Hot checking a newly wired home

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electricblue

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I gone from commercial to industrial and now self taught residential. My question is how is the best way to hot check at roughin? I've never done this and always run into problems. Is hot check done by making taps up and checking with a ticker pen? I have a ton of custom homes coming to me soon so I'm looking for speed and continuity.
 
I have never done a hot check, with the assumption you mean energize the rough in with no devices or fixtures installed. Using a pen could give you a false sense of security. I would suggest double checking your work and making up all boxes before it is covered. Checking for ground faults etc after everything is ready to be connected to the panel.
 
If you splice and pigtail all of your work then this is easy, energize and just go the last device on the circuit and check for voltage between H-N and H-G. Make sure each pigtail end is insulated with tape or a wire nut.
 
Aits always a good practice to label the prints,,if custom homes are coming then its a must...the simple method is to write the circuit on the nm at the panel when pulling the home runs the cut the outer off the nm and after you land the ground and neutral slide the label back on the hot before you breaker it.
As already mentioned make it a habit to pigtail all devices and you should be able to continuity check each circuit. although the time to ring the house out would be on the rough before sheetrock.
We marked our circuits if 14 /2 1 a 1b 1c end ...1 a being the hr 1 c end being the last opening. If it was 12/2 we started with 60 a 60 b 60 c.
We have wired plenty of 25k sq ft houses and 1 circuit per bedroom on one afci was best over all..
 
Marking circuitry on the prints , I would color code each opening within each circuit -- agree with keeping circuits within an area - never checked prior to sheetrock not a bad idea if you have time -- cut & broken wires were always a result of another trade so T & M to fix.
 
If it helps....try not to 3 wire any plugs its not worth it. Hot in hot out.
If they are large custom sub panel are your friend. Always leave a couple of 12-3 spare circuits in the attic.
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I use a toner test set to check for missing runs or deadshorts after rough-in on larger houses. Before you terminate the feeders to the panel, but have landed neuts and grounds at panels, generate a tone out to the branch circuits across the ground bar and neutral bus. Walk thru the job with the wand and listen to the tone wand as you touch it to the wiring inside each box. The bleep bleep sound will die off where there is no path back to the panel, and will change to fuzz buzz when you encounter a dead short.
 
electricblue said:
I gone from commercial to industrial and now self taught residential. My question is how is the best way to hot check at roughin? I've never done this and always run into problems. Is hot check done by making taps up and checking with a ticker pen? I have a ton of custom homes coming to me soon so I'm looking for speed and continuity.
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Exactly how I learned resy. Guys that I worked with treated me like a helper so I started reading the code. Best thing I ever did.

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