Hi folks, I recently purchased a split-level house with attached garage. The house was built in 1962, and the only electrical in the garage is an overhead light that's fed by the 20 amp circuit in the living room, plus some DIY work from the previous owner that splits off the light and feeds an external outlet in the back of the house, as well as an additional switch that controls an overhead florescent fixture (also in the garage).
What I'd like to do is put a sub panel out there an feed it with a 60 amp circuit from the main panel. The heart of my question is regarding the best method of getting a run of 6/3 cable from the main panel on one side of the house, to the garage on the other...
The house is built into the side of a hill, and the bottom level, or "basement" is only partially below grade (about 4 feet) in the front. It's split into two sides. One is a finished den, which is next to the garage. The other is an unfinished area, where the main panel is located on inside of the far exterior wall. I would like to try to find the best way to run the cable through the finished section with as little demolition as possible.
The unfinished part is pretty cut and dry... I should be able to run the cable through the exposed ceiling joists (unless there's some reason that you folks think that I wouldn't be able to do this). As for the finished side... there is a steel support beam that runs the length of the house and hold up the second floor. The ceiling drops down about 12 inches or so in the middle of the finished side, in order to accommodate for the beam's presence. If it's allowable, I'd like to "fish" the cable through the gap left between the I-beam and the drywall from the ceiling drop-down. There's a good couple of inches available there, and as far as I can tell, it's a clear shot all the way through. The only thing I'd have to do is drill a hole in the cinderblock wall at the garage end. Would this be possible within code (FL is still under 2005 NEC until at least 2010)? Would I need to run conduit of some kind? We're looking at about 12' or so for the finished part of the run.
Here are some pictures...
The beam from the unfinished side:
The beam from the finished side:
The beam from the inside:
...and finally, my 1962 ITE 200 amp circuit-breaker panel w/ fused main (I'll be making another thread regarding this pretty soon). I plan on removing (or reusing) the unused 50amp breaker that went to the original range/oven, since the previous owners converted to a gas range/oven a few years ago.
Thanks in advance! I really appreciate any help or advice that you can give.
What I'd like to do is put a sub panel out there an feed it with a 60 amp circuit from the main panel. The heart of my question is regarding the best method of getting a run of 6/3 cable from the main panel on one side of the house, to the garage on the other...
The house is built into the side of a hill, and the bottom level, or "basement" is only partially below grade (about 4 feet) in the front. It's split into two sides. One is a finished den, which is next to the garage. The other is an unfinished area, where the main panel is located on inside of the far exterior wall. I would like to try to find the best way to run the cable through the finished section with as little demolition as possible.
The unfinished part is pretty cut and dry... I should be able to run the cable through the exposed ceiling joists (unless there's some reason that you folks think that I wouldn't be able to do this). As for the finished side... there is a steel support beam that runs the length of the house and hold up the second floor. The ceiling drops down about 12 inches or so in the middle of the finished side, in order to accommodate for the beam's presence. If it's allowable, I'd like to "fish" the cable through the gap left between the I-beam and the drywall from the ceiling drop-down. There's a good couple of inches available there, and as far as I can tell, it's a clear shot all the way through. The only thing I'd have to do is drill a hole in the cinderblock wall at the garage end. Would this be possible within code (FL is still under 2005 NEC until at least 2010)? Would I need to run conduit of some kind? We're looking at about 12' or so for the finished part of the run.
Here are some pictures...
The beam from the unfinished side:
The beam from the finished side:
The beam from the inside:
...and finally, my 1962 ITE 200 amp circuit-breaker panel w/ fused main (I'll be making another thread regarding this pretty soon). I plan on removing (or reusing) the unused 50amp breaker that went to the original range/oven, since the previous owners converted to a gas range/oven a few years ago.
Thanks in advance! I really appreciate any help or advice that you can give.