Cinderblock Walls- PVC or EMT?

[matt151617]

I purchased a house that has a garage made of cinderblock walls... no studs. There is only a couple of outlets, and there is Romex stapled to the mortar between the blocks.

I have plenty of Romex lying around, but no THHN. Should I run PVC or EMT conduit? Romex in the conduit or buy some rolls of THHN? I've used EMT before, and find it significantly harder to cut, debur, attach, etc than PVC.

 

[alfredeneuman]

Buy some THHN, the reason being that you have to measure NM at it's widest point, thus some big conduit will be needed in order to keep from exceeding the wirefill requirement.

 

[Bert_]

Emt is little harder to work with in some cases but looks 10x better. Use PVC in underground or corrosive locations.

 

[Milton Shaw]

If you want it to look neat then use EMT. PVC sags and looks bad within just a few weeks. EMT if put up straight and square is still that way 30 years later..

 

[Stuart in MN]

Either one is fine. If you install PVC correctly with the proper number of supports, it shouldn't sag.

 

[toplessHO]

cinder block? I thought that went away in the 50s

 

[Crazyjake8493]

Emt is little harder to work with in some cases but looks 10x better. Use PVC in underground or corrosive locations.

I agree 100%! A little extra effort put into EMT produces much better looking results than PVC. If I see PVC on garage or basement walls, it just looks to me like the guy really didn't know what he was doing.

 

[sberry]

There are different ways of doing this,,,, if it's going to be finished,,, or not learn a twisted S bend for the corners.

 

[CJ7VFR]

cinder block? I thought that went away in the 50s

Generic term used by everyone to describe the block. I still call it cinder blocks when I describe my basement walls!

Jim