Running romex in the basement.

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rustyryan34

rustyryan34

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Do any of you guys run your romex in house on the ledge that is on top of the pour concrete wall and nail it to the sill plate? Normaly the concrete wall are thicker then the sill plate the use to set the floor joist on so that leaves a gap you can put your wire. We strap the first few wires and and zip tie the rest. We run all our home runs this way. I work for a pretty big company and they encourage this. And we always pass inspection. It is alot faster and better then drilling hole. Do you see any problems with that?
 
I do that pretty regularly, but normally only in old work because the floor joists are already undersized and I hate to drill something that presently doesn't meet code. "Closely follow the structure..."; works for me.
 
rustyryan34 said:
Do any of you guys run your romex in house on the ledge that is on top of the pour concrete wall and nail it to the sill plate? Normaly the concrete wall are thicker then the sill plate the use to set the floor joist on so that leaves a gap you can put your wire. We strap the first few wires and and zip tie the rest. We run all our home runs this way. I work for a pretty big company and they encourage this. And we always pass inspection. It is alot faster and better then drilling hole. Do you see any problems with that?
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We can argue this forever but some would consider that bundling. I have been turn down for that and I guess I agreed with the decision.
 
I agree with Dennis, depending on the number of cables that could be called bundling and result in derating conductors to a point where a 14 AWG is worthless and 12 AWG would need to be on a 15 amp breaker.

And if for some reason the bundle contains a stove circuit or sub panel feeder you will really feel the bite of derating.
 
Running cables there is a good idea, however by ty-wrapping them altogether IMO you've bundled them and would have to apply derating to the bundled cables. This makes this method much less palatable.
 
rustyryan34 said:
I work in wisconsin and under the 2005 code book wisconsin amended the derating of romex. so we can get away with.
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Which section?

There are at least a couple of different sections.

My bet is your area amended 334.80 but did not touch 310.15(B)(2)(a).

It is 310.15(B)(2)(a) that would be cited for what you describe.
 
In wisconsin under the 2005 code under 310.15(B)(2)(a) they made an addition of Exception No. 6, it says: The derating factors shown in Table 310.15(B)(2)(a) do not apply to branch circuits supplying an individual dwelling unit.

I dont know it they will keep this for the 2008 code book but we will see.
 
yes problem

yes problem

There is a big problem with this when and if someone finishes out the basement they will nail the 1x4 or 1x2 strips into the sill plate . The wires are right in the way of that and the ceiling. If jou drill thru the joists like you are supposed to the conduit going down the wall can go above the sill plate and the romex wont be "subject to damage"
 
rustyryan34 said:
In wisconsin under the 2005 code under 310.15(B)(2)(a) they made an addition of Exception No. 6, it says: The derating factors shown in Table 310.15(B)(2)(a) do not apply to branch circuits supplying an individual dwelling unit.
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Wow, at the same time the NEC is going the other way.

I am very surprised.
 
jetlag said:
If jou drill thru the joists like you are supposed to the conduit going down the wall can go above the sill plate and the romex wont be "subject to damage"
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Where is the wording to support we are suppose to drill the joist. I can run a 2x4 nailer and staple to the bottom of that in the middle of the basement if I want.
 
jetlag said:
There is a big problem with this when and if someone finishes out the basement they will nail the 1x4 or 1x2 strips into the sill plate . The wires are right in the way of that and the ceiling. If jou drill thru the joists like you are supposed to the conduit going down the wall can go above the sill plate and the romex wont be "subject to damage"
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the old IF and WHEN situation, huh?

The sill plate hardly every protrudes beyond the foundation wall anyways...
 
I have seen them finish basements after we ran our wires this way and they just nail they top plate to the floor joist and it is no problem our wires just sit behind that.
 
not on my house

not on my house

Dennis Alwon said:
Where is the wording to support we are suppose to drill the joist. I can run a 2x4 nailer and staple to the bottom of that in the middle of the basement if I want.
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It passes code, but what a mess it causes later, Most basements wind up getting finished out. I didnt mean you are suppose to drill the joists . I meant you need to do what it takes to protect the wires. I would at least give the customer the option to pay a little extra if they want the wires ran so the basement can be finished out later with out a lot of problems with wires in the way.
 
jetlag said:
It passes code, but what a mess it causes later, Most basements wind up getting finished out.
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Right, but I imagine most guys are courteous enough to stick to close proximity to I-Beams and lams where soffits will have to be built to cover the other trades already in the area.
 
Yeh The way we do it you can finish off the basement with no problem, and our wires have never been in the way or had to get boxed out around.
 
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