How to Run Non-Metallic Sheathed Electrical Cable
Learn how to avoid kinks when running Romex-style cable.
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Use these tips on your next electrical rough-in project to keep your Romex® brand or other non-metallic cables from getting all kinked.
In this Building Skills video, senior editor Andy Engel shows how he:
- Drills framing for wiring
- Unrolls cable to keep it organized and kink-free
- Staples cables to framing near electrical boxes
- Adds nail plates to protect cables passing through framing
View Comments
Anyone with basic carpentry skills can make a basic romex-style cable un-spooler out of jobsite waste plywood and 1x2's. Hung from a ceiling joist on waste cable it will allow one person to easily pull wire without kinking and without the mess that hand un-spooling makes of a coil of cable. I have pictures but don't see a way to post them here. This is not my original idea by any means as I just borrowed it from my friendly electrician.
Okay so I have a kink in the Romex I installed when adding a new 15 amp circuit. It is in the attic a few feet from the hole going down to the main panel. When I discovered it I was concerned that it might be a hazard, but then I was thinking that copper is pretty malleable and is bent around terminal screws all the time. Should I cut this section out to be safe?
Humperdink, you probably have nothing to worry about. The main concern with kinks is that they make it hard to pull the cable. Yes, in theory, a kink in the cable might lead to a break in the wire, but as you say, copper is quite malleable. Repeated bending could break the wire, but I've never seen simple kink cause trouble.
Bmumsell, you're right. And there are also some pretty cool commercially available cable spinners out there. But for the amount of wiring I do (just on my own house these days), any sort of cable spinner would just be one more damn tool I have to store.