a day of electrical work prep = post hurricane sandy

[Guest " "]

so our last insurance inspection occurred wens-day. We have a floating slab that runs 14X40 and it dropped 3.5 inches in the middle all along the length. The engineer assessment for this was holding up the show on the 1st floor. Since all insurance inspections are done.....time to start some prep work. While I was in the hospital. my church came in and gutted the first floor for me. they removed the raised wood floors, sheet rock and insulation below 4 ft, and all electrical runs below 4 ft. Problem is the hose only had 10 circuts and the wiring cris crossed all over the place. So when you cut off all wires below 4ft on the 1st floor, most of the house electrical circuits got knocked out. Also found that the house had no grounds at all. So, the box got a ground bar added so that I can run 10/4 for all new circuits. going to take the existing 10 circuits and un cris cross them into 20 circuits. Add a ground to the cold water pipe and add two ground bars out side. Here's the box with the added ground bar on the bottom. using 10/4 im good for up to 30 amps. two hots (red and black), a neutral (white) and the new ground (copper or green, green in my case). The bottom breakers are new.

[Guest " "]

We are working on this 40ft wall. I removed the top half of the sheet rock left by my church. I think is easier to add new sheet rock than to try to patch in 4ft all the way down. I needed to remove the top anyway to get to the cavity to run about 250ft of wire. 5 new full run cables with two circuits each. The tilt you see all the way down is not a bad photo, it's real and thats what happens when your floating slab drops 3.5 inches in the middle.

[Guest " "]

This used to be the living room. we are running circuits along the tops left. They will terminate at junction boxes, and branch out from there. Thsi room gets 4 circuts since we are going to run a 220 30A line to the back rear of the house for a generator transfer box. That will be good for a 120 - 0 -120 at 30 amps each or 60 amps of 120 (30 red and 30 black).

[Guest " "]

this used to be the hall way to the home office. This are gets 4 circuts. 2 circuts will roll back into the forward entrance area. At the lower right there a 18X18 cut out in the 10" cement wall. We are going to put a 4000 watt balanced power supply there to convert 220 (120 - 0 -120) to 110 (60 - 0 -60).

[Guest " "]

I like to run my cables to the floor. It prevent getting poked in the eye as you work. You can go to the other end and pull it up as you install the circuits.

[Turbox]

Looks like tons of work Fritz

[Guest " "]

I mark the cables so I know which goes where. The green wire is bonding wires for a few circuits we are running into the garage. Bonding provides the 4th cable so that a real ground can be ran from the outlets to the grounding bar. Only problem when you add loose wire like this is that you have to use conduit or and empty run of MC coil (which home depot sells).

[Guest " "]

so that it for this weekend. taking the night and tomorrow off. 250 ft of 12/4 cut and put into position. maybe wie up some circuts next week and the week after so that we can close up that long wall by the first week of February.

[Guest " "]

Looks like tons of work Fritz

Its tons and tons. Im doing the wiring on the long wall on the left so that I can enclose the entrance up to the stair well. I have to knock out the entire 1st floor (all walls), to prep the 14X40 area for a leveling solution.

[CECAA850]

You're doing a great job. Sorry you had to go through this. Here's hoping it will quickly become a memory.

[Daddy Dee]

huge project, bro. looking good so far. keep hanging in there.

[LarryC]

Thsi room gets 4 circuts since we are going to run a 220 30A line to the back rear of the house for a generator transfer box. That will be good for a 120 - 0 -120 at 30 amps each or 60 amps of 120 (30 red and 30 black).

A new generator? Did you have one before? How many KW? Just curious.

[JJkizak]

Is the BX an electrical requirement?

JJK

[Guest " "]

Is the BX an electrical requirement?

JJK

All the local electricians use MC or AC (wire clad wire). It cost more in materials but saves electrical problems later on. The local varmint population like to chew the holes drilled to interconnect runs and if you use romex they will chew the insulation off that in an attempt to make the inter connect holes bigger.

[Guest " "]

Thsi room gets 4 circuts since we are going to run a 220 30A line to the back rear of the house for a generator transfer box. That will be good for a 120 - 0 -120 at 30 amps each or 60 amps of 120 (30 red and 30 black).

