DIYbanter - View Single Post - height requirements for outlets in garages

Red Green

wrote in
:

On Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:43:18 -0600, Red Green
wrote:

rlz wrote in
news:1e2bd365-a6cc-4470-af6a-f062dc687e50
:

I am finishing my garage and rerunning my electrical outlets because
most of them were run and just nailed to the side of the top plates
of the walls. I'm assuming that a previouus owner installed them
after the garage was built. Unfortunately in order to put up
drywall, I need to have them ran above the top plates instead.
Whoever installed the outlet boxes put them at various heights
around the garages. I'm curious if there is a code height that
dictates how high off the floor they should be. My other question is
regarding the fact that my gargage floor is approx. 10" below my
perimeter wall footings. The exterior walls sit on the footing, so
is the height requirement distance based on how high above the
floor, or the bottom of the wall, which is 10" above the floor?

Rob

Call your LOCAL inspections department. I installed some in a garage
once long ago and was told they had to be a min xx" off the floor for
multiple reasons. One of them was garages often have flamables stored
and that some vapors tended to collect at floorlevel. Sparks from
plugs could cause a fire in rare cases. Guess you could get a lot of
vapor from a leaky gas tank, spilled gas fueling yard machines, mixing
gas, mowers, etc.

What Red is talking about is in a commercial garage the area from the
floor up to 18" is a class 1 division 2 hazardous location (flammable
vapors). To be exempt from the "explosion proof" rules you have to
have electrical equipment 12" above that. That means 30" above the
floor minimum.

Some local AHJs also extend that to a residential garage..

Nope, not what I was talking about. Just a plain garage attached to home.
Commercial has their rules as well. A lot more I suspect.