The few such garages and sheds I did for myself and for a couple of friends and neighbors years ago I used PVC conduit. Although perhaps quite adequate for most domestic garages, I'm not especially keen on seeing T&E just surface run. By the time you mess around with terminating SWA into glands and getting it cleated looking reasonably straight, I think it takes as much if not more time as installing PVC conduit and pulling singles. Steel conduit is obviously more time-consuming, more exprensive, and seems a little excessive for a typical domestic garage.
SWA or conduit?
- Thread starter bubachuba
- Start date
Sponsored Links
I wired my garage lights in pyro, and the sockets in steel conduit.
- Joined
- 1 Jul 2015
- Messages
- 99
- Reaction score
- 8
- Country
Plastic conduit on the drops to switches/sockets, most likely surface clipped for the rest along the roof/upper walls.
Metal conduit if money no object (which is never).
SWA would be pointless, as it would take longer than steel conduit, look far worse and cost wouldn't be any less.
Metal conduit if money no object (which is never).
SWA would be pointless, as it would take longer than steel conduit, look far worse and cost wouldn't be any less.
Sponsored Links
- Joined
- 1 Jul 2015
- Messages
- 99
- Reaction score
- 8
- Country
Thank you flame.
I think i might run a single piece of conduit straight from the consumer unit around the top of the wall and then tee off for lighting, switch and sockets with the 1.5 and 2.5 inside.
Attachments
That's what I did for my last such job for a neighbor in England in a small workshop. Having the horizontal runs up out of the way and just vertical drops to each socket left all the wall space between sockets and switches clear for tool boards etc. Horizontal runs between sockets at a lower level would have gotten in the way rather more.
One nice thing over here is the easy availability of different types of both plastic and metallic conduit. PVC comes in Schedule 40 and Schedule 80, the latter being heavier for when you could use that extra ruggedness but don't need to go to metallic. Similarly, if you want metallic but without wanting to go to heavy gauge steel, there are choices such as EMT (Electrical Metallic Tubing - something like the thinwall conduit which can still be found in some 1920's/1930's houses in Britain), which is much cheaper and quicker to install.
Do you mean the seamed stuff, held together with fittings (couplers, bends, Tees etc.) which secured to the conduit/tubing by grub screws?
Kind Regards, John
That's the stuff. There's also an intermediate conduit, threaded in the same way as the heavy gauge and interchangeable, but thinner and lighter (and cheaper, of course).
It always amazed me how many (usually cloth covered) conductors they sometimes managed to get into those small 'tubes'. Did they rely on that conduit as a 'CPC'?
Kind Regards, John
Steel conduit.What's your preference?
And I'd also use it (or pyro
) in a shed with nothing more threatening in it than bags of compost, empty flower pots and over-wintering patio furniture.Surface clipped T&E is the love child of D J Trump and S Palin.
PVC conduit is better, but nowhere near steel.
Depends on why you are doing it.
Is that just an aesthetic comment, or do you feel that the cable needs protection, if only from bags of compost and flower pots?Steel conduit. And I'd also use it (or pyro
As a more general comment (given the nature of this forum), I don't really think that steel conduit is often, if ever, going to be a viable option for an 'occasional DIYer'.
Kind Regards, John
Sure, I'm not suggesting that there might never be a reason for using it in a domestic garage nor that there might never be such a case in which I'd consider it myself. I just think that PVC conduit is probably adequate for the typical domestic garage (assuming it's installed satisfactorily).
Yes. The EMT employed here in the U.S. is still used as a grounding conductor.
I suspected/feared that. I have to say that I would not have had that much faith in the electrical continuity with some of those fittings, and I rather doubt that measurements of earth continuity were often a feature of work back in the days when that stuff was being installed over here!
Kind Regards, John
I would have thought that given "Surface clipped T&E is the love child of D J Trump and S Palin" and "nothing more threatening in it than bags of compost, empty flower pots and over-wintering patio furniture" everybody could work that out.
Nonsense. It's a perfectly viable option for anybody who wants it.
DIYnot Local
Staff member
If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.
Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.
Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local
Sponsored Links
