Alwayslearningelec
Senior Member
- Location
- NJ
- Occupation
- Estimator
Anyone here do much prefab work? I know it's very project specific and it needs to make sense.
What are your thoughts?
What are your thoughts?
PreWork
- Thread starter Alwayslearningelec
- Start date
- Status
brantmacga
Señor Member
- Location
- Georgia
- Occupation
- Former Child
We pre fab almost every job now. Probably 5/yrs or so into.
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LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
One small example: two duplexes in a box ("quad"), I'll make the jumpers and attach them to the receptacles before installing them.
Alwayslearningelec
Senior Member
- Location
- NJ
- Occupation
- Estimator
So I have a job thats has 15 typical areas with about 40 duplexes in each area. I’m think maybe doing prefabing the box, device and mc cable tail might be helpful.
brantmacga
Señor Member
- Location
- Georgia
- Occupation
- Former Child
yep that's a good start. We do assemblies like that w/ a Caddy C23 box bracket attached as well.
Alwayslearningelec
Senior Member
- Location
- NJ
- Occupation
- Estimator
So my question would be. Wouldn't getting the right length of the MC cable tail be tough without actually field measuring. Can't just rely on drawing.
brantmacga
Señor Member
- Location
- Georgia
- Occupation
- Former Child
no, you have to rely on the drawing for pre-fab. There will be some waste but the labor savings will offset that.
With MC pre-fab, you can have thru-wall box assemblies and over-the-wall box assemblies. I typically would only do a thru-wall cable assembly, that is where the MC cable is ran horizontally through the studs, on a steel-framed wall w/ pre-punch KO's. Wood framing I will always do over-the-wall, where you're running vertically up the stud and over the top plate to the next device. The wall height + span to next device will determine your cable length.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
Purchasing an "all in one" vs assembling a meter and load center is letting the manufacturer "prefab" for you.
I think many of us do a certain amount of "prefab" more than we realize, usually on a small scale though. This trade is kind of hard to prefab on same sort of level as say the framers maybe do. One my recent projects a framer did frame nearly all the walls in their shop, haul them to the site then stand them up and tie together as needed vs complete assembly of them on site. It was multifamily so multiple replicas of most items which probably helped speed things up a little as well. Not much of what I installed can be fabricated before bringing on site though. Maybe meter center can have holes punched off site but that doesn't really gain much for this project. If installing meters, wireways, disconnects setting them up off site possibly has some advantages in some cases.
I think many of us do a certain amount of "prefab" more than we realize, usually on a small scale though. This trade is kind of hard to prefab on same sort of level as say the framers maybe do. One my recent projects a framer did frame nearly all the walls in their shop, haul them to the site then stand them up and tie together as needed vs complete assembly of them on site. It was multifamily so multiple replicas of most items which probably helped speed things up a little as well. Not much of what I installed can be fabricated before bringing on site though. Maybe meter center can have holes punched off site but that doesn't really gain much for this project. If installing meters, wireways, disconnects setting them up off site possibly has some advantages in some cases.
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