Wiring a House: 5th Edition

When we decided to build a new house, we were looking for any way we could to save money. I'd wired some fans, garage door openers, some outside outlets, and stuff like that, but I'd never done anything like wiring my own house. But my overconfidence in myself got the better of me and I volunteered to my builder that I wanted to do the electrical work myself. The electrical bid was for $9300, and the builder thought we could do it ourselves for around $3000. I wanted to add in central vac and some structured wiring, so we decided to make the bid $5500. Then I had a few months to study this book, and yes, this book is the only one I studied. I read it just about every day, going to the home improvement stores to look at the stuff I was reading about and tried to get a feel for how things worked and were put together. When it came time to wire, I was excited. I dug right in, started on the service entrance, continued on with installing boxes and then pulling wire. Rex says if you know what you're doing, you can pull a whole house yourself in about a week. I obviously didn't know what I was doing, and I finished in about a month. That was one week of time off my regular job working about 10 hours a day on the house, and 3 weeks of working a couple hours a night on odds and ends finishing it up. So that was the first thing I was disappointed with--his time estimate was far from how it turned out for me. The second thing I was disappointed with was that it didn't say anywhere in the book anything about where I could or couldn't put the meter. I guess the problem is that the national code doesn't specify anything about it, but it is specified by my local electrical company. So about 3 weeks after I had installed it, I had to move it. The only other things I got wrong from reading his book were how much wire to get and where to put staples. He says for a 2,000 square foot house, you'll need 10 rolls of 12-2, 2 rolls of 14-2, and 2 rolls of 14-3. My house is 2,200 square feet and I needed 15 rolls 12-2, 5 rolls of 14-2, and 3 rolls of 14-3. But maybe I got a little fancier than the standard. And then with the staples, I'm pretty sure I read that he said to staple wire within 8-12 inches of where it enters the box. But my inspector said it has to be less than 8 inches. So that's the one thing I failed inspection on. THAT'S IT! Can you believe it? My first attempt at completely wiring a house, and I got it almost all right! I'm in between rough-in and finish right now, while I wait for the sheetrockers and painters and all those other guys. But the hard part is over. This book is definitely a keeper! Oh, and if you're curious, I came in quite a bit over budget at about $7,700, but that's WITH tools, central vac, a very cool structured wiring system (telephone, cable, intercom, and network), some low-voltage lighting for some decorative architectural stuff our builder threw in, and even some in-ceiling speakers for one of my roo

I've decided to remodel my spare bedroom. It's one of those "furnished closet" type spaces that tends to collect junk at an alarming rate. While it's a lovely little room when it's empty, it disappears in the furniture that gets put into it. Even the sliding glass doors over the small balcony don`t give one an illusion of spaceousness. I had a roommate for a while who used that room, and she had to climb over her bed just to get to her bureau. The plan is to put up lighted crown molding to add dimension and indirect lighting to the room and to remodel the ample closet space into a bureau cum mini-closet cum desk area. By putting in a full sized futon, I can use the room as a sitting room/spare bedroom, and without the clutter, it'll seem quite spacious. To accomplish my goal, the project required some rewiring of the room, so I found three books that seemed to have the information I needed: Wiring 1-2-3 by the people at Home Depot, The Complete Guide to Home Wiring by the Black and Decker people, and Wiring a House by Rex Cauldwell. Each is an excellent book with much to offer, but I definitely found that each had a slant that made it specialized in some way. Of the three books, only the Cauldwell book was written in a person-to-person format. The author is a third generation electrician with years of experience, and as he says quite charmingly, "I have written this book from lifelong experience and knowledge--some of which has been passed down through each generation. However, there is no one within my family to pass the gauntlet to--no fourth generation to pick up the trade. Therefore, by reading this book you will become heir to my knowledge and experience. You, in effect, will become the fourth generation (p. 1)." His style is very much master of the craft to learning apprentice, explaining all facets of his field from how electricity is produced, how it is measured, what types of wires carry it to and into your home, and what tools one needs to do electrical work. He not only provides the information, he tells the reader the "whys" of what is, which I find helpful because it permits one to problem solve and trouble shoot more effectively. Particularly useful are those things that he tells the reader to avoid and what can happen when they aren't! The drawings are very helpful, particularly as they are clearer than photographs can be. Sometimes less is more in this regard. The schematic of the main floor of a house (pp. 22-23) which detailed how wiring is arranged for each room was quite helpful for my project, since it described what I should (and did) find in the walls when locating my power source and routing new wiring. I also found that the information on materials to select was helpful. I was able to go to the store and pick out just what I needed without any trouble at all.While the Cauldwell book is a good one to read from cover to cover because of it's clear and thorough discussion of electronical wiring

Rex Cauldwell's book is an excellent text for those with basic electrical knowledge who are looking for guidance on safely performing common wiring tasks in new construction. The text is concise, practical, well-organized, and well-targeted for its audience. The photographs and illustrations are plentiful, clear, and well-coordinated with the text. His explanation of code requirements and recommendations on best practices are valuable, but should be checked against local codes.This book is not intended for, nor does it serve, people who have absolutely no experience with electricity, nor does it address the many issues associated with updating old wiring or remodeling. For those projects, I'd recommend David Shapiro's book, Your Old Wiring.

This book is user friendly and offers insight to persons with little experience and those who are near masters of the electrical trade. It is recommended to people dealing with housing rehabiltation, and is cited as a reference by the State of Ohio, Dept. of Development in the Standards for Residential Rehabilitation. Chapter that explains GFCI's is best yet. Also the information on testers available and recommended is rarely covered in electric books. I recently lent my copy to a vocational school instructor because it has code information, installation demonstrations, and best of all, the mistakes made. Worth every penny,and handy for beginners too.

I read this book from cover to cover then I used it as a guide to completely wire a new 5 room house. I had a master eletrician inspect my work and he found everything was according to code. I have recommended this book to other people and will continue to do so.