Building a new home is a massive undertaking. Even when you’re working with great contractors, if you’re like most people, chances are you’ll be overwhelmed by the many steps involved in going from a vacant lot to a building you can live in. When the work gets to things that take a fair amount of technical understanding, like plumbing and electrical, it can get even more confusing.
Here are the steps that are involved in new residential wiring, to take some of the mystery out of the process:
- Your plans are drawn up by the home designer or architect. The blueprints will show the locations of fittings, outlets and other electrical items that need to be installed in your home, and they will be updated every time there are changes made to the design plan.
- The main contractor building your home will obtain permits for the building, and they’ll start with the excavations, foundations, and structural elements of the home.
- Once the foundations are done and the framing for the home is nearly completed, it’ll be time to put in the rough ins, or the wiring, conduit and other elements of your home’s electrical system that are hidden behind the walls.
- Your electrical contractor will visit your home with a set of plans, and mark out the locations of all the major elements of the electrical installation.
- While on site, they’ll double check dimensions, measurements and count off outlets, fixtures and other materials. These materials will then be requisitioned from the electrical contracting company’s stock, or ordered in from a supplier for delivery to site.
- Once the materials arrive on site, outlets and can lights are nailed into place, directly onto the framing, in the positions where they will be. That’s why marking is so important! It can be confusing to figure out where things are in a new framed home, and the markings help to ensure that everything goes in the right place.
- Once boxes are in place, the framing is drilled so that wires can pass through framing members to reach the various parts of the home.
- Wire is then pulled to the various boxes and connected, as well as being secured to framing where necessary.
- Once all the wires are connected, the service equipment, which will include the main panel, meter box, grounding and conduits and the service wire will all be installed.
- After everything is installed and ready to go, the electrician in South Florida will inspect the whole installation, before the government inspection of the wiring is carried out.
- Once the rest of the house is completed, external features like lighting fixtures, will be installed in the completed shell of the home.
The good news is that while residential wiring may be complicated to you, a good residential contractor will do this sort of job every day, and as long as your blueprints are accurate and your general contractor plans well, it should go off without a hitch in a very short amount of time.
If you have any concerns though, be sure to ask. Most contractors are only too happy to explain how things work to their customers!
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