Wooden Cable Tray

[oldironfarmer]

I've been running exposed Romex on what I call a wooden cable tray. I like it because you can trace and change circuits easily. Looking for comments from those with knowledge because I'm expanding my shop and considering continuing the same system.

I use 3/16" or 1/4" plywood glued to sheetrock and wire held down with oak strips.

 

[checkthisout]

You'll be better off using conduit.

 

[LXCam]

Well after 35 years of doing sparky work I can say that's a first. Your only issue is its not physically protected. Someone could argue the properly secured aspect as well, but I'll give you credit on that one. It's unique, that's for damn sure.

 

[Norcal]

Conduit is a much better choice, the Romex® is not protected from physical damage so is not code compliant.

 

[ambenz]

Gosh, reminds me of simplier time when electricity was first harnessed in homes. Using knob and tube.

...common use in North America from about 1880 to the 1930s.
I don't know what the codes are but if it meets code and you like accessing the wiring to change it around as needed, I suppose it's okay.
I would not do it...ilike my conduit where the wiring cannot get damaged.

 

[PugetDude]

I've been running exposed Romex on what I call a wooden cable tray. I like it because you can trace and change circuits easily. Looking for comments from those with knowledge because I'm expanding my shop and considering continuing the same system.

I use 3/16" or 1/4" plywood glued to sheetrock and wire held down with oak strips.

Pics not showing up...

 

[Wanna Ride]

I like it because you can trace and change circuits easily.

Well, hell. After all these years of trying to figure out how to come up with an easy way to change circuits easily... there it is!

SMFH.

 

[CitadelBlue]

Looks neat and tidy.

 

[Dirtydan69]

I remember working on a house in Wicker Park in Chicago. It was built in the late 1800's. It had a two piece crown molding running throughout the entire house. When you pulled the first layer or top trim piece off it had a base with two grooves cut into it. That was where the old cloth wiring was. All of it still live and working. This was in the late 90's

 

[klassenl]

If you really want it to look nice you could build a cover for it.

 

[sberry]

Cover it and it would be ok.

 

[HRJoe]

Cover it and it would be ok.

Right. My inspector here would never go for it. Subject to damage.

 

[lakeroadster]

that would be fine if it was 10 feet above the shop floor. While I like the concept, it would never pass inspection.

 

[Aceman]

If you need to trace and change circuits, you need conduit.

It's a shame everything you installed was all for nothing. Violation.

 

[sberry]

I have an old house I basically rewired on the ceiling and dropped in the walls or in simple conduits. If we want to cover it will mold over it.

 

[mburrus]

i agree with others... its not protected from physical damage... put some sides on it and some lexan over it...?!

 

[oldironfarmer]

If you need to trace and change circuits, you need conduit.

It's a shame everything you installed was all for nothing. Violation.

Lot's of good comments, much appreciated.

I've been using this for about 5 years. Since where I live there is no inspection required, it's not really "all for nothing". My insurance agent walked through recently, made no comment.

I don't understand what kind of physical damage the code generally is referring to. Obviously this would not be good behind large cabinets where one could not see it was pinched. However if I am swinging a piece of angle iron and hit the wire, that's a pretty obvious "repair required".

My wood shop was conventionally wired like a house, Romex through the studs. I've had rats get in the walls and eat the insulation off the wire.

This was my solution.

I've had a couple of EE's look at it, no real complaints from them.

I can run pipe but hate to do it, and adding a circuit can get a little complicated, as everyone who has tried it knows. Unless you terminate every wire in every box, pulling a run means pulling lots of wire, just to add one circuit. Hence the value of cable tray.

Thanks all for the comments, I may just build wooden cable tray for my shop addon, with a cover. That could look slick.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Well, hell. After all these years of trying to figure out how to come up with an easy way to change circuits easily... there it is!

SMFH.

Part of my reasoning in coming up with this was seeing unfinished garages over the years, with guys hanging things like trouble lights on the exposed Romex. That never looked like a good idea to me.

I know Romex is not UV compliant, but it is pretty tough against minor physical damage.

 

[matt_i]

If you had the time to make wooden covers for it, it would not be that different from wires in a stud wall. Although making the transition from the raceway to the junction boxes would not be trivial.

There are a lot of metal wire basket "cable tray" used in industrial apps, which typically run "tray cable" which is not NM, has a pretty heavy PVC jacket. The better cable tray installs have all the sections bonded together.

