Originally posted by hbiss:
Larry makes an excellent point. Why are you installing boxes anyway? Let the sparkie do his job and take the heat if there is a problem.
-Hal
To be blunt, I feel that 'pure' sparkies (i.e., no tel/data experience) have no more business putting in our conduit/boxes than they have doing any other aspect of our job. I've mentioned elsewhere on this forum some of the problems I've had with sparky installed conduit and boxes - there's enough horror stories there to make another thread.
ETA: I realize I didn't answer your question. We don't always do our own conduit work. Somewhere along the line we got into it.. I remember now: mid '07, EC bid the v/d work a 44 room addition onto a hotel when it changed brands. The LV crew was fired from that job and it fell into our lap. Conduit work started then.
Some jobs still do not call for conduit (or do but customer does not want to pay for it), so everything is free-wired like a home would be. I have never worked one of these jobs where the EC installed our boxes, and only one where the studs were actually marked for us.
How does one have a "bay" with a staggered wood stud wall? 2x6" top and bottom plates with 2x4" studs staggered every 8" means the entire wall is a bay. This type of construction is prevalent in smaller (90 rooms or less) hotels in the area.
Even with separated bays, room layouts are often so tight that moving, say, a data box for a desk, 2' either way often means it's going to end up behind a cabinent, armoir, picture, mirror, or even inside a closet.
Larry, right now, I've got the opposite mindset of you: every time we run across an unfishable, missing, unfinished, or stubbed out to an inaccessable space conduit, I ask myself "Why did we let the EC do our conduit/box work?"
Back on topic, I will make it a point to get with the AHJ when I can. In most cases right now, it's too little, too late as the jobs are already under contract. Adding in several k of putty pads/sheetock baffles/whatever to a job for proper/required firestops not bid that way will bite the boss, not me.
Am I wrong in thinking that UL Fire Resistance Directory is supposed to have products, applications, ratings, etc. that building codes and NFPA (and the NEC?) are based upon? It might not have all the answers I'm looking for, but it can't hurt to have a copy either.
That there is no apparent definitive answer to the question of box separation and firestopping is troubling. AHJs are too variable in their knowledge - some are extremely well-learned, others seem somewhat oblivious to v/d/v cabling other than an occasional "is that plenum wire?" or "keep it off the ceiling grids and sprinkler pipes". I'm sure we've all seen things pass inspections that shouldn't or have been failed for proper work.
Jack
