Carport raceway

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smallfish

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Detroit
A service lateral stubs up into a junction box inside a carport. Inside this junction box are spliced service entrance conductors that run in several pipes down into the cement floor where the cars are parked and out and under the lawn to several apartment units' service disconnecting means. One of these pipe runs is faulty and needs replacement.

The electrical contractor wants to avoid breaking up concrete in this carport in order to run the replacement. He asks if it is ok to run the pipe replacement raceway up out of the junction box along the wall over a doorway and out of the carport (a distance of 12 feet) and down the wall into the ground to the unit's service panel.

Sec. 230.3, NEC 2011 requires that service conductors supplying a building shall not pass through the interior of another building or other structure. This replacement method appears to violate code. Do you see any problems with passing through the interior of the carport as the contractor would like to do?

Thanks
 
That will probably be an ahj call. If you add a disconnect then it will not be an issue. I would think that inside. Carport is not inside building but I can hear the inspector saying If they close it in then it will be inside
 
Dennis Alwon said:
That will probably be an ahj call. If you add a disconnect then it will not be an issue. I would think that inside. Carport is not inside building but I can hear the inspector saying If they close it in then it will be inside
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I am picturing it with a roof walls and a doorway. I guess I am not sure how this is not considered inside of a building.
 
david said:
I am picturing it with a roof walls and a doorway. I guess I am not sure how this is not considered inside of a building.
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Call the same thing a garage instead of a carport and most will consider it a building. Like was mentioned AHJ interpretation will be a big factor on this one.

NEC considers both a carport or a garage as a structure if that changes any opinions.
 
smallfish said:
Sec. 230.3, NEC 2011 requires that service conductors supplying a building shall not pass through the interior of another building or other structure. This replacement method appears to violate code. Do you see any problems with passing through the interior of the carport as the contractor would like to do?

Thanks
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Is the carport attached? If so it is not "another" structure. If it is not attached it is "another" structure.
 
petersonra said:
Is the carport attached? If so it is not "another" structure. If it is not attached it is "another" structure.
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Sounds like he already has a violation. The lateral comes up inside the carport and then the service conductors go back down into the floor. It seems to me that by breaking up through the floor they are "passing through" the carport. Whether or not it's considered part of some other building, it surely isn't part of the "several apartment units'" that are "across the lawn".
 
gadfly56 said:
Whether or not it's considered part of some other building, it surely isn't part of the "several apartment units'" that are "across the lawn".
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The car port could be attached to the apartment buildings but for some reason it was convenient to rout the conduit thru the yard.

But in general I agree that the way the OP was worded it sounds like he meant the car port was detached.
 
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