One way to build flexibility into an EMT system is to put large metal junction boxes at key points, and make larger diameter homeruns back to the panel for future installations. When you want to add in another circuit, simply create a new knockout (hole) and start running from there. The additional terminations are made inside. I've seen them at my local Home D, basically grey powder coated NEMA-1 (dustproof) boxes, they can also be ordered online.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Gosh, reminds me of simplier time when electricity was first harnessed in homes. Using knob and tube.

...common use in North America from about 1880 to the 1930s.
I don't know what the codes are but if it meets code and you like accessing the wiring to change it around as needed, I suppose it's okay.
I would not do it...ilike my conduit where the wiring cannot get damaged.

And, at least in the early days, knob and tube used uninsulated bare wire.

I was working on one of my rent houses that had some old knob and tube overhead in the basement. I touched one running some new wire and the SOB was LIVE in 2006!

That got corrected before I left that day. It ran to nothing, just still connected.

Great picture, by the way. Really shows the method. Noted legs are not run together, separated by studs or large air gap.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Another interesting point, to me, I planned to run conduit, and was pricing components, thinking I could save part of the price of conduit with THHN. WRONG! 12/g Romex was cheaper than three runs of 12 THHN (or even 2-12's and a 14). Home store stuff, I guess.

 

[Aceman]

Lot's of good comments, much appreciated.

I've been using this for about 5 years. Since where I live there is no inspection required, it's not really "all for nothing". My insurance agent walked through recently, made no comment.

I don't understand what kind of physical damage the code generally is referring to. Obviously this would not be good behind large cabinets where one could not see it was pinched. However if I am swinging a piece of angle iron and hit the wire, that's a pretty obvious "repair required".

My wood shop was conventionally wired like a house, Romex through the studs. I've had rats get in the walls and eat the insulation off the wire.

This was my solution.

I've had a couple of EE's look at it, no real complaints from them.

I can run pipe but hate to do it, and adding a circuit can get a little complicated, as everyone who has tried it knows. Unless you terminate every wire in every box, pulling a run means pulling lots of wire, just to add one circuit. Hence the value of cable tray.

Thanks all for the comments, I may just build wooden cable tray for my shop addon, with a cover. That could look slick.

You can try and justify it any which way you like. It seems most folks can come up with a dozen reasons on why they shouldn't have to do something.

I have a feeling if you knew how to run conduit and pull wire properly, you'd have done it that way. But, you don't, so now this is the "right way" to do it in your mind.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Wood is a combustable material. Not a good idea especially if the wire gets smashed or a nick in it.

If u want cable tray why not use metal cable tray that is U/L listed and u wont have to worry about?

 

[Norcal]

Wood is a combustable material. Not a good idea especially if the wire gets smashed or a nick in it.

If u want cable tray why not use metal cable tray that is U/L listed and u wont have to worry about?

I was always under the belief that cable tray was for industrial occupancy's, what the OP has is surface mounted wiring that is subject to damage, hence not a code compliant method, one of the many products offered by the Wiremold® Company may fit his desire for EZ tracing & access, but will not be as cheap as a site cobbled method.

 

[ishiboo]

Wood is a combustable material. Not a good idea especially if the wire gets smashed or a nick in it.

If u want cable tray why not use metal cable tray that is U/L listed and u wont have to worry about?

So? Romex is stapled to studs, goes through stud cavities, and everything else wood.

There are reasons this is a bad idea, but being wood isn't one of them.

 

[budmur]

The NMC is well secured, neat and workman like. There's always a reason why you should do more, but this is a residential application. If your inspector is OK, there's no reason why this isn't a safe installation. There are so many hack jobs in houses that don't burn to the ground, this is one of the better self-install jobs I've seen.

I spent a few years as a licensed home inspector, and this is way, way better than most homes built before 1985 or so, especially outside of city limits.

 

[oldironfarmer]

You can try and justify it any which way you like. It seems most folks can come up with a dozen reasons on why they shouldn't have to do something.

I have a feeling if you knew how to run conduit and pull wire properly, you'd have done it that way. But, you don't, so now this is the "right way" to do it in your mind.

Trust me, I'm not trying to sell this method, just get ideas, pros and cons. Neither would I recommend others use this method.

From comments so far I've decided to try to build a plywood or wood box for my new installation.

I have run conduit and pulled wire, and supervised much more than I have done, in industrial applications. We've pulled out a lot of wire to add one or two more circuits. By the time I retired we pretty much went with cable tray to allow flexibility for future expansion. In industrial applications expansion and changes are pretty much the norm, at least in our industry. At the home shop, if I ran conduit, and want to add another circuit, I either run another pipe, or pull entire circuits out to re-pull more wire in the same pipe.

