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Ready for First Inspection?

J

jives

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Jan 4, 2013
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Location
Central NY
It's been about a year since the Amish finished our garage / barn / basketball gym. The build was detailed here:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=287155&highlight=jives

I've been spending the summer doing the rough electrical and believe I may be ready for the first inspection.

First, I wanted to ready the walls for the finished product, which are 22" x 92" solid core sliding closet doors, salvaged from a dorm reno. Bought 90 at $1.00 each, and at 60 lbs each, it took a rented trailer and two trips.

The door panels will sit on 2x4 PT "base moulding" to keep them off the floor and to make them tall enough to reach the commercial girts that are 2' OC. Behind the 2x4 PT are scrap 2x4s to provide a backing for screwing in the door panels.





This is how the door panel fits on the 2x4 PT. The door panels are 1 1/8" thick, which will require adjustments to the standard electrical boxes.



Insulation is ready to go after the wiring, on sale at HD at $0.40 sq ft. Yes, Roxul would be awesome, but just was not affordable in this area.



The 100A panel with 20 spaces was put in.



More on the next pages.
 
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J

jives

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Jan 4, 2013
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Location
Central NY
I had not planned on running the wire from the house to the garage, but my neighbor rented a mini-excavator for a weekend and asked if I needed to use it. 64' through drought-hardened gravel of a driveway, and the answer was yes. First time. Did not dig too close to the buildings for obvious reasons, and dug too shallow. Had lotsa hand digging, including around existing propane line. My beefy boys (ages 17 & 18) were working all summer (excavation company, lawn care), and were not available when I needed them. Its okay, they were workin' very hard.

Digging near the garage was painful. It was compacted bank run gravel from the original build.





Here is near the house. The conduit contains the propane line. If you look carefully you will see a black water pipe. Actually, it is empty. That was the original conduit for the propane pipe, but they were unable to pull the propane line through it. So, they had to re-dig and put in the conduit.



More to come. . .
 
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J

jives

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Jan 4, 2013
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Location
Central NY
The electrical boxes were adjustable to enable penetration through the 1 1/8" thick door panels. About $2.50 each, and I had to shave down the girt to let in the metal bracket to allow it to sit flush. These boxes are for the switches, two 3-way switches for the overhead lights, a switch for the front flood lights, and a switch for the porch lights.



Lots of circuits, including a 240V in each corner. I blame you all for the mantra of "Ya' can't have too many outlets!"

This will be for one of the 240V receptacles. I ran out of adjustable boxes and will rely on a standard box.






These high boxes are to plug in lights, either temporary or LEDs later on.



Just a few more circuits to go.



More to come. . .
 
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J

jives

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Jan 4, 2013
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Location
Central NY
Like many of you, I've searched for a better way to attach things to the outside ribbed metal panels.

First, for the outside receptacle on the porch, I used a kinda pricey box from Arlington. It was white, but the wife wanted it to match the trim. Used a Valspar rattle can. Terrible stuff.



I needed to build it up a bit on the inside to get the reveal on the outside I wanted.



I spent the most time on the outside lights. Requirements were 1) a lot of light, 2) needed to look like classic barn lights, 3) motion sensitive, 4) LED, and 5) cheap. I can tell you now that that combo does not exist. Had to forgo the LED, but eventually the bulbs can be replaced. Went with the Canarm lights with 300W bulbs at Northern Tool, they were on sale for $35. Can't beat the price, and seem of good quality. Of course, had to paint them. . .




The lights are not motion sensitive, and a standard sensor won't really fit. So, I remote mounted the motion sensor so that it would detect motion coming out the back door. No need for a switch in the house. The motion sensor was a $90 unit on sale at Grainger for $25. Sensors come cheaper, but this one can handle 1000 Watts and has the capability to detect the back door at about 65 ft away.



Here is where the motion sensor will be attached. The electrical box is a saddle box affixed to one of the mini-rafters in the porch roof return.



