How to Install Rough Electricity in New Construction | Ask This Old House

[Music] my boyfriend i framed up this room we're hoping to turn it to a study or hangout room and right now this is the only light we have but it doesn't work so we did set up some temporary work lights from the power upstairs but we need your help we need some lights and electricity down here so this is a great opportunity to get this work done everything is wide open the studs are exposed and we can run wires wherever we need to we need four things we need outlets to plug stuff in we need to light this room up we need to control the lights with some sort of a switch and we need power let's get started I said all right all right let's talk about outlet placement so because this doorway is here I'm gonna pick a point about 12 inches in we'll put the first one there we'll put one over here we'll put one here and here okay about two feet in put one and then two on that wall right there would be nice great let's get these boxes mounted so 18 inches is the standard height for an outlet so we'll mark that out right here that's a symbol for an outlet so what I do we have the box right here and it has these plastic tabs on the side that hold the box away from the stud so that the drywall will sit flush it's got these two nails that it's secured and that's ready for wire so I'll mark them out and you come right behind me in the elements so the code is a minimum standard and the minimum standard states that from any one point along the wall six feet away we need to put an outlet in but that's a minimum standard we've exceeded that right I don't like extension cords me so I put more than necessary I need to get a wire around the entire room 360 degrees the best way to do that to drill at every stud [Applause] so the whole coil of wire is difficult to handle it's heavy so what we do we use a more manageable amount of wire now the cable is flat we want to keep it flat so to do that we unroll it and then from here we go right into the stud so now we bring this right down to the floor and we just come over here we need to leave enough wire to work with so we'll carry it past the box to the ground and cut it okay let's pull out some more wire and connect the rest of the outlets together I need to secure the wire within six inches of the box for that I'll use a staple for more than one wire I'll use a longer staple I'm gonna strip about eight inches of sheathing off the wire feed it into the box when there's more than one wire entering the box we splice all the bare ground wires together with this special green wire nut leaving one wire long okay all the boxes are done let's talk about lighting good lighting can make or break a room in a basement I usually opt for recessed lighting because the ceilings are already low enough so this is a power source from here we need to go up to the switch box stands in height for a switch is 48 inches to Center from the switch box I'll run a wire to the first light from there I'll tie in the other three and for that we're gonna use the same wire that we did for the outlets [Music] now that all the wires are run it's time to connect the fixtures first we strip the wires it's a lot easier to why the fixtures at ground level before they're secured to the strapping we don't need wire nuts because the fixtures have these pushing connectors which make wiring them quick and easy we connect white to white which is neutral black to black which is hot in bare copper to bare copper which is the ground wise now we need to secure this to the strapping with these nails now that we've got everything tied together we need to feed it with power to do that I've brought a feed wire to the closest outlet that we need to tie into this electrical panel with the main power shut off we connect the feed wire to a special circuit breaker called an AF CI which stands for arc fault circuit interrupter it protects all the wiring in this room against arcs and an arc can cause a fire what's it now I'm gonna snap this in like this I tape over the breaker so it doesn't get turned on accidentally okay Kevin II the rough electrical wiring is done next step we call the wiring inspector he comes in looks at it signs off on it get you one step closer to your finished piece [Music]

Channel: This Old House

Views: 940,879

Rating: 4.7873263 out of 5

Keywords: this old house, how-to, home improvement, Episode, TV Show, DIY, ask this old house, 7-10 minutes, scott caron, electrical, new construction

Id: 0TczRDv8XwE

Length: 7min 23sec (443 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 26 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/coogie]

I know we all joke about hammers on here but Scott on TOH really has bad habits that I would call an apprentice on. On many occasions I see him stripping wires with his linesman's which is the biggest reason why solid wire gets snapped while twisting or strands missing on stranded wire. I'd give him a pass in this case he he let the woman use his hammer to install the boxes, but for a show that's designed to teach the right way to do things, a lot of the little things he does bugs me more than it should.

He's a knowledgeable electrician who gets the job done but I don't think he meets the standard of quality I've come to expect from that show. He certainly doesn't measure to Tom Silva or Richard Trethewey's level in their respective trades and just does the bare minimum and lacks creativity.

For example, there was an episode where they were running a 120 volt line to a garage and even though he had brought in a ditch digger and it was an easy dig, he chose to run a single UF cable at 12 inches on a GFCI breaker insead of going in just 6 inches more and run a conduit and second conduit for future needs like an EV vehicle. Someone watching that would not know that he was using an exception and while you have the opportunity, they should think about the future.

Other examples is his horrible taste in lighting. He usually just picks the most standard fixture from Home Depot instead of considering lighting design.

..ok I'm done.

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[u/thegeekpea]

Too bad TOH doesn’t do electrical segments with Scott anymore.

[u/ofd227]

Proof he's a real electrician

[u/mei740]

TIL. Hammer for nails. Pliers for staples.

[u/Ty_Rain]

Anything is a hammer if you try hard enough. I can't day that I haven't used my impact as one before

[u/personaldatasaver]

I've lubed tools this way before (minus the reciprocating saw) and it didn't work for the damaged linesman.