How to Wire an Outdoor Shed Part 2

Once you’ve completed the outside work on your outdoor shed in Part 1 of this guide, you’re ready to move inside and to begin putting everything in place. Follow the steps below.

Step 4 - Conduit

With the trench in place you’re ready to put the conduit and the UF cable in it. Start by running the wire through the conduit. You’ll need to use electrical lubricant to ease it through. Once you have the conduit in place don’t backfill the trench yet.

You’ll need to install junction boxes inside your house, close to the trench and the service panel, and also inside your outdoor shed. At the house, drill through the wall and run the wire through a conduit elbow and via more conduit to the junction box. In the shed attach the junction box to the wall close to where you will install the service panel. Using conduit, run the wire to the junction box. Use silicone caulk around the holes in the exterior walls of the house and the shed.

Step 5 - Junction Box

Take your wire stripper, wire cutters and your screwdriver. Cut the wires at each end of the cable and strip away about ½ inch of insulation from the end of each wire. You’re ready to connect them to the junction box in the shed. There will be a small plate to knock at the side or bottom on the junction box. Remove this and feed the wires through.

Depending on the junction box you’ve bought, there might be terminals matched to the color of the wires. At the very least there will be instructions. If not, screw the black wire to the breaker terminal, the green to the bar for the ground screw, and the white to the neutral bar. Don’t install breakers into the junction box yet.

Step 6 - Preparing Shed Wiring

You need to determine where you’ll be putting your outlets and your lights in the outdoor shed. The outlet boxes will attach to studs, while the lights will attach to the joists in the ceiling.

In order to run the wiring you’ll have to drill holes in the studs and the rafters with an electrician’s drill. This will create holes wide enough for the wiring to pass through. Similarly, you’ll have to drill holes for the switch boxes. There should be about 54 inches off the ground. Make your outlets about 12 inches above the ground. If you’re having any outlets at counter or bench height, these should be about 34 inches up from the ground. Ideally you’ll have outlets placed around 4 feet apart all across the outdoor shed.

Nail the boxes in place. This can be a time-consuming task, but it’s a necessary one. The nails are usually built into the boxes.

Step 7 - Running Wires

When you’ve done this, run the wire in the outdoor shed, going from the junction boxes to the other boxes. For the outlets use #12 Romex and #14 Romex for the lights. Keep the wiring in place with Romex staples attached to the studs. If you plan on running any heavy equipment from a specific outlet, use #6 Romex for that.