bkrahmer
04-06-2005, 10:40 PM
Just finishing the electrical rough-in for my house, I came up with a few tips that I had to learn myself because they weren't in the books that I looked at. I feel these tips will save you time if you are doing some rough-in, and don't already know them.
1. Spend a few extra dollars and buy deep boxes. It really is worth it.
2. If at all possible, run all of your wires in the same side of the box. It makes it much, much easier to fold them back in if you are doing pigtails.
3. If at all possible, only run two wires in/out of your receptacle boxes. This can take a bit of thought while you are running the wires.
4. Get a box of Ideal brand wirenuts. They include a bit that you can put in your cordless drill. Freakin awesome. Maybe they sell the bit separate, I don't know. I don't remember seeing them at HD.
5. Get the greenie wire nuts for your ground pigtails. The pigtail wire comes out the end of the nut.
6. Get a Klein lineman's pliers and their romex strippers. I had to lube up my strippers today, but they've worked great. :)
7. Only strip about 3/8" from the conductor insulation where you're using wire nuts. Any longer, and you can start showing copper out of the nuts.
8. On boxes where you only have one wire coming in and one going out, on the both side, I like to cut the wires to about 3 1/2". My inspector was giving me grief, because he thought my wires were too short and that I would have a hard time dealing with them. I like that length, because it leaves just enough to fold cleanly into the box. Update: It was pointed out to me that NEC requires six inches.
9. Even though pigtails aren't necessary for receptacles, I like doing them that way, because after I've install the breaker, I can test the circuit for any dead shorts. Might save you from having to tear out a lot of drywall some time.
10. I thought the rough-in inspection would not require me to dress all my boxes (installing the pigtails, stripping the wires), but he told me to do them and then get him out again. I'm glad he did, because I found 2 or 3 circuit mistakes. No surprise, I think all of them were three-ways, and I haven't worked with them before.
11. I make my pigtails about 1/2" longer than the plastic coating of my lineman's pliers. Making up a bunch of them at one time can save a few minutes.
12. Nail on all of your boxes at one time, at the start.
13. This time around, I ran all of my cable, then stapled, then dressed the boxes. I would consider trying this next time: Run the wire, dress the box, then staple. For the situations where there was more than two wires in the box, it would have been nice to get more slack but not be stuck with too much slack.
14. I ran my light switches where they would end up at the top edge of the bottom sheet, but not cutting into the next sheet up.
That's all for how, hopefully I will save somebody a few minutes or a little less frustration some time.
1. Spend a few extra dollars and buy deep boxes. It really is worth it.
2. If at all possible, run all of your wires in the same side of the box. It makes it much, much easier to fold them back in if you are doing pigtails.
3. If at all possible, only run two wires in/out of your receptacle boxes. This can take a bit of thought while you are running the wires.
4. Get a box of Ideal brand wirenuts. They include a bit that you can put in your cordless drill. Freakin awesome. Maybe they sell the bit separate, I don't know. I don't remember seeing them at HD.
5. Get the greenie wire nuts for your ground pigtails. The pigtail wire comes out the end of the nut.
6. Get a Klein lineman's pliers and their romex strippers. I had to lube up my strippers today, but they've worked great. :)
7. Only strip about 3/8" from the conductor insulation where you're using wire nuts. Any longer, and you can start showing copper out of the nuts.
8. On boxes where you only have one wire coming in and one going out, on the both side, I like to cut the wires to about 3 1/2". My inspector was giving me grief, because he thought my wires were too short and that I would have a hard time dealing with them. I like that length, because it leaves just enough to fold cleanly into the box. Update: It was pointed out to me that NEC requires six inches.
9. Even though pigtails aren't necessary for receptacles, I like doing them that way, because after I've install the breaker, I can test the circuit for any dead shorts. Might save you from having to tear out a lot of drywall some time.
10. I thought the rough-in inspection would not require me to dress all my boxes (installing the pigtails, stripping the wires), but he told me to do them and then get him out again. I'm glad he did, because I found 2 or 3 circuit mistakes. No surprise, I think all of them were three-ways, and I haven't worked with them before.
11. I make my pigtails about 1/2" longer than the plastic coating of my lineman's pliers. Making up a bunch of them at one time can save a few minutes.
12. Nail on all of your boxes at one time, at the start.
13. This time around, I ran all of my cable, then stapled, then dressed the boxes. I would consider trying this next time: Run the wire, dress the box, then staple. For the situations where there was more than two wires in the box, it would have been nice to get more slack but not be stuck with too much slack.
14. I ran my light switches where they would end up at the top edge of the bottom sheet, but not cutting into the next sheet up.
That's all for how, hopefully I will save somebody a few minutes or a little less frustration some time.