I chose to run conduit in a residential rewire when everyone said to fish the walls

Got a full house rewire in a 1920s bungalow in Cincinnati last month. The plaster walls are a mess, full of old knob and tube and random blocking. The other guys on the job said to just fish new Romex, patch the walls, and call it a day. I pushed back and said we should run surface-mount conduit on the basement ceiling and first floor walls where we could. It added about 15 hours to the job and the homeowner had to pay for the extra material and labor. But now, if they ever want to add a circuit or pull a network cable, it's a 10 minute job. The place looks clean, and the owner loves the industrial look in the basement. Everyone thought I was making extra work for no reason. Has anyone else gone against the grain like this on an old house job?

2 comments

2 Comments

paige_martin3d ago

My buddy did that on his 1910 craftsman in Dayton. Spent the extra on conduit in the attic crawlspace. He just ran a new line for his garage heater last week in like twenty minutes.

colemartinez3d ago

That's a smart move for future projects, but just to be clear, running a new line in twenty minutes sounds really fast. Pulling wire through existing conduit still takes some time to measure, cut, and make safe connections at both ends. Maybe he had everything prepped and ready to go. Still, having that conduit run from the panel is a huge time saver down the road.