basic-electrical-wiring
or
rough electrical wiring

basic-electrical-wiring is composed of 2 phases

1. rough phase


2. finish phase

This page is about the rough phase of electricity to your home.

The rough phase is extremely long and drawn out. Unlike the plumbing which is a quick job, which can be done by crew members, the electrical wiring takes time and a lot of thought, and is more of a one man job.

First of all, the electrician takes the homeowner on a “tour” of the house to determine what specialty items (electrically speaking) he/she wants in the home. The sub will probably ask questions like

• “do you want a dimmer capability on this or that light?"


• “are you having fan lights, or just a fan?”


• “do you want lights on the stair risers?”


• “what about surround sound?”


• “how many can-lights?”


• “where do you want the can-lights?"

It is then that you, the homeowner, tell your electrician of the extras you want in your home that he doesn't suggest. Things like:

• string lights under the cabinets in the kitchen, bathrooms, and any other place for night lights


• lights in china storage or in glass faced cupboards over the regular cupboards


• warming light in this bathroom or that


• fan exhaust over the stove (not recycling but w/vent)


• TV and computer connection in each bedroom
  

• lights centered over sinks or counters in bathroom
  

• intercom system


• security system


• electrical outlet for electric range, dryer, water heater, water softener


• reading lights above bed


• door bell


• under counters lighting


• kick-plate vacuum under counter


• placement of your light switches

These are the boxes that the switches attach to. You can have single, double or more

This one is quite important. We ended up with the light switches on the wrong side of the entry door so we have to close the door before turning on the light. Also, the door to the deck should turn on the kitchen light, but it turns on the family room instead. These are both annoyances that should have been dealt with at this point, before they were installed.

It would be very difficult for the electrician to have a crew to install all these extras. Wires are going every which way in the house, above in the rafters, below in the floor joists, and through the walls. There are 220 lines, and 120 lines.

Fans and lights, with 3-way or 2-way switches (all predetermined) are installed or wired for.

The electrician installs all the wires in your home through an electrical service entry box, where your shut-off switch is found. A "ground" wire, or ground fault circuit interrupter is part of this. It's installed wherever you have a wet area to protect you from getting electricuted because of the water. All your home theater, phone lines, computer wires, and any other electric oriented wires including your 220 and 110 lines go through this box.

This picture shows the breaker box with shut off breakers for various areas in your house. Commonly the kitchen will have several breakers designed for it alone. Bathrooms will often be on one breaker. These breakers will have a special ground fault breaker plug installed in the bathroom that will trip the breaker if too much electricity is used (hair dryer and curling irons used at the same time will sometimes trip the breaker) In that case, you can reset the breaker from the red button on the plug.

In my experience of building our house, start to finish, there is one job I would not want to undertake and that is basic-electrical-wiring.

If you want to DIY it, you might want to visit my good friend's site. He includes all the detail diagrams and details for basic-electrical-wiring. Clicking on his site opens a new window. To return to this site, simply exit that page.

As a final note, you may still be asking yourself if you could do this electrical wiring yourself. Yes, you could, but who would you blame if you did something wrong and your house burned down? And if they proved that it was your fault, do you have enough insurance to cover the loss?

Frankly, that is why you hire an electrician to do your basic-electrical-wiring, and that is the very reason electricians carry good insurance. Enough said!

SEE
• Power Hook-up
  
  
• Finish Electrical
  
  
• Electrical diagram wiring
  
  
• Wiring for home theater surround sound
  
  
• Solar generator
  
  
• HVAC
  
  
• Include a central vac system in your new home

Building your own home to be free of a mortgage with 3 housebuilds

basic-electrical-wiring
Top of page