300.11(2) question

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Chris6245

Senior Member
Location
Ohio
Under 2008 NEC, 300.11 says "Shall be secured at both ends". My question is what is "Secured"? is it as simple as feeding a ceiling tie wire through a hole in the T-bar and bending it up "secured" or does it require twisting? IMO if you twist the tie wire it then becomes a "Ceiling support wire" such as if the ceiling failed it would support that part of the grid system therefore we should not be able to use that wire as support for raceways and cables. Isn't the intent of this code to give "Seperate support" other than that of the ceiling support?
The reason behind this is an inspector has changed his requirements on this from an inspection about 2 months ago requireing just a bend up to now wanting the tie wire twisted. It was the only problem he could find on our above ceiling inspection....What are others opinions?
 
some things boil down to "standard construction practice". while I don't know of any studies showing the difference in load rating of a clg grid wire under different conditions twisted or untwisted, the standard building practice is to twist the wire so that, under a given force it doesn't just pull out. jmsho but I recommend twisting because I know from experience that they will pull out if not twisted.
 
nakulak said:
some things boil down to "standard construction practice". while I don't know of any studies showing the difference in load rating of a clg grid wire under different conditions twisted or untwisted, the standard building practice is to twist the wire so that, under a given force it doesn't just pull out. jmsho but I recommend twisting because I know from experience that they will pull out if not twisted.
Click to expand...
But they should not be for support of the grid and only for support of raceways and cables? the weight is hanging on them not pulling on them. I would suspect that if the ceiling support wires failed the fire department wouldn't want the wiring supports to fail also? But then again the lighting has to be fastened to the grid...hummm
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
Bent up or twisted...how tight is it bent up...how tight is it twisted...how many twists...

This I would guess would really be up to the AHJ.
If I was the AHJ, I would most likely accept either way, as long as it is secured.;)
Click to expand...
They are bent up tight enough that you would have to bend them back down to remove them, they are not bent tight with pliers but by hand and the wire does a 180 back up...they are also loose in the grid enough to wiggle a little as to not pull up on the grid.
 
In this case "secured" means "attached". It will never be a ceiling support wire as those are installed when you put in the suspended ceiling system.

If you don't want to be accussed of messing up the ceiling I would simply wrap them and not try to make them too tight.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top