Electrical Mounting - Pole Barn with Interior Liner and Insulation

[kxmotox247]

I'm planning the electrical in my new pole barn. The exterior is done but the interior is not finished yet. As soon as the concrete is done, the pole barn people are coming back to insulate and installed a ribbed (same style as outside) liner with insulation.
My delima is, surface mount the electrical or hide it in the walls. The big problem with putting it in the walls is planning the receptacles to fall between the ribs. This is manageable but time consuming and tedious.
What have you guys done? Seems the downside to surface mounting is that I'll have conduit running everwhere and clunky boxes on the walls. Downside to flush mounting is lack of ease in "adding" other electrical in the future.

All opinions welcome. I can't be the only one to have delt with this.
Thanks!

 

[Dave Carney]

My building is a flush frame so i did without conduit and surface mounted the box, all the wiring is in the wall. In your case, i wouldn't think twice about surface mounted conduit, conduit in a shop looks pretty good imo. As far as the ribs go, I used metal receptacle boxes with "mud rings", which brings the surface of the box out about 5/8" which is just enough. No they won't be precisely flush every where but so what.

 

[Aceman]

Your best option is laying underground pvc conduit with stubups everywhere you need a power source. All you will see is the conduit coming up to the box. This is the best way in my opinion. If you ever need to add more receps later on, you can can come out of the surface mount boxes and pipe down the wall to the next location.

 

[kbs2244]

Is the inside wall covering going to be flush with the inside surface of the posts? Most buildings your size have at least 6x6 posts so that would be a 6 inch thick wall. Pretty thick.
I would expect they are going to give you a 2 or 4 inch thick wall between the posts. If so, that will give you a surface along the side of the posts to fasten you conduit and boxs to.

 

[kxmotox247]

These walls are finished thickness of 9". 6" for the posts and then you add in the thickness of the 2 x 4 girts on the inside and outside walls and the thickness of the steel. I'd probably have to anchor to the girts but they run horizontal.

The conduit from the floor and up is an interesting idea. I wonder if electrical code would require underground feeder wire to be used when passing through the cement floor?

I'm not sure a wall plate not being flush would bother me.

Thanks for the replies! Kind of a tough call.

 

[Bib Overalls]

Per code, you can not embed UF wire in concrete. It must run in conduit.

 

[kxmotox247]

Yeah.. I meant to say that. I would think it would be a bad idea to embed any wire in concrete without conduit.

 

[rodnok1]

What about using deep steel boxes with steel covers, leave them protruding some so it will be past the ribs. Ribs usually are less than 3/4 inch.

 

[kbs2244]

With all the room you have, I would do it with Romex stapled to the top of one of the girts. Use the boxs with the built on bracket meant to be nailed to studs, but put it sideways with the bracket nailed to the girt.
Just loose nail it until you are doing the inside wall. The Romex will give you some slack to play with to line up with the flats.
The only problem I see is cutting all the holes in that metal. Wear gloves and use something to protect the wire from the sharp edges.

 

[Don T]

A little O.T. but really like the building. I think the eaves and on yours the French gable, I think that's what they are called, look great. Just doesn't look like a box, gives it style...

Don

 

[kxmotox247]

Thanks for the compliment! They offered a "rooster beak" styled gable but I told them I wanted it tapered all the way down to the eves. It's better looking than the normal boxes built.
Nailing the boxes to the girts is probably the way to go. The pole barn company has offered to put the girts in and mark on them where the boxes go. No matter where the boxes are placed, the recptacle covers will lay on top of the ribs. There are big 3/4" ribs and then three small ones in between them.

 

[steve392]

My 24 x 32 building is similar to yours in that I also have the interior done in the ridged metal siding. What I did was to have the bottom 4' of the walls done in T-111 siding, while the top portion and ceiling is metal. I had all of the electrical service surface-mounted. If the conduit routing is well thought out, it can still look neat and clean. It will also be easier later on adding more circuits also. Here's a few pics of my interior just after it was completed.
I have since added more lighting, which used the existing conduit, and a welding receptacle mounted off of the main panel. The back wall was done mostly in the T-111 to make cabinet mounting easier.

Steve

 

[kxmotox247]

That looks really nice. I think the ribs look nice on the inside walls.