Electrician question

[ameyers41]

We have a totally unfinished basement that I've been working on (plumbing is roughed in). I have the framing almost complete. Next step would be the electrical. I'm considering hiring out to a licensed electrician, but I have a couple questions.

1) Will I save money by running the wires and laying out the boxes myself?

2) If I do that, will most electricians come up and hook everything up for me?

3) How much will I actually save? I jumped the gun and bought wire and boxes when Menards had a big sale a few weeks back.

FYI - We have about 1100 sq ft. 2 bedrooms, a bath and living room to do. House was built in 1997.

Also, if anyone on the board had any recommendations on a company or person to hire, I'm listening!

Thanks,

Tony

[JohnMickish]

Shoot me an email at

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[sparkyaber]

dang- just a few minutes too late

[PerchPounder]

If you do everything yourself you will absolutely save money and if you have done all of the wiring and layout why not finish it? you've done all of the hard time consuming work. I would guess that someone would come out and hook everything up for you but would likely charge it as a service call and would cost you more than if they were to do it from the start. If you happened to know someone in the field you could possibly talk them into helping you or doing it for a small fee in the off time.

[TwinkeeDink]

agree w/ perchpounder. i just finished my basement and did it all myself, hired it out to change the panel from a fusebox to breaker. after speaking with some people, the amount of $$ i saved was enormous.

[fishermatt]

Wiring is not that hard. There's only 3 wires unless you're doing a 3 way switch. I found diagrams on the Internet to figure those out! I just did my whole cabin, including a Water heater with Disconnect. You have the upstairs to look at to see how the light switches and outlet boxes were wired, so just do it like that. Connecting into the Panel is actually easier than wiring the outlets, as long as you shut off the main and don't touch the main feed wires. electricians will charge you $50 per hour (or more depending on where you live) to do menial work that you can do yourself. Any questions you may have can be answered by your FishingMN buddies right here!

[ameyers41]

Thanks for all the info everyone. I'll read up and figure it out.

[Coach Dog]

are you getting inspected? If so, there are a few simple things that you'll need to know before you should start in regards to code.

[chasineyes]

Your local city hall will have a "handout" of the basic electrical rules. Also "KEEP IT SIMPLE" don't overdo with outlets, cans and other unnecesary runs (you may be able to tap into the run the builder had to install for the bottom of the stair lights. Don't forget you'll have to hardwire in the smoke alarms. Also before you rock the entire area...run a seperate power line/wire/fuse/ to the garage for future use. I strongly reccommend doing it yourself you can only learn by trial and error.

[Tenpoint]

My advice is to always have it inspected. If you do it wrong, they will catch it. This helps save future problems. Also, if there is no inspection sticker, and you ever have a fire, you just gave the insurance co. a way out of paying.

[fishermatt]

I agree on getting it inspected. Then you can feel good about the end result. I learned a good one from the inspector.

If you put wood on your walls (like I did), and the wood is more than 5/8" thick (mine was striaght out of the sawmill!), then the outlet boxes won't be flush with the wood surface, so you have to add "protective rings" with spacers that extend the outlet box so it's flush with the wood surface.

Took me a couple hours to do that, but now it's "code"!

Had I known about that ahead of time, I could have nailed the outlet boxes on so they stuck out further.

[Coach Dog]

I agree with getting inspected as well, especially to cover your butt with insurance. Picking up one of the code pamphlets at your city hall or online will offer you some tips. Some simple ones are to run your wires in and out of the box both through the outside hole (the one further away from the stud) of the box, pigtail all your grounds, use air tight boxes on your exterior walls, and follow the code on securing your wires. You also now need an R-fault (I believe that is what it is called) breaker to service your bedroom(s) and obviously have the GFI in your bathroom.

[PerchPounder]

 Originally Posted By: Coach Dog

You also now need an R-fault (I believe that is what it is called) breaker to service your bedroom(s) and obviously have the GFI in your bathroom.

The new '08 code change states now that if you an outlet isn't GFI protected it must be arc fault protected in a house. You can still get by with only putting and arc fault breaker in for your new bedrooms until June which is when the code change takes effect. I will jump on the inspection bandwagon it might cost you a little money but will be well worth it if you ever have a problem.

[ameyers41]

Thanks again everyone. It will be inspected (by the state I believe), which is required before I have the general building inspection by the city.

[fishermatt]

Another thing I think is helpful is to create a wiring diagram for your basement to help you figure out where the runs will go, where to have junction boxes, etc.

Here's a link I found useful for wiring 3 way switches.

The diagrams were very helpful.

http://www.homeimprovementweb.com/information/how-to/three-way-switch.htm 3 way switch wiring

[PerchPounder]

If you have a basic knowledge of wiring switches there is usually a simple diagram on the side of the box that the switch comes in.

[juddH]

Fishermatt, I just finished my basement and I used knotty pine and the electrical boxs were not flush, so I put spacers on the actual outlet to bring them out, is that not code. I have an appt with the state to do the final inspection, but sounds like it may not pass???

[PerchPounder]

If your boxes are more than 1/8" set back into the wall you will need to use an add-a-depth or box extender whichever you prefer to call it. They are available at almost any hardware store or big box type home improvement store. they look a little something like this.

[fishermatt]

JuddH, It might depend on the inspector, and how deep in the wood the boxes are. My wood was 3/4" to 1" thick, so the boxes were 1/2" deep in the wood. It certainly would be good to put them on, other than the time to remove the outlet, put on the ring, then put the outlet back on.

The inspector might come up with a list of things (all outlet covers and switch covers must be on, any empty fixture boxes need to have lights put in, having GFCI outlets as the first in every circuit, etc) that you need to do before the final, final inspection