way NM is fine. It is what I would use unless someone told me they wanted something else.

I'm assuming your area has no local ordinances requiring MC or AC (BX) for this building. In that case there's no clear NEC violation using NM. Keep in mind when working in the area we are only required to keep our cables 1 and 1/4" from surfaces likely to be nailed, screwed, etc. If he is concealing a splice with no access coming off the old circuit that would be a violation however.

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I feel better about the job. I've spent most of my life in NYC where NM wasn't allowed, so I'm naturally suspicious of it! As a property manager/super my experience with various codes has been, "if I think it's risky, it's probably against code".

It sounds like it's good to go, and we just need to be sure to put metal plates over the cables where they pass through the furring.