[aftp302]

So I am finishing my basement, and the job was started by the former owner. He did a lot of wiring, most of which looks good and I want to keep.

One question I am trying to figure out is this. The basement will be divided into an unfinished half and a finished half, roughly down the line of the entry stairs. He previously had a soffit framed at the edge of the unfinished space next to the stair side. He had several lighting/receptacle circuits wired and their feeds were laying in that soffit, and then secured as normal (stapled to side of joist, etc) once exiting the soffit. I am removing the "bottom" of the soffit but leaving the side wall of it. Can I staple the feeds to this framing (side not bottom edge) or will this be treated the same as if I had run them under the joists (not allowed) instead of through them? See picture...

Trying to avoid pulling out these feeds which will inevitably all be too short if I have to move up and drill through the joists.

I see plenty of the original house wiring run along the PT boards sitting on top of the steel beams that are perpendicular to the joists, but not sure if that is some sort of exception that my soffit wall wouldn't qualify as?

FYI - I am familiar with derating and know that the cables would need to be spaced to as not to cause too much bundling. Though the amount of long bundled runs of 14/2 in the original wiring lead me to believe this isn't as big of a concern.

 

[aftp302]

This is the type of runs along the PT on the beams I referred to above. These were from the original electrical in the home which would have been inspected and approved in 2001 when the home was built.

 

[Jim Port]

I would use something like the 3M Stak-it's to hold the cables. I think some inspectors would consider the original cables bundled and fail the work.

 

[aftp302]

I would use something like the 3M Stak-it's to hold the cables. I think some inspectors would consider the original cables bundled and fail the work.

I was planning to use those to avoid the bundling/derating issue, but where to place them is the issue? Can I attach to the side of that 2x3 soffit? Is there a better/worse placement for the stack-its (i.e closer to the top near the joist, near the bottom, inside egde near the ducts or outside edge in the "clear" unfinished space)?

I'm also sure the original work that was inspected can't be subject to re-evaluation now because that would mean re-wiring the entire house.

 

[Jim Port]

Place them where they fit and you can slide the cables into them.