Opening up walls on commercial T.I.s

M

Moore Power

Member
Location
Washington
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I just want to get an idea of what other ECs do when it comes to putting boxes in demising walls on T.I. or shell build outs. I'm fairly new to the contracting side of this and I have been cutting up the demising walls on most of my jobs, and sometimes it's pretty time consuming. Most of my work is for national GCs who don't bring tools half of the time. Would it be strange to see an exclusion for opening existing walls in a proposal? Am I just being a baby? I don't like doing cut in boxes in a new building, or when the whole place is being demo'd. Any advice is appreciated.
 
James L said:
I don't know what's wrong with cut-in boxes.

I make drops in MC from up high, then set a 1900 box over the hole.
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I agree. I do a ton of cut in boxes with MC cable for my main client, just another day being an electrician in my world. In fact I frequently do entire rooms old work because the framing and drywalling crew are usually the same and they want to do it all at once, and my client isn't really that organized and usually doesn't have an electrical plan when the walls are going up. So I have said okay just build and drywall your walls and I'll cut everything in.
 
James L said:
I don't know what's wrong with cut-in boxes.

I make drops in MC from up high, then set a 1900 box over the hole.
Click to expand...
There's nothing wrong with cut in boxes. The walls I was referring to in the post Exterior/demising have blocking and heavy insulation more times than not. Cut ins are great especially in an office where things stay plugged in, but does anybody really think that a cut in is as good of an installation as a box screwed to a stud?
 
Moore Power said:
There's nothing wrong with cut in boxes. The walls I was referring to in the post Exterior/demising have blocking and heavy insulation more times than not. Cut ins are great especially in an office where things stay plugged in, but does anybody really think that a cut in is as good of an installation as a box screwed to a stud?
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Arlington makes a metal smart box for mc and ac. It has stab in style top connector. I haven't used one but it looks slick.
 
Moore Power said:
There's nothing wrong with cut in boxes. The walls I was referring to in the post Exterior/demising have blocking and heavy insulation more times than not.
Click to expand...
Sure, if you have a bunch of blocking then you're not going to be able to push a cable through it. In that scenario you tell the GC what you have to do to accomplish your work. Or you write it into the bid.

But if it's just insulation there isn't any problem.

Moore Power said:
Cut ins are great especially in an office where things stay plugged in, but does anybody really think that a cut in is as good of an installation as a box screwed to a stud?
Click to expand...
5/8" rock is really sturdy. If you cut your hole right, it'll hold up just fine.
 
Moore Power said:
There's nothing wrong with cut in boxes. The walls I was referring to in the post Exterior/demising have blocking and heavy insulation more times than not. Cut ins are great especially in an office where things stay plugged in, but does anybody really think that a cut in is as good of an installation as a box screwed to a stud?
Click to expand...
Keep in mind if the wall is a firewall, I believe the box must be secured to a stud to maintain the fire rating, so that's one thing to watch out for.
 
Moore Power said:
There's nothing wrong with cut in boxes. The walls I was referring to in the post Exterior/demising have blocking and heavy insulation more times than not. Cut ins are great especially in an office where things stay plugged in, but does anybody really think that a cut in is as good of an installation as a box screwed to a stud?
Click to expand...

When I was an apprentice, my journeyman used a hammer, and always said the plasters will take care of it.
 
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