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sk1939
Premium Member
join:2010-10-23
Frederick, MD
ARRIS SB8200
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Juniper SRX320

sk1939 to GusHerb

Premium Member

to GusHerb

Re: [general] Why don't houses in the south have basements

said by GusHerb:

said by UHF:

said by GusHerb:

Sadly I do see more Romex wiring and Pex pipe for plumbing around here these days though.

Conduit seems to be a Chicago thing. I've lived in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin and all of those houses used Romex.

Yes it is a Chicago thing. Most other places have been using Romex since it first became big in the 40s/50s. Something I'm very glad hasn't caught on here until the past decade! Having metal conduit (aka EMT) made it incredibly easy to re-wire my grandmas 1950 ranch style home, and do a number of changes/add ons around our house over the years. If it were Romex, holes would have had to have been made and wires would've needed fishing through the walls.

Also made our building in the city easy to re-wire for the previous owners, it is all iron pipe (conduit) original to the building from 1915. (the place actually had gas lighting and electricity put in together when it was built)

Single family homes in the suburbs usually used knob and tube wiring until the late 20s or so, then it was all EMT from there.

Conduit is expensive, a PITA to work with when installing it, and union fodder, but it is nice once in place.
GusHerb
join:2011-11-04
Chicago, IL

GusHerb

Member

said by sk1939:

Conduit is expensive, a PITA to work with when installing it, and union fodder, but it is nice once in place.

Yes I agree, it is a pain. If you can do it and do a neat job though, you are an artist. When my parents built their home 23 years ago my dad and my uncle who is an electrical engineer did all the wiring, all EMT. My uncle had very good pipe bending skills, his work is a masterpiece. I can tell what parts my dad did though....it looks, well, not perfect. hahahah.

It was also funny because over the years I have changed out most of the wiring devices and many light fixtures in this house and can also tell which fixtures/devices my dad wired up vs ones that someone else did... because he used the "backstabs" on the devices and also some old school splices, instead of wire nuts hahaha.
AVonGauss
Premium Member
join:2007-11-01
Boynton Beach, FL

AVonGauss to sk1939

Premium Member

to sk1939
said by sk1939:

Conduit is expensive, a PITA to work with when installing it, and union fodder, but it is nice once in place.

Conduit is cheap, paying the person to install it at today's rates, not so cheap. The first time you have to do any major change, imho, it pays for itself though.
GusHerb
join:2011-11-04
Chicago, IL

GusHerb

Member

said by AVonGauss:

said by sk1939:

Conduit is expensive, a PITA to work with when installing it, and union fodder, but it is nice once in place.

Conduit is cheap, paying the person to install it at today's rates, not so cheap. The first time you have to do any major change, imho, it pays for itself though.

Yeah the stuff is cheap, we've installed a bit of it over the years. Never paid anyone to install it though, have been able to do it ourselves. Not impossible to do if you just calculate and measure right.

We have added 3 circuits to this house and done some 3 way switch additions, and several new outlets and indeed having the EMT made it so convenient. Also gives you freedom to set up circuits how you want, after the fact. with 38 circuits in our house it would look like spaghetti by the panel if it were all Romex hahaha.

Beezel
join:2008-12-15
Las Vegas, NV

Beezel

Member

My personal preference is conduit. If I were building my own house I would have it.