FarmerPete
Well-known member
Bought a new house, so I'm starting from scratch. I'm not a heavy user, just a DIY guy who likes to tinker here and there. My biggest loads will be the occasional power tool/saw, a small 4-5 gallon compressor, and a chest freezer. The new attached garage has two pathetic outlets, neither is where I want them, and it's drywalled. :-( In my old garage, I had 16 20 amp outlets on 4 circuits, two 50 amp plugs, and 5 shop lights wired on the ceiling. I definitely went overboard with the old garage for my needs, but it was fun and I learned a lot.
I'm trying to keep things simple-ish with the new house. As I see it, I have two(ish) options.
1) Run new wires from the panel. It would need a good 75-100 feet or more of wire, but the basement ceiling is open. The shared wall with the basement is where I would want my workbench and the new outlets anyways. I'd have to deal with insulated walls and breaking the fire barrier between the house and garage, but if I did it well, I might be able to do very little/no damage to the drywall. Only extra frustrating bit is that the open bay basement ceiling was spray painted black. Running new wires will stick out like crazy. Might have to paint them black since I don't think 12/2 romex comes in black.
2) Just tap into the current circuit going to the garage. I don't use that much power and running a ton of electrical would be costly and unnecessary. I could run the lines from the current outlet along the wall to where I want my workbench and freezer to go. I could either use a saw to cut a stripe in the drywall to route all the wires, or I could go outside the walls with some conduit and surface mounted boxes.
With my old garage, I ran a sub panel and had open stud walls, so running a **** load of electrical was fairly easy. Working with drywalled walls certainly complicates things.
I'm trying to keep things simple-ish with the new house. As I see it, I have two(ish) options.
1) Run new wires from the panel. It would need a good 75-100 feet or more of wire, but the basement ceiling is open. The shared wall with the basement is where I would want my workbench and the new outlets anyways. I'd have to deal with insulated walls and breaking the fire barrier between the house and garage, but if I did it well, I might be able to do very little/no damage to the drywall. Only extra frustrating bit is that the open bay basement ceiling was spray painted black. Running new wires will stick out like crazy. Might have to paint them black since I don't think 12/2 romex comes in black.
2) Just tap into the current circuit going to the garage. I don't use that much power and running a ton of electrical would be costly and unnecessary. I could run the lines from the current outlet along the wall to where I want my workbench and freezer to go. I could either use a saw to cut a stripe in the drywall to route all the wires, or I could go outside the walls with some conduit and surface mounted boxes.
With my old garage, I ran a sub panel and had open stud walls, so running a **** load of electrical was fairly easy. Working with drywalled walls certainly complicates things.