Staple wires to inside of rim joist - allowed?

Question

I have a subpanel in the corner of the basement of my house. If I drill through the subfloor above the panel immediately at the corner then the hole ends up going through the bottom plate of a first floor wall. This is a perfect location since I can then feed wires from the subpanel to a stud cavity in the the first floor.

Between the panel and the hole in the subfloor I need to attach wires that go to the first floor. Does code allow me to staple them to the inside of a rim joist? This would be perfect because the rim joist is right next to the hole. What about stapling wires to the tops and sides of sill plates?

Ideally my wires would go as follows: panel to top of sill plate to rim joist then through the hole in the subfloor. Once I get upstairs I am fine. But, I want to make sure that my wiring immediately after the subpanel is up to code.

Thanks.

mh

Em · Accepted Answer

I can't picture what you're talking about, but wires can be stapled to pretty much any piece of wood.There's a code on how well the wires are stapled, including distance from junction boxes and max distance between, etc.Just use a lot of staples and it will exceed the codes.Use nail plates as necessary.

The Real Tom · Answer

Hard to imagine what you saying without photos, but I think I understand some of what you are saying. The code tries to maintain a

1-1/4" seperation between wires that can be penitrated by nails and nailing surfaces. So, I'm suggesting if you are any 'angle' such that a nail could reach the wires you are stapling re-route them, or protect them with nailer plates, or change over to a more nail resistant wiring method.

As always, since you raised the question, you need help; so, I highly suggest you get a qualified electrician to actually see what you are doing for safety sake.

imho,

tom

Staple wires to inside of rim joist - allowed?

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