Episode 006 1995 - 96 Season
| Plumbing Top Out | Window Treatments (design) | Electrical Rough-In | Toilet Repair | Steel Frame Rough-In | Dimmer Switch Installation | FHA Loans | |
To order a Video Tape, call 1-800-TO-BUILD and ask for Episode #006.
Michael Holigan: When we're installing our electrical or our plumbing in a steel frame house, we're working with a little bit of a different animal. Now it's not more costly to do, and it's not harder to do. It's just different. So we're going to bring in our steel specialist, Courtney Hanson, from Advanced Framing Systems. Good to have you back Courtney.
Courtney Hanson: Hello Michael.
M.H.: Hey, tell me about this. The copper is wrapped in rubber. What is that for?
C.H.: Well, it does two things Michael. First of all, it isolates the copper from the galvanized metal to prevent any chemical interaction between the two, and secondly, it isolates the pipe inside the stud so you don't get those banging studs.
M.H.: When you turn on the water?
C.H.: Exactly.
M.H.: How about our electrical, our cable TV, everything else that we bring in?
C.H.: 'Kay, Brad is running the electrical through here right now. He's using a product called a Green Leaf Punch. This takes the place of the guy with the speed bit in the end of an electric drill going through and drilling these studs. How about you try one of those?
M.H.: Yeah, let me see this.
C.H.: And then he snapped the grommet into each one of those, and we dragged the romax.
M.H.: It is much faster than a drill, isn't it?
C.H.: Just like you would complete the electrical process, just like you would in the other way.
M.H.: And the grommet is so that the electrical line never touches the stud if it gets bared?
C.H.: Right, and also, you know when you're installing you're romax in the studs you're pulling the wire through the stud like that and it ensures that there's never any chance of the metal being sharp and fraying the insulation off the wiring. From this point on, it installs exactly like, exactly like you would wire any conventional house.
M.H.: I've built about, oh I'd say half a dozen to a dozen steel frame houses and one question always comes up about electrical, and that's electrical storms. Are you any worse off in a steel frame house during a lightening storm than you would be a wood house?
C.H.: Actually, you're probably safer in a steel frame house than you would be in a conventional home. When lightening strikes a conventional home, it's looking for a path to ground. So it's either going to hunt until it finds either a plumbing or an electrical chase to get to ground, doing some damage as it's going. If lightening should strike a steel frame home, any place that it strikes, any piece of framing that it strikes is a direct path to ground, so it's actually a safer product.
M.H.: So you're not going to blow up your TV the next time you get hit my lightening?
C.H.: The lightening has a much safer path to ground, right.
M.H.: Courtney I see that there's other grommets already installed about that. What would that be for?
C.H.: The electrician has installed those for the contractors so that the cable TV and the telephone can be run through those. While he's on site it's just easier to do at that time.
M.H.: And you don't want to run it through the same chase as the electrical lines.
C.H.: Exactly.
M.H.: We're going to come back after you insulate and watch you put up some sheet rock.
C.H.: Thank you Michael.
Episode 006 1995 - 96 Season
| Plumbing Top Out | Window Treatments (design) | Electrical Rough-In | Toilet Repair | Steel Frame Rough-In | Dimmer Switch Installation | FHA Loans | |
To order a Video Tape, call 1-800-TO-BUILD and ask for Episode #006.