Running Romex in non-standard construction
 

Folks:

My house is balloon-framed, clapboards on the outside, sheathing on the
*inside*
of 1" boards, which are furred with laths, then covered with wood lath
and plaster.
Partition walls have 2 x 4 studs set flat and covered with lath and
plaster on both
sides, giving about a 1 5/8" wide cavity. Fishing vertical runs of
cable is NO problem
with the balloon framing as long as you don't hit a window, and as long
as you don't
snag the cable on the shingle nails that bristle from the clapboards
(wood shingles
were added at some point). I used MC to deal with those nails. Let's
not forget
that the lath and plaster is old and inclined to crumble, and the walls
are full of that
awful blown-in cellulose insulation.

Now, here are my problems.

1. After cutting a hole in a side wall, I have 2" from
the wall surface to the studs. Attempting to cut 2" from the wall
below the baseboard
to drill the studs involves a huge mess, and seems unnecessary, given
the depth.
Anything unworkmanlike about cutting slots over each stud, running the
cable up
and over the stud, protected by nail plates? Fishing wires up to the
attic and back down
involves at least 18' of cable for each outlet, and that adds up to
excessive voltage drop.
I don't really want baseboard outlets, either, nor do I want to
demolish any more of
that ancient plaster than I have to...breaks tend to cause more breaks
and soon you
have a huge unstable wall which was perfectly solid before.

2. The partition wall depth is no problem since I use 4S boxes with mud
rings everywhere,
but since I will need nail plates anyway, I plan to just notch the
studs and run the cables
through the notches. I don't really like doing this; I'd prefer to
drill or fish.

Has anybody else worked on a house built this way? It seems to be
rather common
in old places around here.

Cordially yours:
A. P. M. F.

Running Romex in non-standard construction
 

I would use armored cable instead of romex if you are goint to do it
this way, even with the nail plates it is a hazard to have the romex in
contact with drywall.

Empress2454 #124457


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wrote:
Folks:

My house is balloon-framed, clapboards on the outside, sheathing on the
*inside*
of 1" boards, which are furred with laths, then covered with wood lath
and plaster.
Partition walls have 2 x 4 studs set flat and covered with lath and
plaster on both
sides, giving about a 1 5/8" wide cavity. Fishing vertical runs of
cable is NO problem
with the balloon framing as long as you don't hit a window, and as long
as you don't
snag the cable on the shingle nails that bristle from the clapboards
(wood shingles
were added at some point). I used MC to deal with those nails. Let's
not forget
that the lath and plaster is old and inclined to crumble, and the walls
are full of that
awful blown-in cellulose insulation.

Now, here are my problems.

1. After cutting a hole in a side wall, I have 2" from
the wall surface to the studs. Attempting to cut 2" from the wall
below the baseboard
to drill the studs involves a huge mess, and seems unnecessary, given
the depth.
Anything unworkmanlike about cutting slots over each stud, running the
cable up
and over the stud, protected by nail plates? Fishing wires up to the
attic and back down
involves at least 18' of cable for each outlet, and that adds up to
excessive voltage drop.
I don't really want baseboard outlets, either, nor do I want to
demolish any more of
that ancient plaster than I have to...breaks tend to cause more breaks
and soon you
have a huge unstable wall which was perfectly solid before.

2. The partition wall depth is no problem since I use 4S boxes with mud
rings everywhere,
but since I will need nail plates anyway, I plan to just notch the
studs and run the cables
through the notches. I don't really like doing this; I'd prefer to
drill or fish.

Has anybody else worked on a house built this way? It seems to be
rather common
in old places around here.

Cordially yours:
A. P. M. F.

Running Romex in non-standard construction
 

According to :
Folks:

My house is balloon-framed, clapboards on the outside, sheathing on the
*inside*
of 1" boards, which are furred with laths, then covered with wood lath
and plaster.
Partition walls have 2 x 4 studs set flat and covered with lath and
plaster on both
sides, giving about a 1 5/8" wide cavity. Fishing vertical runs of
cable is NO problem
with the balloon framing as long as you don't hit a window, and as long
as you don't
snag the cable on the shingle nails that bristle from the clapboards
(wood shingles
were added at some point). I used MC to deal with those nails. Let's
not forget
that the lath and plaster is old and inclined to crumble, and the walls
are full of that
awful blown-in cellulose insulation.

Now, here are my problems.

1. After cutting a hole in a side wall, I have 2" from
the wall surface to the studs. Attempting to cut 2" from the wall
below the baseboard
to drill the studs involves a huge mess, and seems unnecessary, given
the depth.
Anything unworkmanlike about cutting slots over each stud, running the
cable up
and over the stud, protected by nail plates? Fishing wires up to the
attic and back down
involves at least 18' of cable for each outlet, and that adds up to
excessive voltage drop.
I don't really want baseboard outlets, either, nor do I want to
demolish any more of
that ancient plaster than I have to...breaks tend to cause more breaks
and soon you
have a huge unstable wall which was perfectly solid before.

I'd personally put a romex run in the attic, with J boxes above
where each (or pair of or whatever) outlet is, and fish a single run
of MC down to the outlet/switches. Use Romex in the attic, MC in the
drops. About 7-8' of MC per drop. Rest is cheap romex.

It may cost a little extra in boxes (but could be cheaper MC vs romex),
but it's much simpler, and the inspector should be okay with it given
you're trying to avoid mucking with the plaster - as long as you do a
good/neat job of it, and the boxes are reasonably accessible.

I did this in similar situations:

Once where the walls were drywall-1x strapping-heavy masonry.
The boxes were in the basement, the MC runs were about 2' each.
I think we computed it was cheaper than horizontal wiring with
MC even including the J boxes.

T'other where the inspector suggested bare romex in the ceiling, and
J-boxes feeding romex sleeved in vertical runs of surface mounted PVC
conduit for the switches and outlets.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.