ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area the most home runs you've seen

I did some work in an ancient multifamily house with a live-in landlord who was an old eccentric electrical engineer. He had somehow convinced passed electricians to wire every single duplex receptacle and appliance on it's own dedicated circuit. The basement ceiling was covered in huge bundles of MC/AC/BX wrapped together with zip-ties. There must've been the better part of a hundred home runs with nothing properly labeled. And because all the cable assemblies couldn't be terminated into one panel, they brought them into big troughs to switch over to conduit and THHN, none of that labeled either.

I ended up walking off that job.

-John

[This message has been edited by BigJohn (edited 03-22-2004).]

I'm with Sandro here. I'd quit the business if I had to wire a house in EMT. Our typical house is 4500-6500 sq ft and has 75 home runs. I can assure you it would cost much more than $500 additional to do it. Our average home is $16000 for romex, in EMT I think another $10k would be needed. But we don't do much with EMT, so I may be way off.

Wow Mean Gene! That looks like a nice job they did with the EMT there. ( I would hate to have to drill all those perfect holes ) I have yet to see that on a job I thought the EMT was more for the commercial aspect of this trade.

I just learned something new today. Thanks.

WOW,....That is truly a work of art,...my hat comes off for that guy,..it would take me a real long time to rough a house in EMT,as I don't do much piping,..just here and there...
Russ

If I'm not mistaken, it's required by code in some places believe it or not. Chicago seems to stick in my mind for some reason.

Are there any members out there where EMT is required for residential/dwelling units? Am I right about Chicago??

Chicago and suburbs homes are all EMT. We don't do anything but conduit. We do a lot of nice bending. It does take a bit more time. There is a difference between making pipe bent enough to connect and making a piece fit so well like art. A number of EC save time by having no offsets, crocked pipes, etc.. A few will even connect and strap one side of a stick then then bend by hand where the other side goes. It turnes out like a ark.

I knew guys that tried doing a home it the stix with NM cable. It took them way longer than piping because they are not skilled it that area.

I read EMT homes are done for about $10 more per opening. When new homes it the cheapest towns start at $250K it does not change the price much but it is a better system.

Tom

I am just finishing up a 5500sq.ft. single story home where I used a combination of NM and 3/4" EMT. I kept close track of costs so I could compare with using all NM. I did it this way because this GC wants most of the wiring in the crawl, not in the attic. It was a nice 5 block crawl and the thought of 4000' of NM and all the stapling in there made me tired all over. The house had a 320A service with (2) 40 circuit ML panels. Out of one panel I ran (7) 3/4" EMT runs to (7) locations spread out in the crawl and terminated in 12"x12"x4" pull boxes. I wired the receptacles and switches in NM through the walls and dropped the home runs into the crawl and terminated in the pull boxes. Each pull box has a EG bar and a laminated card identifying each set of conductors. There isn't more than 10' of NM exposed in the crawl anywhere. Just for kicks I ran all of the crawl lighting in 1/2" EMT. This GC wants a 100W lamp for every 500 sq.ft. of crawl space. Out of the second ML panel I did the same for the workshop and all 240V circuits (A/C, range, dryer)keeping the large loads and motor loads in the separate loadcenter should help avoid flicker-up. This GC is extremely picky. If you do run NM home runs in his crawl he expects you to snap a chalkline and keep all the runs parrallel. He loved the EMT! The network, phones and CATV aren't in EMT but I used bridle rings and it looks sharp. With the cost of 12-2 NM around here @ $155.00 per 1000 and 12 THHN @$56.00 per 1000 plus pulling 1 #10 green in each pipe and using multiwire branch circuits, I came up with a materials savings of just under $750.00. I don't know but I would guess that I saved on labor hours too since I didn't have to spend the time stapling hundreds of feet of NM. I have another home to do for this GC coming up and he wants the same system used on it. I bought several 500' rolls of THHN @ $22.75 before it went through the roof in anticipation of this next house. This was a custom home and it was fun to do. It may be a different story in tract homes where time and money are stretched thin.

I recently did a house in emt at the owners request. Mine didn't look as good as the pictures here,but it wasn't bad.

I can appreciate the versatility of an emt system after doing a house like that.

Homeowner wanted to add some recessed lighting. It was pretty simple,no fishing wires in the panel,just add a couple of ckts by pulling more wires.

Russell

Fred that sounds like a really nice job.

I am a little curious about the number of current carrying conductors in each conduit.

The only reason I ask is with 3/4" conduit you can easily get into derating issues.

Bob

There is one house that I am inspecting right now and the house was under construction for 3 years now and it is still not ready for a final inspection. The house has 600 amp service, 7-9 sub panels, (I can't remeber how many, I haven't been there for a while. Indoor swimming pool, indoor waterfall, which will empty into an indoor fish pond. Stand by generator, 6-9 HVAC units, inculding 3 for the pool area. It has it's own elevator, beauty salon, 6 car garage. Plus a few more items that I can't remember, like a hidden room behind a book case. (I think)