How to Run Electrical Wire in Adobe Walls: Practical Guide

Before you can plan the electrical wire of your adobe home, you should check your national and local electrical code. Local building codes will be following the national code closely, but there will always be some differences.

If you are located in a Western country contact your local government office and ask to talk to the building department as there will be many more requirements.

The steps required to run electrical wire in adobe walls include planning the system, selecting wire and boxes, wiring circuits and boxes, and testing and labeling.

What you’ll need for run electrical wire in adobe walls:

Step 1 – Planning the electrical system

In this early planning stage is important for you to decide on the electrical requirements for your entire house.

Every person will have different needs when it comes to this, what might seem an overabundance of power outlets to someone, might be just enough for someone else. It’s important to dedicate some time to make these decisions.

Later, when you’ll live in the house, you’ll be happy to have placed extra power outlets, in order to have them handy wherever you might need them.

On the other hand, you might prefer a more minimalist approach to this, and live the power outlets to the bare essentials.

As a general rule, you should space your electrical outlets at least 12 feet (3.7 m) along the walls.

And always try to avoid at all costs the necessity for stretching a cord across a doorway or—even worst— under a rug; this has the potential for a serious fire hazard and should be taken very seriously.

Installing a few additional outlets around the home instead, it’s a much better solution.

In most houses, the only room without a ceiling light is usually the living room, where lamps plugged into the wall receptacle are generally found.

Decide how many switches to turn the light on and off you need in each and every room. Try to think where you would like to find a switch.

For example, it’s nice to have a switch by the entrance of each room or both ends of a hall. In some rooms perhaps you want to plan a light controlled by a dimmer switch, in order to create a low-light relaxing atmosphere.

Appropriate lighting is extremely important in the kitchen. For instance, you could place two overhead light units utilizing 100-watt bulbs and an additional 100-watt light above the sink, or perhaps two or more four-tube fluorescent units plus an additional two-tube unit above the sink.

For the kitchen, you should also include extra floor outlets and one above the counter, depending on the size of it, consider an outlet every 4 feet (1.2 m) of the counter work area. You might also want to have one or two four-unit kitchen appliance center outlets.

These units are basically just four receptacles put together, and they help uncluttered your working space when you need to plug in several appliances at the same time, such as a toaster, coffee machine, and blender.

Electrical wiring tied to the ceiling strapping with a tie wrap in our toilet adobe building
Electrical wire is tied to the ceiling strapping with a tie wrap in our toilet adobe building. Nobody will see this except the wife and me…and you 🙂

Once you’ve done deciding on your electrical needs for each room of your adobe house, it’s time to take the floor plan you should have already drawn, and mark the location of all the fixtures you planned.

Including showing all the relationships between the various switches to their lighting fixtures.

Two switches controlling one light are called three-way switches. When three switches control one light then they’re called four-way switches.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t draw these symbols perfectly on your floor plans. The important thing is that they’re legible and that they’re marking the exact intended locations of all the switches, receptacles, and fixtures.

If you do want to mark these symbols better you can buy a small plastic electrical symbol template at any art supply or DIY store.

Use my articles to determine amps for fans here and refrigerators here.

Scott Boyd

Step 2 – Selecting wire and boxes

Today copper is used in most electrical installations, and the wire size varies with the wire diameter expressed in circular mils. This is the cross-sectional area of a circle with a diameter of 1mil or 1/1000 inch (0.025 mm).

The most common sizes for adobe houses are 12 and 14. Of course, heavy-duty circuits will need larger sizes. See the following tables for the current capacity, expressed in amperes, of the most common wire sizes and the wire size needed for the different circuits.

Electrical panel in adobe building for our solar system. I just noticed that the electrician must have broken one of the wire conduit covers! This is a mess, but nobody else sees this.
Electrical panel in adobe building for our solar system. I just noticed that the electrician must have broken one of the wire conduit covers! This is a mess, but nobody else sees this.

Step 3 – Wiring circuits and installing boxes

Electricity enters the house through the fuse or breaker box, circuits run from this all around the house, providing electricity for the power outlets.

Before wiring these circuits you must fasten all lights, receptacles switch and junction boxes in place. You can choose between either metal or plastic boxes.

Cut a space into the brick of your adobe walls for the switch and receptacle boxes. You might want to raise the foundation wall about a foot to the inside of the house and place the outlets in it.

Receptacle boxes in adobe construction are conventionally placed approximately 12 inches (31 cm) above the floor, while the switch boxes are mounted at approximately 54 inches (137 m) above the floor.

It is recommended to do everything strictly according to your local code when you start wiring the boxes, you don’t want to try “shortcuts” that could be rejected by an official inspection.

When it comes to wiring, you’ll be using either Romex (indoor-specific plastic-sheathed cables), thin-wall rigid conduit, or UF (underground feed). Make sure you create your installation with a “ground-type” three-wire cable.

Romex has a flat shape, with tough outer plastic, featuring heavy inner thermo-plastic insulation. You can use it pretty much anywhere around your house, just not on masonry walls.

UF cable works well in masonry well as well as underground.

Thin-wall rigid conduit is made of steel with a galvanized finish and it’s the one to be used inside adobe walls.

When you start wiring the boxes using Romex, run it from the service panel for each circuit overhead, creating drops to the switches and receptacles. After running the wires to the boxes, connect the receptacles, switches, and light fixtures.

Receptacles come in duplex units and are fitted with “push-in” connector holes on the back so that you don’t have to bend the wire around a screw terminal.

Receptacle plates are available in many colors, to match your style or in larger sizes— handy to cover up mistakes.

Switches as well are available in many different styles and colors and feature screw terminals or “push-in” connections.

In addition to the normal toggle switch, you can buy silent ones, mercury switches, and switches with a small light to help you find them in the dark.

Light fixtures are also available in a wide range of types. To make the connections for light fixtures and junction boxes, use twist-on solder-less connectors, and just screw the connection on top of the wires.

If your adobe house has a flat roof, run the cable on top of the roof sheathing, underneath the insulation.

If, instead, you have a double roof deck for better insulation, run the Romex between the decks. In either case, make the drops to the wall outlets and switches inside the conduit.

If you’re planning on plastering the walls, cut a channel in the adobe wall to install the conduit. Then, when you’re done, just plaster directly over the conduit.

Make sure you fasten the Romex to the big by using a lock nut and clamp or a built-in cable clamp.

For the conduit, mount it in place and connect it to a steel box with a connector. After these are installed, pull the wires inside the boxes and leave eight inches (20 cm) of insulated wire at each box.

Step 4 – Testing and labeling

When finally everything is connected is time to test the circuits using an ammeter. Start by taping the ends of each circuit together at the main panel, and hook the ammeter to the contact screws of each outlet. The ammeter registers whether you have a continuous circuit.

The majority of building departments will also require that you mark the circuits on the service panel. The way to do this is by trial and error.

Make someone station in the house, while you’re at the service panel, start from the top and turn the circuit breakers on and off in order. Who’s in the house will call which circuit you have turned on, while you write the function of each circuit breaker on the panel.

Of course, the easiest way would be to mark the circuits on the panel when you install them, but lots of people just don’t take the time to do so at that point.

It is not overly complicated to wire an adobe home, just take it easy, and take it one step at a time, the reward in terms of satisfaction, knowing you did all that yourself, will be great!

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