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albertm_gw

Junction box hidden

albertm
15 years ago

My basement has two circuits running in one conduit to a junction box in the open ceiling. At the Jbox they branch into two conduits running to different parts of my basement. The Jbox appears to simply be a means of branching from one conduit to two. The wires are continuous (not cut or spliced in the junction box).

The Jbox has a solid cover. So the circuits are a continous run from the circuit panel to the outlet boxes with not cuts or splices.

Is it acceptable to enclose this Jbox in a drywall ceiling, since the wires are continuous?

Comments (11)

  • jmvd20
    15 years ago

    The box must remain accessible.

  • electricman
    15 years ago

    J boxes (junction boxes) are designed to have joints/splices in them. If EMT conduit was ran (metal pipe) the only reason that J box is there is because the electrician had more bends in his conduit than he wanted so he had to place a Jbox there due to codes. NEC code book only allows 360 degrees in a run of conduit from the panel to a junction box. He was maxed out on bends in the conduit so he placed the Jbox there to give him more pipe to work with and another 360 degrees to bend. Thats why the wires are just passing through and there is no joints in the box. If you are worried about a inspector have it inspected before you cover it. If its already passed inspection you are good to go! Tho If the wire ever needs to be replaced or a new circuit is wanted to be added. It will be close to impossible to get a fish tape through all those bends in the conduit. Though conduit is not a requirement for a residential home and romex can easily be used instead. In fact im not sure why that guy even ran conduit. I would ask a inspector or call your local electrician to double check that because the codes are different pending on where you live. I hope this helps.

  • Ron Natalie
    15 years ago

    The conduit may be required in his jurisdiction. People don't tend to go to that length when not necessary.

    I doubt it's the bend limit, the OP says it's a Y connection. Some of the conductors go one way, some go another.

  • electricman
    15 years ago

    Yea your right I miss read that. "At the Jbox they branch into two conduits running to different parts of my basement" I was thinking 2 conduits hit a JBOX then turned out with no spices in them. That makes more sense. I still dont see a reason you could not drywall over them tho??

  • jmvd20
    15 years ago

    Junction boxes, pull boxes, whatever term we want to use for this particular situation is beside the point. Also it makes no difference if there are splices contained inside of the box or not.

    The reason that you cannott drywall over the box is because it must remain accessible - period.

  • BStras21_gmail_com
    13 years ago

    Nice reason, hope you didn't hurt your brain on that!

  • brickeyee
    13 years ago

    A box can be used to satisfy the 350 Ldegree bend rule without actually making a splice.

    You pull the wires to the box, then continue them on unbroken.

    It does NOT mean they were a continuous pule.

  • brickeyee
    13 years ago

    360 degree (four 90s)

  • DavidR
    13 years ago

    The code says that junction boxes have to be accessable. I don't have the reference here, but I don't recall any exceptions for junction boxes that don't contain splices. I suppose you could propose such an exception for the next code cycle.

  • fixizin
    13 years ago

    Can a T-body be used in that situation, and if so, could it then be concealed?

  • fixizin
    13 years ago

    ... you never know... until you pore over 3,247 pages of the NEC... 2011 Edition, lol.