If you're renovating a home and maybe adding some rooms to help with your growing family, you'll probably be looking at your electrical installation. With more people comes more demand for energy, and in modern-day society, there's an electrical gadget for almost every reason. With this in mind, you probably have to add new circuits to these additional rooms, and these will have to be planned and installed very carefully. In particular, you need to know about "chasing" electrical wires efficiently and safely, so what is involved here?
Adding Electrical Outlets
Many people in your situation will add new walls that may not be load-bearing but are designed to segregate larger spaces and make the house more efficient. You may want to add switches or electrical outlets to some of these walls and will, of course, need to connect wiring to provide the electricity. This wiring has to be fed through those walls in a particular fashion, which is known as "chasing" in the industry.
Installing Channels
Simply put, individual channels (the chases) have to be cut into the wall so that wiring can get from one point to another. These channels can only move vertically or horizontally and must be cut very precisely based on the thickness of the wall itself. You are not allowed to run the chases back to back, and they are meant to be either horizontal or vertical but not diagonal. They should also be placed in the most efficient manner, and the wiring should run in a logical fashion from the entry point to the outlet or switch.
Functional, Safe and Logical
Remember, the chase is supposed to be a functional way of feeding wiring from source to destination. It can in no way impair the wall's stability, which is why great care has to be taken during construction, and a chase may never be laid back-to-back. Indeed, if you cut through a wall from both sides to run two separate chases, there won't be much of the actual wall left!
How the Experts Do It
It makes sense to leave this work to the experts while you focus on other areas of your renovation. After all, you will need to bring in a qualified electrician to wire your new installation, and they are very familiar with how to chase those channels. They will come equipped with the necessary tools and make swift and efficient progress towards your overall goal.
For more information, contact electrical contractors near you.
