ECN Forum
Posted By: electure Bootlegging a Receptacle - 04/27/06 12:12 PM
From renosteinke

Quote
A couple recent discussion threads have discussed the "6 ft. rule" in receptacle placement. This rule has not always been followed- with the result that there are not enough receptacles for modern life.

Here, some enterprising party has put a plug on romex, neatly run it on the surface of the wall, then dipped into the wall to add a receptacle.

The house - duplex- was built in the '40's, and was once associated with a military base. It is wired with the earliest form of romex- no ground wire. What amazes me is that, in all the years since, despite several owners, and numerous "remodels", no one has seen for to update the electrical. Even the "porch light" was run in a similar manner.


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Posted By: Hemingray Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 04/27/06 07:37 PM
could have been worse, the plug could have been completely omitted and the romex shoved under the plate into the box [Linked Image]

EDIT: misworded/left off some words by mistake

[This message has been edited by Hemingray (edited 04-27-2006).]
Posted By: Dave T Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 04/28/06 01:58 AM
And even a 20a receptacle.
Posted By: NJwirenut Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 04/28/06 11:23 AM
Must be fairly recent, given the yellow romex...
Posted By: Tesla Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/02/06 07:06 AM
That's it.... No more Nevada for me.

These players can't even co-ordinate the trim colors.

Yellow Romex... give me a break.
Posted By: Texas_Ranger Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/02/06 10:43 AM
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Here, some enterprising party has put a plug on romex, neatly run it on the surface of the wall, then dipped into the wall to add a receptacle.
That one's gotta be common all over the world! Seen that countless times.
Posted By: pauluk Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/02/06 11:30 AM
Different plugs and receptacles, but the basic principle is all too familiar.
Posted By: Larry Fine Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/02/06 12:38 PM
The correct way to do this is to pry off the baseboard and run the wiring completely out of sight.
Posted By: George Corron Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/02/06 01:27 PM
OK guys, uhhh, a MUCH older friend of mine, barely hanging onto life anymore, told me the way some things used to be done.

Anyone who began the trade in a rural area, ahem, some years ago, has seen and is familiar with "Non-metallic extensions". It looks like romex, works like romex, only NO GROUND. Article 342 in the 99 code.

Older, and especially rural, houses, had a single outlet somewhere in the room, if you were lucky. You ran this stuff along baseboards, much like phone cable and either surface mounted a box, or like the one in the pic, you popped into the wall and flush mounted.

This stuff is thermoplastic in nature, and even though it looks ugly in the pic, it's probably still just fine. Though I do agree if you've remodeled it's a pity it wasn't replaced.

Except for a few minor violations, there's really nothing wrong with the install provided it IS NM extension.

At least....THAT'S what the old guy I know says, but what does he know????? [Linked Image]
Posted By: RSmike Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/12/06 05:11 PM
I spent the better part of last week pulling wire at the folks house.

I'm a young punk so I haven't seen every variation of Romex so help me on this. Most of my father's house has regular white NM 12-2 with ground...with all the ground wires having a green jacket; not bare When I stripped it off the ground was only 14ga.

I also noted no paper like the stuff today and talc was used inside the wire. It looked just like UF but was labeled NM; the jacket was really thick. The 12-3 was the same way...except the outer jacket was blood red (not from my cuts) and the wire was flat about 1" wide by 1/8" thick. My father wired the house. He noted that the new 12-3 I was pulling was round. He'd never seen anything like it. Funny if you think about it.

I've never seen this style wire anywhere else. This house was built in the late 60's. I've only really worked in homes that have knob and tube or that nice pretty colored romex I've run across that weird silver and black stuff a few times.

I guess I really have't lived.

RSlater
RSmike
Posted By: renosteinke Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/13/06 04:22 AM
There are a couple of issues raised by this sort of install.

The first is... well, flexible cord is one thing, and Romex another. Though there is no rule against Romex being run exposed, it just isn't usually done that way.

A commmon solution, pushed in handyman mags, is what Larry suggested; run it behind the baseboard. As I see it, doing so would also require the use of a steel plate to protect the entire length of the cable.

Romex does need protection where it pierces the wall; it's also likely that it is not properly secured to that box.

The plug is not designed to be attached to Romex. Having actually performed the tests myself, I can say that the plug does NOT provide adequate strain relief when used on Romex.

Is this method preferable to using an extension cord? Well..... let the discussion begin!
Posted By: Texas_Ranger Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/13/06 11:49 AM
The main problem aside of the lack of strain relief would be the moving and bending of solid wire every time that thing is unplugged. Solid wire is just not intended for flexible use! Eventually the conductors might break and pose a fire hazard.

Though there are many people in Austria (namely trained pros) who use solid YM for extension cords... (at school we have such a beast running across the class room, stuck to the floor with duck tape)...
Posted By: Lostazhell Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/14/06 06:16 PM
2 words... Wire-mold.
Posted By: renosteinke Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/14/06 07:55 PM
When faced with this situation, I have done two things- besides using Wire-mold.

In one case, I ran MC behind the floor molding, using a steel channel as additional protection.

The other way- one I did in my duplex- was to simply run pipe on the wall, using 4-squares and industrial covers. Before assembly, I painted everything to look nice in the home.

One thing to remember about this really old stuff is that you usually don't have a ground wire, the boxes lack wire pigtails to work with, and are too small for a GFI anyway!
Posted By: SvenNYC Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 05/18/06 04:07 PM
NO NO NO!!

The way it's supposed to be done is wire up a plug to 16-gauge SPT-2 cord (the figure-8 stuff used for extension leads).

You staple that along the baseboard and connect the other end to a surface mount bakelite socket. Jeeze.

Must I explain everything? [Linked Image]
Posted By: tdhorne Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 07/17/06 05:23 AM
When I go to the trouble to pull the baseboard off I also cut out the drywall, bore holes through the center of the studs, and run the new cable safely out of reach of the screws and nails. The reinstalled baseboard hides all of the sins.
--
Tom Horne

"This alternating current stuff is just a fad. It is much too dangerous for general use." Thomas Alva Edison
Posted By: Theelectrikid Re: Bootlegging a Receptacle - 08/02/06 02:13 AM
In my great grandmother's (now deceased) old house, which was falling down, this is basically how the house was wired. There were recepts in the basement with cords going upstairs, into the wall, out of the wall to surface mounts. The upstairs was done the same way, plug it in downstairs, staple it to the wall up, and go through. The few lights were wired in the wall. All of this was ancient Romex w/o grounding wire and zip-cord extension cords. The whole basement where everything ran was wired up to date, however, with the exception of course of the wires heading upstairs. Some guy bought that house, gutted it, fixed the falling roof, and rewired the whole house.

Ian A.
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