Need some advice about wiring basement

 I am finishing my basement and need some tips on how to do a few things for
rough in.  I am in Gwinnett County, GA if that matters.

Specifically:

1) I definitely will have some sort of drop ceiling, probably acoustic tile but
there is a small possibility it may be sheet rock.  The ceiling will drop about
a foot or so from the bottom of the joists.
   a) I assume that any electrical runs to lighting in the ceiling (cans, etc)
will require armored cable since the wire is unsupported/unprotected from the
joist to the tile?  
   b) I also assume that this means I will need to terminate the NMB cable into
a metal junction box, and run the armored cable from there to the fixtures?
   c) for rough-in there will be no actual fixtures...so how do I terminate the
armored cable?  Or do I not run any armored cable at all until fixtures are
there?

2) What is used to rough-in wall lights (for example the bathroom), a standard
circular fixture box like they used for the ceiling?

3) Will the inspector examine only what I have done?  ie if he/she sees
something that is sloppy but was done by the home builder, could I be required
to fix it?  That would seem rather unfair since THEY were supposed to get it
inspected to get the CO...

  On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 15:08:40 -0500, someone wrote:


Wow.  How high is your basement?  That is unusual, to have enough room
in a basement to drop a foot and still have decent ceiling height.



Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.

 9' basement walls are common in new construction.

 

tile but

fixtures?

terminate the

standard

required

Save yourself at lot of worry.  Formalize your intentions and try to meet
with the inspector at his office before you start work. Explain what you
plan to do and ask if that is correct for your area.  I have never found any
inspector unwilling to work with a homeowner who cares enough to want to do
it right.

Why do you want to drop the ceiling?

Now to try and answer a few of your questions. These answers are based on
this locale.  Each area has their own little quirks even though they all use
the same code.

1. There can be no junction boxes concealed above a drywall ceiling. All
junction boxes must be accessible. I don't know about armored for the one
foot drop.  I do know that nm can not run across a metal grid for a dropped
ceiling.  In a normal situation without the drop NM is run to each can
light.

2. yes or possibly a switch box it depends on the fixture. For some fixtures
you just have the wire there for the rough in and make the final connection
inside the fixture.

3. Normally yes

Colbyt

 On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 21:44:48 GMT, "Colbyt"



Because I have to.  Duct work, gas lines, water lines etc run all
across under the joists.


I had thought about this because I knew junction boxes could not be
enclosed.  I guess the only way to do this correctly (ie dropped
drywall) is to run armored cable everywhere?  I don't know how I could
do that logistically, and it would require significant rework.