What was your last home project and what is your next home project?

I can't see how it would be any different than wiring inside walls. As long as there's no hidden junction boxes which there won't be. Going to use conduit for the cat6 too in case I ever need to run more wire later on.

You're probably right. So you, too, are running Cat6 for a home network into the garage.We did our garage in 2022, but it's on its own concrete pad nearly 100 ft from the back of the house. So cables to it are buried. My son bought a reel of high-quality direct burial Cat6 (500 ft), and we had no job other than the run to the garage. So (in the same trench as the electrical cable, but slightly shallower) we buried TWO runs of that Cat6 for redundancy in case of future malfunction. Then there's a small switch designed for sheltered but low-temperature use in a cabinet inside the garage to handle 2 cables incoming from the house plus the cable to the WiFi Point of Access transceiver (also for low temps and mounted inside) and one spare port. In your case with a shorter run via conduit, merely adding a spare pull wire in the conduit for possible future feeding of more Cat6 will do the job nicely.

In the garage we have two smart switches for exterior lights plus the garage door opener with WiFi connectivity, all controllable by apps on my phone. In addition I use another app in conjunction with a small device that plugs into any car OBDII port to access the car's diagnostic info and decode all that with the app's access by WiFi to an internet database.

I planned for an EV charger system but did not install one - no EV now in our family. But the supply cable to the garage and the panel I installed are 120 / 240 VAC 100 A capacity, quite enough for one or two chargers when needed. A hint I got from the electrical inspectors: the heavy cable (in my case, TECK style for direct burial) is MUCH cheaper in Aluminum than in Copper. So ours is 000 gauge Aluminum, ampacity 115 A but if we de-rate for its 135 foot length from the house 200 A panel (upgraded to that the same summer for this reason plus adding central air in a new furnace), it still can handle just over 100 A. So that's the panel capacity I installed.

Liam2018 said:

That sounds super interesting, do you have any before/after pictures of the process? It would be interesting to see an update on the outcome

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which one mr new member?

Paperdoc said:

Lots of work, and I can hear the pride. A note of caution for you to check on. You plan to leave a gap between insulation / vapour barrier and the sheetrock ceiling to run wiring through. That may not be allowed. A basic principle for wiring is that it must be accessible for inspection and repairs. What you plan would hide it completely in that gap. The common plan, of course, is that the wiring is done from above after the insulation / vapour barrier is installed, with an access hatch into the "attic". Wires and all junction boxes are attached to beams as you pull the insulation aside temporarily. If the only items to be connected are your T8 fixtures connected by screws through the sheetrock into beams, you MAY be able to just run supply cables just though holes through the sheetrock directly into each fixture. BUT you may actually need to use octagon boxes attached to beams and poking though the sheetrock against the back (top) of each fixture. Then you'd need a hole cut out of the top of each fixture to match the octagon box so you can access that box's wires from inside the fixture. I recommend you consult your local electrical inspection agency and be sure you do it the way they WILL approve.

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I just don't see the point of creating a gap to run the wires between the barrier and the drywall. If you ever needed to run the wire again, you've got a massive issue of dealing with the vapor barrier. I don't know if you're spray insulating or just blowing it in or putting in batts, but it feels like you'd have a much easier life of just running the electrical over the joists and then dropping wherever you want, sealing at the punctures where you pierce the vapor barrier. Plus way less chance of running a screw through the romex when you attach the drywall to the strapping (that would be my concern from a code related standpoint).

deadlyapp said:

I just don't see the point of creating a gap to run the wires between the barrier and the drywall. If you ever needed to run the wire again, you've got a massive issue of dealing with the vapor barrier. I don't know if you're spray insulating or just blowing it in or putting in batts, but it feels like you'd have a much easier life of just running the electrical over the joists and then dropping wherever you want, sealing at the punctures where you pierce the vapor barrier. Plus way less chance of running a screw through the romex when you attach the drywall to the strapping (that would be my concern from a code related standpoint).

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The joists are not perfectly 16" OC everywhere, so I need to add strapping anyway which will make a gap so that edges of sheets always line up on a stud. The gaps will sorta act like conduits in a way for wiring for lights, AP and possibly other data cabling. Access hatches could also make it easy to run more wires in the future for something else. The attic won't really easily be accessible once this is all done and all the insulation is in, given the roof slope. Going to add an access hatch but won't easily be able to do much in there but maybe look at the roof.

Some of the wiring I'll do in the attic though and just do conduits in case I ever need to pull new wire. For security cameras that's what I'll do since it will be easier to get into the soffit space that way. Ended up getting a nasty cold so that took out a bunch of days that I could have used so have not done anything else yet.

Red Squirrel said:

The joists are not perfectly 16" OC everywhere, so I need to add strapping anyway which will make a gap so that edges of sheets always line up on a stud. The gaps will sorta act like conduits in a way for wiring for lights, AP and possibly other data cabling. Access hatches could also make it easy to run more wires in the future for something else. The attic won't really easily be accessible once this is all done and all the insulation is in, given the roof slope. Going to add an access hatch but won't easily be able to do much in there but maybe look at the roof.

Some of the wiring I'll do in the attic though and just do conduits in case I ever need to pull new wire. For security cameras that's what I'll do since it will be easier to get into the soffit space that way. Ended up getting a nasty cold so that took out a bunch of days that I could have used so have not done anything else yet.

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You could just sister the studs or add blocking to get the support you want for the drywall. I think 5/8" drywall can span 24" safely as long as you aren't hanging a bunch of crap from it.