I'm planning to finish a part of my basement. My DIY book suggests
nailing 2x2 walls on the foundation instead of assembling a real 2x4
wall. That's easier to do and it increases living space.

However, having electrified a room here that was done that exact same
way by the previous owner, I discovered that standard size electrical
boxes are too deep to fit in this kind of wall. The only ones that I
found that were short enough were 4" boxes. So last time I had to use
a 4" metal box, put an adapter/fitter on it to house a duplex
receptacle and plaster over what was left around the outlet. That is
probably not up to code.

Are there any solutions to this kind of problem? Or is using 2x3s the
easiest way?

Thanks

Max Voltaire ) said...

The only ones that I
found that were short enough were 4" boxes. So last time I had to use
a 4" metal box, put an adapter/fitter on it to house a duplex
receptacle and plaster over what was left around the outlet. That is
probably not up to code.

That is perfectly acceptable under code (CEC, though I suspect the NEC
is similar in this respect).

I was using this for phone/LAN/TV outlets as I had a supply of 4"
square boxes and "outlet rings" (the piece that fits on a 4" box and
provides a single-outlet opening 1/2" out from the surface of the box).

When my electrical rough-in was inspected, the inspector said that
they wanted more room for GFCI outlets than was provided by the 3"
deep boxes we were using. He suggested either using a 3.5" deep box
OR using the 4" square boxes with the outlet ring on them.

--
Calvin Henry-Cotnam
"Never ascribe to malice what can equally be explained by incompetence."
- Napoleon
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On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:04:10 -0400, "Jack Gavin"
wrote:

Max Voltaire wrote:
I'm planning to finish a part of my basement. My DIY book suggests
nailing 2x2 walls on the foundation instead of assembling a real 2x4
wall. That's easier to do and it increases living space.
....
Are there any solutions to this kind of problem? Or is using 2x3s the
easiest way?
the answer is to use 2X4s. not only will everything be standard
and easy to find, but a shallow box reduces the amount of "fill"
allowed. so, draw your proposed circuit layout and see if you
can do it within code. if you can't, that's that.
....thehick

Thanks to Calvin, Frank and Jack.

I'll use shallow 2" boxes for anything that doesn't need too much wire
spare (switches for example). For anything else that has two or more
cables coming in, Calvin mentioned that the technique I used of
putting a ring over a 4" box and plastering over the ring should be
okay per the CEC. I'm in Quebec and we are technically not allowed to
do our own wiring here, so I won't be able to have it inspected
anyway.

Interior walls will be 2x4 so they will have standard boxes. I'll plan
my circuits to go through these walls first so that a GFCI can be
installed upstream if needed.

Thanks everyone!