A neighbor recently remodeled his bathroom and while he had the floor opened, we ran a piece of 12/3 w/ground romex from the basement to a point above the center of his living room. We left the ends of the wire neatly coiled and laying on the ceiling and also coiled enough wire in the basement to permit it to be run to the breaker box. The intention was that the wire COULD be used in the event a fan or light was ever in the middle of the livingroom ceiling.

When the electrical inspector came to sign off on the bathroom he had a hissy fit over this piece of wire. He said it "clearly showed" that we intended to do future electrical wiring without getting approvals and made us remove it before he would sign off on the bathroom. Several years earlier, I had run several cables in a similar way from the basement to attic when remodeling gave me access to the inside of a wall, and the inspector then said it was a "good idea".

In comercial and industrial buildings it is common to run extra conduits, wires, etc. for possible future expansion. Is it really against the code to pre-run wire while walls are opened for possible future use?

 

Most inspectors {of any trade} have different ways to look at work during an inspection.Where one will shoot a job down another will approve it.It depends upon the discretion of the individual inspector

 

Insist on a code citation for each red flag, either the NEC or local code. If your local code actually says that pre-installing is not allowed, it would be citable. I know of no such code in the NEC. Most localities have few if any variations to the NEC (not counting a few places that have their own code in place of the NEC).

My plan for the house I will be building in the future (working on the design now) is that it will have a lot of empty conduit paths pre-built into the walls in many places (probably somewhere between 60 and 150 of them). I don't see how an electrical inspector would have any case for red flagging these because nothing electrical would be installed; they would be empty though readily accessible with minimal intrusion to the walls. In the future they could be used for just about anything, including power.

 

Your simple solution would have been to install a "J" box on either end.

There are some minicipalities who require a spare raceway for each floor and attic and crawl space, in the form of an empty 3/4" conduit.saves a lot of patch and repair.

 

Just be careful what you argue with the inspector about. If you argue the small stuff, he or she might get pissed off and then start taking a much harder look at everything being inspected.

If the item flagged is easily modifiable, you might be better off changing it rather than arguing it.

In this case, for example, removing the wire satisfied the inspector. There would be nothing wrong with then putting the wire back later. Since you aren't connecting the wire it doesn't need to be inspected now anyway.

 

Insecurity, frustration,resentment, and personal problems are often the reason for an individual to be not difficult, but impossible. I suspect this applies to the inspector in question, so be assured you have the bad luck to be exposed to a person not amenable to reason because he has "hang-ups".

Inspectors can be extremely inconsistent.A local building inspector, who, if he noticed an work-van with an out-of-town telephone # while driving by, would stop and investigate the situation. Yet I had to resort to the services of an attorney to FORCE this nit-wit to inspect an extremely serious electrical hazard- exposed under-ground power cables which connected the utilty power to a large apartment building. "How would I know it's a violation if I go to inspect it ?" was his grotesque reply to my lucid description of the hazard.

 

I did a house for a builder once where the builder didn't have a good relationship with the county in which they were building. The electrical inspector wanted us to label every wire INSIDE the panel box even though the panel cover was accurately labeled. He also wanted LINE and LOAD marked on each wire in the A/C disconnect even though the lugs are clearly marked on the device.

 

My point was primarily to get his code citation. If the inspector thinks something is wrong with it, he should be able to red flag it, with a specific code citation (or some combination). Then if it is something worth disputing, do so (maybe it isn't, as this case seems to be). Just don't let him refuse to pass the inspection without a specific writable code citation.

Absolutely. Or at least be clever about how you reconstruct it.

As long as the inspector doesn't have a way to examine installations that are closed back up, sure. Doesn't sound like it in this case. However, when it comes time to put the light in for the room below, the inspector checking that work may want to see the rough-in, and if that is strictly a hole in the ceiling and grabbing the wire, he might want to see how it got there (properly secured away from nail reach, etc).