This weeks focus was on preparing for Shotcrete… The basic studs and lath were up, but we needed to get all the rough electrical and rebar in place. Sherri and I had a lot of work to do.
Here is the video.
The electrical rough-in inspection must be done before the walls are closed up. Usually, that means before drywall, but for us, it means before shotcrete. In our township, electrical inspections are done only during a few specific hours each week, so we had to catch the two-hour Wednesday morning slot or Shotcrete would be delayed to the following week.
I has carefully designed the electrical layout weeks before, and then tweaked it based on Sherri’s input. Now, Sherri and I just needed to work as quickly as we could to place the boxes, run the conduit and then finally, pull the wires thru. We used Carlon ENT (smurf tube) and I had quite a hassle getting all the boxes that I needed. Next time, I will order in advance, but that is another story.
The process took longer than I expected, you can see I am working on it several days the week before. We still had work to do on this inspection day, so we came in very early and got going. We had not been finished long when the inspector arrived. He was very pleasant and actually said he appreciated that we were doing the electrical ourselves. That was a surprise because I expected that any inspector, especially one who was a professional electrician himself, would be somewhat against the idea of home owners taking on their own electrical. He made a few small suggestions for how to keep concrete out of the openings, and handed us our “approved” inspection paperwork.
Next, Sherri and I got going on Rebar. Mostly, I was cutting and Sherri was tying.
At the end of the day, my friend, Nate, arrived to check out the site. He had been up from Indiana for a conference in Ann Arbor. He reminded me that I had first told him about this idea at my dining room table nearly 6 years ago. I didn’t ask if he thought I was crazy, then or now ;^)