I just moved into a home built in the early 80's. In the garage the electrical wires that run from the breaker box-on the front corner of the garage-to the house are just layed on top of the rafters of the garage-no conduit, nothing. I assumed they would have had some code for this in the 80's. Maybe not.
That is pretty normal. Why does it need to be in conduit?
should have been "stapled" to the top of the rafters but thats about it.
It doesn't need to be. I just figured they could either route the wires along the rafters boards better instead of at an angle. They are an eyesore. Plus now I can't load all my crap overhead....
If it was built in the '80s then there is a high probability that the "rafters" in question are actually roof trusses and if so then the OP certainly shouldn't "load all my crap overhead" since the trusses should never have any significant loading applied to the bottom chord. A few light items are ok, like lawn chairs and similar.
I looked at some pictures online and they are definitely trusses. And I really just want to put some light things up there. Beach chairs, boogie boards, etc.
Stapling is not required in this application.
steve
You'll probably be fine, just don't over do it. It's typically an issue in northern areas where people pile all their summer stuff in the garage rafters and then have a good snow / ice storm and the extra snow / ice load causes the trusses to fail.
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