Routing MC cable alongside a water pipe.

[ActionDave]

There is a difference between support and secure. Even the NEC acknowledges that distinction. But I don't want to sidetrack this thread on the issue of the zip ties.

How is it lazy to have the MC cable follow the pipe?

It's not.

Does it make really make more sense to add a parallel set of suspension hangers (in an already severely cluttered overhead space) just for a single 14/2 MC cable that is going exactly where the water pipe is going?

No.

What does that accomplish in terms of functionality, safety, or ease of maintenance?

Nothing.

Seems to me like a complete waste of materials, time, space, and money

It is.

More importantly, is it a code violation? That's what I'm trying to determine here.

It's not.

Of course I could route the MC all the way up to the roof and thread it through the roof trusses along with the pre-existing tangled mess of MC cables for other branch circuits...

I wouldn't. My original suggestion was and still is to run the mc on the outside of the hangers. It's a polite and gentlemanly thing to do. Zip ties are fine by the way.

 

[Jon456]

I think the right installation would be to support the MC from the hanger rods outside the pipe hangers' loops.

I was going to say the same thing. Why can't you ty-rap the cable to the hanger rods above the pipe?

My original suggestion was and still is to run the mc on the outside of the hangers. It's a polite and gentlemanly thing to do. Zip ties are fine by the way.

Thanks, everyone. I'll route the MC along the path of the pipe, but on the outside of the suspension hangers.