Any carpenters/electricians out there?..Quick question.

[jake42]

Okay, so i'm redoing my basement and using metal studs to frame the walls.  Acutally my neighbor is doing most of the work, but I need to rerun some of my electricical lines.  I've never worked with metal studs before and I'm not sure if I need to line the knockouts in the studs with something before I run my wires through there.  The edges seem pretty sharp and I don't know how I feel about just laying my wire in there.  I"ll probably head down to lowe's tomorrow and ask some questions, but figured I'd ask here first.

Jake

[TheGoodGuy]

i think you got to line the thing with the flexible pipe before you put it in.. it will be safer too.

[Stephen072774]

i think you got to line the thing with the flexible pipe before you put it in.. it will be safer too.

Conduit.  yep, its what i'd do too.

[Jake D]

I don't think you need coduit.  It won't hurt just to run the wire through.

[jake42]

yep I just talked to a commercial carpenter friend of mine and he said they always run BX conduit (that flexible metal piping) and then run their electrical and data lines through that.  Looks like I'll just be running it up through the joists and back down.

jake

[nemesis109]

BX(metallic sheathed cable) would be your best bet besides conduit, plus I am pretty sure it is required since you have metal studs. Not to sure about residential wiring though. It is better to be safe than sorry.

[nemesis109]

yep I just talked to a commercial carpenter friend of mine and he said they always run BX conduit (that flexible metal piping) and then run their electrical and data lines through that.  Looks like I'll just be running it up through the joists and back down.

jake

That is flexible metal conduit your friend is talking about. It doesn't come with wires inside. As in my previous post BX cable would be much easier. It already has the wire in it. I am pretty sure you would need 12/2 with a ground.

[jake42]

yeah, I realized after I typed it that the BX already has the wires in it.  Turns out that I don't have to run up and over, I can run behind the studs since I have about 1/2" back there.

Jake

[Cal Price]

I am doing a fair bit of work involving lifting floors etc at home. One very valuable lesson learned it that whilst you have the opportunity leave some string or twine in situ to-and-from key points so that if you need to put in another cable you can avoid tearing up the whole floor, just the key spots and pull it through. As you do this pull a fresh twine with it and so on.

This has veen invaluable to me recently re-routing some aerial and phone cable.

[yamahonkawazuki]

another tip, when running wire, use a product called a lightning rod, (used to pull wire thru holes, up wall cavities etc