Transition with romex from finished to unfinished in garage

[KaBoom!]

A customer of mine had decent sized 2 car garage put up, one of those pre-fab types that gets put up in a day.

He wants to drywall all of the outside walls and roof rafters in order to insulate it since it will be his workshop. The inner walls and beams will remain bare framing.

In a few places I have to bring a cable out from the finished wall along an unfinished framing member. For example, the outlets for the garage door operators will be on an exposed beam, so the feed will need to run along that beam and into the wall.

Will there be any issue just running that romex along the beam and let the drywaller cut around the romex? The customer doesn't mind the unfinished look, I just don't want an issue with the inspector... and he went home for the weekend so I can't ask.

 

[al hildenbrand]

Will there be any issue just running that romex along the beam and let the drywaller cut around the romex?

If I were doing the wiring, I'd follow the framing closely in the walls, even though drywall will happen later. I wouldn't come out of the wall to follow the vertical face of the top plate (the double 2x4 at the top of the studs). I'd drill through as close as practical to the ceiling joist as I can.

When drywalling happens, the face of the top plate (what I assume you mean by "beam") is no longer the "surface of the building surface" (2017 NEC 334.15(A)), and must be provided physical protection. Notching the drywall is not that.

 

[KaBoom!]

I am not coming thru the top plate. There are no joists, nothing sitting on top of the top plate other than the rafters. There are supporting beams run across this garage, they are actually underneath the top plate held up by jack studs. I need to put some electric stuff on those beams. So I have to come out of the wall onto the beam. The wall will be finished with drywall, the beam will not. So I will be passing the romex thru the drywall as it comes out of the wall onto the beam.

And therein lies the rub.

If this garage was going to remain unfinished, there would be no issue, at least not in my area. The issue is going from the finished wall to the unfinished beam.

 

[jaggedben]

I would run it as if all the walls were going to be drywalled, even it they never will be.

 

[KaBoom!]

I would run it as if all the walls were going to be drywalled, even it they never will be.

In that case I would run it along the beam and let them box it in with drywall.

The problem is that the beam won’t be finished so I don’t want any issues during the final inspection.

 

[readydave8]

Romex in sleeve that ends just inside finished wall? Like EMT or PVC

 

[KaBoom!]

Romex in sleeve that ends just inside finished wall? Like EMT or PVC

Hi Dave.

I was thinking about that, but I don’t want to have to run pipe the whole way. I planned to string the unfinished beams with romex, which is very common here in garages.

 

[al hildenbrand]

I am not coming thru the top plate. There are no joists, nothing sitting on top of the top plate other than the rafters. There are supporting beams run across this garage, they are actually underneath the top plate held up by jack studs.

OK. Thanks for the clarification about the "support beams." I'd be inclined to designate them as "rafter ties." It is a structural member keeping the rafters from pushing the walls out.

I don’t want to have to run pipe the whole way.

A "sleeve" is not a raceway, as they don't have to begin or end (or both) at a box or body. Look at the last sentence, before the Exceptions, of 2014 NEC 300.4(D). And then read the first exception.