Exposed Romex in Garage...

[felderbush001]

Howdy all. This Fall I'm planning on installing an exterior outlet on my in-laws garage. The walls of the garage are finished with paneling. I would prefer to run exposed romex just to make the job more simple. Besides, an existing line in the garage is exposed romex that was installed by an electrician many years ago. The exposed romex would be well above head level and would be stapled. Can anyone forsee any problems in doing this? I can't see any cases where the romex would be subject to damage. As for the run down to the outlet box, the romex would be stapled to exposed studs in that area. BTW, I'm in the U.S.

-Felder

[Lawrence]

first you said the garage had finished walls then you said there were exposed studs. which is it??

[felderbush001]

The walls are finished except for a foot wide section beside the garage door opening. It is in this section that I would run the romex down to the outlet.

[gfretwell]

Use MC cable, then it is protected and about the same amount of work.

[Lawrence]

I have seen many garages and workshops with exposed Romex so I think it's safe. I has a very protective sheathing. If this is the only wall cavity that is not finished then you might want to put up some insulation and wall board on that cavity. then your worries will be solved. Since it is just a garage they won't mind if you leave it unfinished. Just throw up some drywall and call it good.

[Toller]

Its fine as long as you meet code. It is not up to you to decide what is adequate.

[Chris Lewis]

According to :

Generally speaking, both the NEC and CEC permit surface wiring above 5' in things like basements. However, an inspector may get considerably more picky depending on the circumstances. Eg: wielding pieces of lumber in a garage workshop.

In garages, inspectors will go for things like "no snaggable wire".

In my garage used as a workshop, I ran the drops to the outlets in surface-mounted PVC conduit. Neater than MC cable. The inspector really liked it.

The ceiling wasn't drywalled (yet), and the inspector suggested running the cable along the bottom of the joists between the lathe strips, and with an extra hunk of lathe to support it 1 1/2" away from the face when crossing the lathe.

[Tom The Great]

imho,

Sounds like you love your in-laws. Doing the wiring, and later they can use it to hang stuff off of, like tools and coat hangers. ;)

Just kidding, but I wanted to make a point, you could have a situation where the code is says to NM-B ("romex") can be installed on the finished surface ( 2005 NEC 334.15-A), but could inadvertantly be exposed to physical damage, through its accessiblity.

Might want to spend a few bucks, and run another wiring method, or run the wires internal to the walls.

Good luck, and follow all electrical/building codes.

later,

tom @