Plywood structured media enclosure

[Eric E]

Hi everyone. I’m working on a residential install that includes a structured wiring enclosure into a non-bearing wall. It’ll be used for a fanless network switch with some CAT6 PoE. The studs have only 13" of spacing, so nearly all standard enclosures (~14.3") won’t fit, except ones that are too small (e.g. 12" x 14”). The client (a woodworker) wants to build a 13” x 28” cabinet box from plywood. It’d use a commercial vented enclosure door and there would be sheetrock-deep flanges to even out the width difference between the cabinet and the door, so it should look clean. It’d have a power outlet in a standard J-box mounted in the bottom of the cabinet. Everything metal and all equipment would be properly grounded.

Since this is so far from the normal metal/plastic structured wiring enclosures I’m used to, is there anything in the NEC that would prohibit the use of an in-wall plywood enclosure for LV wiring / network equipment?

 

[tom baker]

I don’t see a problem at all. Telephone punch down blocks are commonly mounted on plywood, which is often painted with a fire retardant. Surface mount a bell box, feed with EMT, add a plug strip or two

 

[LarryFine]

Welcome to the forum.

One option to use the cabinet you want is to cut the opening in the drywall, against a stud, cut away the exposed length of the other stud, and re-install that section inside the drywall with screws.

That's what I did when I made the equipment stack in my home theater. I cut the stud out the height of the opening, moved the cut piece to the left, and screwed it back in place through the drywall.

 

[Eric E]

Thank you so much, Tom and Larry. I really appreciate your insights.

Yes, I thought about doing a partial or full length sister stud and using the commercial enclosure, but am trying to disturb the surrounding wall as little as possible. That was my backup plan if the wooden structured media enclosure would be an NEC violation.