Is this how one runs cable when upgrading a house?

[DaveC426913]

TL;DR Summary

Getting some electrical upgrades in our recently-purhased house. I've never seen so many holes.

Is this common practice?

There's 4 holes cut in this wall (one in the left way at the top) to run a light and light switch in the room on the other side.

This electrician (who has done work for us before) was given instructions to install various circuits in our finished basement. Some of them are in our kitchen, but these are in the laundry room, to provide a wall switched light in the office.

Here's the layout (with new circuit/light/switch):

You can see the holes are in the laundry room side, so, granted, they're a utilitarian room. (And these room divisions are recent, and amateur by the previous owner. So pretty crummy.) There are no such holes in the office side of the wall itself.

(Although my kitchen bulkheads over the cupboards are riddled with cutouts.)

 

[Tom.G]

That first photo shows what is going on.

To run wiring inside the walls the electrician has to drill holes thru the studs (the wood visible inside the central hole in the photo). These run from the floor to the ceiling and add stiffness to the wall, may help support the ceiling, and supply something to nail the wallboard to.

Here in the States, the spacing between studs is usually 16 inches, but 24 inch spacing is occassionally found in some construction types.

Depending on what is in the way, they can sometimes us a very long auger bit to drill thru two studs at once.

Those big holes in the ceiling are for access to run the wires through the attic space. The top ends of studs mentioned above are nailed to a board at the top of the wall, so holes must also be drilled there for wire passage.

Off hand, it looks like he is doing a rather neat job.

Hang in there! This too shall pass. (Construction is MESSY. It's the results that count.)

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Rive]

Getting some electrical upgrades in our recently-purhased house. I've never seen so many holes.

If you are depressed about the mess, then think about the classic European houses with solid (brick) walls

(The same mess if 'it's just an upgrade' too)

 

[DaveC426913]

To run wiring inside the walls the electrician has to drill holes thru the studs (the wood visible inside the central hole in the photo). These run from the floor to the ceiling and add stiffness to the wall, may help support the ceiling, and supply something to nail the wallboard to.

Yeah, I've constructed a few walls in my time.

I guess retrofitting a house is what's new to me.

I live in an old home for 30 years. The way they retrofitted it before we moved in was to run cable along outside the baseboards throughout the living room, so u guess I shouldn't complain

 

[DaveC426913]

(Construction is MESSY. It's the results that count.)

Guess who's gonna be patching those holes...

 

[Guineafowl]

Yes, wall chasing is a popular sport here, digging out channels in solid plaster/brick. There are special tools for it, rather like an angle grinder with a very wide blade that cuts the channel all in one Go.

Stringing cable through a stud wall often means encountering dead ends, so you have to make a cutout to broach through and continue.

Once patched up it should be good for a good few decades. Two things to think about:

1: Consider doubling the number of sockets while you’re at it. Seriously.
2: What else can you run in there while the wall’s open: Cat5? fibre optic? Water? TV? Heating control wire?