Conduit through jpist

bryanp22

We are thinking of leaving our basement to be exposed joist. Right now the conduit is below the joists for the basic light fixtures. Can you drill through the joist to recess the conduit higher in the joist or does it have to stay below the joist? If possible we'd like to have the conduit not stick out below the joist, but I am sure what is the rules.

TarheelTerp

Something tells me you're in Chicago.

In principle... sure you CAN drill through.
But there are at least as many rules about that as the wiring itself.

If it were my house and my wife came up with this notion....
I'd think about the room as a whole and the layout of the conduit.

Where you *must* run conduit "against the grain" do so at the ends of the room where it is less intrusive or obvious. Where you can get away with it (or will go to some trouble to allow for)... tuck the conduit up into the joist bays.

ps: Greenfield is NOT cheating.

joecaption

According to the 2006 International Residential Code (IRC) the maximum diameter hole that you can drill in a solid wood joist is 1/3 the ACTUAL depth of the joist. The code also says that holes have to be at least 2" from the edge of a joist. So if your joist is 5-1/2", the maximum size hole would be 1-1/2" if it was centered in the joist. If the joists are slightly deeper than 5-1/2", the hole can be slightly larger.
It's done all the time.
Small holes for just conduit will be a none issue.

bryanp22

I'm in milwaukee. Our house was built in the 50s ad must have at least 2x10s for joists I can measure when I'm home. So normally people drill through to fill the metal conduit?

k_buz

Homeowners are not allowed to do their own electrical work in Milwaukee.

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bryanp22

Well it's a suburb not the city. Just milwaukee area.

k_buz

Nowhere in SE WI is it legal to do your own electrical work. You can't even pull a permit without a Master's license.

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bryanp22

I'm fine hiring an electrician just trying to visualize if the conduit can be moved to in the joist or if it has to stay below. It will impact our lighting decision.

k_buz

If the piping has to be either replaced or removed, this will be quite expensive. The conduit can be thru the joists, but it will be time consuming. You know what they say, time=$$

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bryanp22

Ca be worth it. Our basement doesn't have much height so we are thinking exposed ceiling with track lighting. We need all the height we can get so having track lighting recess a bit will help with overall height.

bryanp22

Is conduit required in SE Wisconsin?

k_buz

Nope. It was for a long time in Shorewood, but not anymore.

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Missouri Bound

In my opinion you may be cheaper installing a dropped ceiling. There are several nice options available, including wood. And THAT is a do it yourself project.

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bryanp22

Not enough height to do that. My ceiling is maybe 6 feet 8 inches. We want to keep a treadmill in the basement and I barely have a couple inches above me head now when using it.

frenchelectrican

For the Northeast area the home owner are allowed to do the own wiring as long they are the owner of the home but only one major gotcha is that the homeowners can NOT change the panel box themself. ditto with meter socket that is complety off limit to homeowner that was in effect 3 years back so that useally stop them in the tracks for safety issue.

Merci,
Marc

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The answer will be based on NEC ( National Electrical code ) or CEC ( Cananda Electrical code ) or ECF ( Electrique Code France )