Minimum is 6" by the NEC code book.

 

taping is a good practice to have wether required by code or not. its just one more layer of protection for yourself. do i do it all the time? no. should i? probably.

 

In commercial work many Union contractors would still get ya on the first layoff go around if you spent time with tape, heck they supplied Makita's with a wire nut driver in the chuck. Besides having to press 1 to speak to fellow members, being careful what ya say to the women to not turn it into a sexual comment problem. Turned into a who ya blow not know trade with some working only because their family owns the shop. Be out of work for months then forced to take a 80 hour or longer job like 3 weeks then go to the bottom of the books again. Lucky me most shops I worked in I was around for 5-8 years each. Scotch 33 is becoming a thing of the past with many contractors suppling tape made in China, yup the real good sticky stuff.

 

In 35 years of doing elec I've only taped a few that were in small metal boxes. Taped a few wire nuts not many. Work with power on often. Was taught to check for power with two fingers. Still do at times. Never had an issue without tape esp in plastic boxes. Kinda nice if you have to get an outlet out and its hot if its taped..

Dick

 

I tape em when I replace em

 

[QUOTE=rcav8or]Whoa, THAT'S scarry stuff! Too many homeowners have shut the power off with the wall switch, just to find that it's still hot, just doesn't have the return, and THEY become the return! My 1891 built house started out 2-wire, **** and tube. Slowly redoing it myself, so I know your pain. Just hope I can get it done BEFORE the fire!!

Thats how We found out at the time I was afraid to do any electric work and had a bad receptical in my bedroom,so I called a buddy that is a electrician to stop by after work and take a look,he shut off the wall switch and went down and removed the receptical and BOOM! sparks were a flying.

 

That's easy.

Imagine for a second your house burns down, resulting in a total loss of home, property, and valuables.

Further imagine for a second your insurance company's investigator discovers that you violated electrical code for any reason - including but not limited to not taping, adding circuits without a permit, and so on.

Now consider how insurance companies make money - collecting premiums and not paying out policies. Note it's often cheaper to defend litigation from screwed consumers than to pay out every policy that's required to be paid.

Remember how cheap electrical tape is.

 

Please show me where this is required in the NEC and the code section number.

 

Beemer,

I never said the NEC required taping. I said various municipalities I've done electrical work in does - they've added this on top of the NEC codebook by specifically mentioning it as part of the bid document.

Having won several jobs with this requirement in the bid document I can make an "observational guess" as to why.

When building out massive amounts of office space, the framers start off the first 20' or so of non-structural wall. The electrical and plumbing unions then start their work in that section of open wall. Once they are done, they move to the next section which the framers just finished, and the sheet rock union attacks the first section. They slap up the sheet rock right off the pallets, then they stick their sheet rock saws into where they expect the electrical boxes to be, then use the inside perimeter of the electrical box as a saw guide to make the required rectangular hole.

In theory the power should be off, but on occasion people flip things life because massive quantities of overhead, office-style flourescent lighting is much easier to work with than many poorly aimed worklights - worklights with long, tangled power cords going every which way.

I added my local town to the list because when I built out my recording studio in the garage loft of my house, I underwent an electrical inspection. The inspector made a huge stink about several things. The first stink was that the 8-gang electrical box was hidden behind a door in the wall. This was part of the design for acoustical reasons. I won that battle. However, inside that 8-gang box are 4 individual circuits and eight devices. One circuit driving two dimmers for overhead halogen track lighting in various places, two switches for flourescent lighting and an "accessory" outlet in the back corner of the room. The remaining four devices were connected to the other three circuits - two regular switches on one circuit for general purpose use (duplexes scattered throughout the room) and the remaining two circuits have key-lock switches - one for the computer, computer monitors, hard drive recorders and the other for the rest of the recording gear which requires a common ground and to be on the same phase in order to avoid the dreaded audio hum that ruins many such audio rooms.

Anyway, now that you have a picture of the work I did, the electrical inspector essentially pitched a fit that I didn't wrap the outlets, switches, and other devices scattered throughout the room. I did it while he waited, to avoid waiting another four weeks for him to be willing to come out here yet again.

Again, I would have to guess why the Woodbridge Township NJ requires taping, but it's probably due to my having four circuits drawn to one 8-gang metal electrical box. Work on one circuit and accidentally knock off a wire nut from a different circuit (and possibly different phase) and have a potential of 240V in the box across the knuckles.

Hey, the guy said it was required... so if it is and I don't do it, well, my insurance company could use that against me to not pay "God forbid".

That's just my experience.

 

I was taught by my grandpa so its old school all the way.

I always tape, better safe than sorry. Not always required but I like to and feel safe, esp since most of the stuff I have done is on or around metal boxes.

I have HVAC electricians (and other commercial electricians) as friends and they and I only use the screw in type connctions. In fact usually when we get together we talk about the cheap "stuff" made today and stories of wires corroding or coming out of the push in connections. I always buy "heavier commercial" switches, good 3m tape, and outlets and switches with scew in connectors. If you spend some more time at Ace, Lowes, Home Depot etc. you will find sometimes hidden the heavier duty switches that will last longer than the cheap switch they have like 5 huge boxes of.

Arghh, I hate cheap stuff, hey isn't that why we like our Fords?