I did a 5,000 sq ft expansion of our church three years ago, and of course it is all conduit. We installed what we wanted and have made only a few modifications. An unlicensed electrician and I did most of the work, and a licensed electrician inspected it. All the wire is marked. I didn't do a wiring diagram and it still takes a little time to trace down issues.

I'll repeat, my offbeat wooden method, I think is safe, but I really am enjoying the range of comments.

Not sure I understand the physical damage concern, as I have stated before. I'd like to hear what the causes of physical damage could be. Nicking THHN is much more serious than nicking the cover on Romex.

Thanks again.

 

[acer66]

Not sure I understand the physical damage concern, as I have stated before. I'd like to hear what the causes of physical damage could be. Nicking THHN is much more serious than nicking the cover on Romex.

Thanks again.

It can be damaged easily by hitting or bumping into it with whatever you carry around for example.

If I see that right your first pic shows all kind of stuff which could fall over and damage the lower cables or you push the stuff against the cables and so on.

 

[oldironfarmer]

It can be damaged easily by hitting or bumping into it with whatever you carry around for example.

If I see that right your first pic shows all kind of stuff which could fall over and damage the lower cables or you push the stuff against the cables and so on.

OK, Romex is pretty tough though. Bare THHN is tough too.

I've seen people walk on Romex strung across their ceiling joists, with no apparent damage, and my house has some like that, but I am very careful to not step on it when I'm in the attic.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

So? Romex is stapled to studs, goes through stud cavities, and everything else wood.

There are reasons this is a bad idea, but being wood isn't one of them.

The part i said that u missed was about it being subject to damage. Awful hard to damage wire thats inside a wall finished with sheetrock.

 

[UpstateNY]

***facepalm***

 

[James-W]

Personally, I would use conduit. What you have would never pass inspection around here. But since you apparently don't have electrical wiring inspections where you live, I guess that is of no consequence. All I can say is, as long as you are happy with it, that is what matters.

 

[lakeroadster]

... if I am swinging a piece of angle iron and hit the wire, that's a pretty obvious "repair required"....

....
Not sure I understand the physical damage concern, as I have stated before. I'd like to hear what the causes of physical damage could be.....

You answered your question, before you wrote your question..

The wiring in the configuration you have it in is pretty much susceptible to anything and everything, being face mounted.

 

[bullnerd]

It's a shame everything you installed was all for nothing. Violation.

Muhahahahaa!! Some of these replies are hilarious!

Its touching wood! LOL!

Go in any old garages lately? Code! LOL!

I've only had my shop for 25 years and cant think of a single time something struck the wall hard enough to damage that wiring. And my garage takes a beating.

OP...your going to be dead soon!

 

[the gypsy]

All I can say about Knob and Tube wiring is , that if you put a nail in the wall there is no way you are going to create a short. LOL

 

[SlappyWhite]

I cannot see this passing code. As others noted, there is no protection. Maybe if you made a removable cover (and had sides) using more wood so it becomes a covered raceway??? Like it is it is a no-go IMO.

Also, what are you using for staples. It is hard to tell from the pictures but are they properly rated for NMSC? Looking pretty thin, nothing like the CSA ones we use here.

 

[sberry]

All the resoning, you can see damage, I used it for a long time this way etc is not an excuse not to cover the thing. We peobably all have ran stuff not perfect,, especially to replace old junk but I saw one recently, the handyman went up the face instead of finding cover and the owner hit it with a rake, it was way uo overhead. It didn't short but damaged the cable.
It happens a lot, they covered it in code, it even sounds reasonable, just don't let it get hit,,, how hard is that? Didn't say,,, watch out for it,, or be careful.
While everyone likes pipe and wire mold I would buy a board or 2 in this case.

 

[oldironfarmer]

I cannot see this passing code. As others noted, there is no protection. Maybe if you made a removable cover (and had sides) using more wood so it becomes a covered raceway??? Like it is it is a no-go IMO.

Also, what are you using for staples. It is hard to tell from the pictures but are they properly rated for NMSC? Looking pretty thin, nothing like the CSA ones we use here.

No staples, the wire is held in place by the little oak cross ties.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Bringing this one back from the dead.

Andy, thank you for sharing. Like you, I'm way out of city limits and have no inspections required. I've been going back and forth between using schedule 40 and just straight Romex. You've given me some great ideas on how I will proceed!

 

[ard]

ON a philosophical level, I dont understand it when people make decisions based on 'how far out of town I am', or 'there are no inspections around here'.

IMO, I do the right thing even when people arent looking.

Be it tossing a splice into a wall cavity, or cheating on your partner.

If the code doesnt permit something, why do it?