To put the lights over the garage doors I built a backing plate that had room for the metal ribs. The backing plate was made of glued together vinyl tiles. Not the best choice as they were too fragile, but I used the anyway. Of course, they were painted, this time with Rustoleum red. Yeah, I may need to run a new wire in place of the really short one. . .



Made lots of mistakes, had many re-do's. Like this one. . .



I need my garage back. . .

 
B

BillK

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Aug 24, 2006
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Beautiful Southern Maryland
Not sure how it works in your area but when I did mine the inspector wanted to see the trench before any wire was laid in it, or maybe when the wire was laid but not covered, cant remember for sure. Other than that it looks ok but it really depends on your inspector :)
 
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J

jives

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Central NY
BillK said:
Not sure how it works in your area but when I did mine the inspector wanted to see the trench before any wire was laid in it, or maybe when the wire was laid but not covered, cant remember for sure. Other than that it looks ok but it really depends on your inspector :)
Click to expand...

Actually, he did. I guess trench depth was really the first inspection. . .so maybe the title is wrong!
 
C

Cmreschke

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Feb 15, 2014
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North of Detroit
Your 30 amp receptacle should be installed in a 2 gang box.
All of your wiring g should be spliced out and ready for devices so the inspector can see ground connections made up as apposed to on the final where you would have to open them up and then reinstall. Just a thought.
 
W

wyliesdiesels

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20,067
Location
Modesto, CA
Few issues i see-

How many circuits do u plan on having? If more than 6 breakers(double pole count as one) then u will need a main disconnect instead of a main lug panel.

What type of wire did u use for the feeder?

No ground bar? Are the neutral bars isolated(green bonding screw removed?)?

I assume the bare cu wire is the GEC for rods. It looks larger than #6 which is the max u need. Not sn issue but a waste of money.
 
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J

jives

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Location
Central NY
Good calls on these. . .

There is a ground rod and the wire is #4 copper. It is what the electrician I hired for advice stated.

The MHF is 2-2-2-4 aluminum. The panel is 100A, but as the discussions at length here on GJ note, in this application the max load for the wire is 90A.

I'm going to let the electrician handle the panel, ground bars, etc.

Not sure why the 240V should be a 2-gang box. The receptacles fit, as does the wiring. I'm open to advice.

I'm beginning to strip the wires. Actually, practicing first, then will get it all done before the inspection. It will take about 2-3 days
 
C

Cmreschke

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North of Detroit
It allows a little more room for heat disipation. In some instances just because it can fit doesn't mean it should fit. I can fit a gfi into a handy box but shouldn't do so as your jamming it in there.

I would put the 30 in a 2 gang you don't have to though.
Mathematically it's ok as your volume allowance brings it to 17.5 cu in. That's at least an 18 cu box.
 
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Norcal

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The panel needs a fitting (terminal adapter), locknut, & bushing at the conduit entry, all device boxes need to be made up and be ready for devices, & the grounding, and grounded (neutral) conductors need to be made up in the panel, since there is a 4-wire feed a ground bar kit should be installed for the grounding conductors, I would not remove the jumper between the factory installed neutral bars in order to use one as a ground bar as it's rarely done correctly & if left as-is the split neutral can be used on both sides. There is more but enough from me. :D
 
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J

jives

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Joined
Jan 4, 2013
Messages
2,811
Location
Central NY
Norcal said:
The panel needs a fitting (terminal adapter), locknut, & bushing at the conduit entry, all device boxes need to be made up and be ready for devices, & the grounding, and grounded (neutral) conductors need to be made up in the panel, since there is a 4-wire feed a ground bar kit should be installed for the grounding conductors, I would not remove the jumper between the factory installed neutral bars in order to use one as a ground bar as it's rarely done correctly & if left as-is the split neutral can be used on both sides. There is more but enough from me. :D
Click to expand...

Okay, so what I hear is that I'm not ready, that I need to get the electrician to do this first. Frankly, I don't understand most of what happens in the panel.

That's why I ran it here first. Thanks, folks.
 
K

kingchevy

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Joined
Nov 9, 2007
Messages
247
With all your circuits entering the panel from the side, it looks to me like there isn't enough wire to reach the ground and neutral bars.
 
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