A new generator? Did you have one before? How many KW? Just curious.

existing generator. its a 6400 watt continuos and 8400 watt peak generator. The breakers on the generator are 30amps per phase. So for the transfer run will be using the same for the breakers in the box and 10 gauge wiring. I'm thinking of installing the transfer box close to the main box and just extending the generator connecter to the rear of the house. The transfer box has 6 breakers that get wired to the breakers for 6 circuts in the main box. so basically you have to pick which circuts you want hot when the power goes out. So for us, the second floor is where the utilities are, so those breakers will get wired into the transfer box.

[colterphoto1]

very nice work there, and well thought out (but we expect no less from you). Why the 10-4 again? On drywall, we used do to remodeling and in a basement or hallway, sometimes it's easier finishing work if you stand the sheets up. You can only do this if the studs are laid out correctly exactly so that 48" lays out precisely. What this does is makes all of the joints of the tapered variety (where you have the fillet for mud/tape, and no non-tapered seams. Just a thought for ya. There is a little 'kicker board' with round bit on the bottom you can get at DW supply store. Hanging sheets, you cut the sheet slightly short and bump it up tight to the ceiling so that seam is a nice tight one too.

[LarryC]

Thanks, interesting. You obviously know what you're doing, at least as much as the vendor that installed mine. Mine is a 20 KW, but the vendor made the choice of what to exclude, which understandably were the high-amp electric range and dryer. As I understand it, starting the central AC requires much more juice than just running it, so that had to be considered -- surprising (to me) with an AC that needs only 1800 amps to run.

A gas range would be available in outages. Oh, well...

[Guest " "]

Thanks, interesting. You obviously know what you're doing, at least as much as the vendor that installed mine. Mine is a 20 KW, but the vendor made the choice of what to exclude, which understandably were the high-amp electric range and dryer. As I understand it, starting the central AC requires much more juice than just running it, so that had to be considered -- surprising (to me) with an AC that needs only 1800 amps to run.

A gas range would be available in outages. Oh, well...

Yes a 1800 watt AC could draw as much as 5400 watts at crank up. But could be very close to 1800 watts if large enough motor start capacitors are in the motor circut.

[Guest " "]

very nice work there, and well thought out (but we expect no less from you). Why the 10-4 again? On drywall, we used do to remodeling and in a basement or hallway, sometimes it's easier finishing work if you stand the sheets up. You can only do this if the studs are laid out correctly exactly so that 48" lays out precisely. What this does is makes all of the joints of the tapered variety (where you have the fillet for mud/tape, and no non-tapered seams. Just a thought for ya. There is a little 'kicker board' with round bit on the bottom you can get at DW supply store. Hanging sheets, you cut the sheet slightly short and bump it up tight to the ceiling so that seam is a nice tight one too.

I ran 10/4 for new circuits for a few reasons. I needed the 4 conductor because of recent changes in the electrical code which applies to new or upgraded circuits. The changes require a separate neutral and ground directly to the main box. So white for neutral and green or bare for the ground. The remaining two are red and black which are the two phases of the 220 box (120 on each leg). In my area, if you have an outlet, you need a second 6ft or more away. So red and black conductors allows seperate breakers. The 4 wire issues and the need to have a dedicated ground stems from problems exposed in a lot of homes in which PVC componets are used between the main water supply and the inside water pipes in homes.....so the bonding to the cold water pipe now has to be before the meter, every mains box gets a ground bar, the 4th wire goes to the ground bar, copper ground rods also to the bar. interesting note, if you run a sub panel to a garage or barn, you can't terminate the neutral and ground bar within the sub panel, you can only terminate neutral and grounds together at the main panel. The 10 guage wires was needed for a few circuts and I wound up buying a 250ft roll for 275 on ebay whereas Homedepot wanted 600 bucks . SO using 10 guage where 12 would have been ok was just cheaper becuase the 10/4 was cheaper. The vertical oreintation of the dryway is the plan. The walls are just shy of 8ft high. I have a panel saw to trim all the sheet rock down to size.

[The Dude]

That sucks you have to go through all this, keep up the good work keep at it, and this will all be a memory.