ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area CAN I GET SOME OPPINIONS ON THIS...

i have a house that was built in 1900 and it has wood walls and ceilings. it had knob and tubing wiring that has seen better days, so i rewired it with romex. anyways, i asked an inspector friend of mine that doesn't work in the city that i am rewiring the house, what kind of boxes i should use. i didn't like the plastic cut in boxes, because they flex in and out of the walls when you pull on a plug, and they are way overpriced, aside from the fact that everytime i use one i have to use larger screws for the device because, for some reason, the screw holes in the box are stripped so easily. i also didn't want to use metal boxes, because then i would have to use stingers to ground the box. he suggested that i use the nail-on boxes and cut the plastic nail brackets off so that it is just a box, then insert it into the hole that i cut into the wood wall and put a screw through the inside of the box, into the wood. i looked into the code book and found this article; 370-23(b)(1) which says that a screw may pass through the box as long as it is no further than 1/4" from the front or back of the box. anyways, this worked great and is very sturdy, but after everything was done, the inspector came out and said that it was illegal and now wants me to remove all of them and install cut-in boxes in their place. he said that if i can get a letter from the UL saying that the installation is ok, then he will pass it. i don't know how that is possible, i don't even know how to get in touch with them. i know that he is just giving me a hard time about it because he is like that to everyone, and he really dislikes my mother-in-law whom has had several houses remodeled and he, for some reason gives her a hard time all of the time. one time he even gave her a red-tag and charged a re-inspection fee because the GFCI receptacles that her electrician installed didn't have stickers on them saying that they were "gfci protected" it was a gfci plug, you know that it is gfci protected!!! anyways, i have a ton of horror stories like that about this guy. does anyone have any oppinions about this installation or any suggestions about getting it passed. i pointed out the article in the code book to him that i referenced above, and he said that he doesn't interpret it that way.

thanks,

brad

[This message has been edited by STANGGT40 (edited 03-01-2002).]

I believe he is saying that the equipment (box) was not used according to its listing & labeling instructions as required by 110.3(B).
BTW,
I have seen people install plastic boxes with screws through the back. I don't know if it was inspected, though.

Try going to this link tell Underwriters the type of box used and how you used it ask them to tell you whether the box was rated for that purpose. I've used this method in the past on things that were questioned I usually get an answer back within a couple of days and if the back you show the inspector a copy of the email. http://www.ul.com/clientad.htm

[This message has been edited by ggardiner (edited 03-01-2002).]