Flood Waters and NM Cable

[InspMO]

Is there anyone out there that would allow existing NM cable and NM boxes to remain in use after being submerged in flood waters for even a short period.

 

[480sparky]

Here's some threads on the subject:

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php

 

[InspMO]

There is nothing to those threads.

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

Here are some sites you may want to take a look at.

SQD - Water damaged equipment


UL - Water Immersed Type NM-B cable



NEMA - NM cable info

 

[480sparky]

There is nothing to those threads.

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=119100

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=116850

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=111828

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=111504

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=104858

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Is there anyone out there that would allow existing NM cable and NM boxes to remain in use after being submerged in flood waters for even a short period.

I would definitely rewire whatever I could. Personally I have seen NM cable underground and work for over 20 years. Would I do it--NO. It is hard to know what kind of contaminates were in the water and if the ends of the wire were exposed to these chemicals etc it could do some harm (over time) to the conductors. I would hate to rebuild the place and find out the wire is failing years later.

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

I would definitely rewire whatever I could. Personally I have seen NM cable underground and work for over 20 years. Would I do it--NO. It is hard to know what kind of contaminates were in the water and if the ends of the wire were exposed to these chemicals etc it could do some harm (over time) to the conductors. I would hate to rebuild the place and find out the wire is failing years later.

In our industry, not being sure is the deal breaker. We need to be as sure as possible the installation is safe.
Dennis's portion of his post is enough info to say, we do not know what the result will be, so lets remediate it to mitigate the chances of failure.

 

[fondini]

we always replace it, if they say no we move on.