How to Wire Your Basement

I like to consider myself a YouTube-licensed electrician, and I was able to wire my entire basement outfitted with 7.2 surround sound speakers including a second zone in the workout room, CAT5e in every room, coax in every room, in-wall PVC pipe, multiple standard plugs and switches, one 4-way switch, one switched outlet, one fan, exhaust fan ...

Basement Wiring | How to Wire Your Basement

The basement electric project is a 2 stage project: 1.) Rough-in Electric – First you have the “Rough-in Electric” phase which consists of you just installing the electric wires themselves all done before drywall is installed. This is extremely simple to do. If you can drill a 3/4″ holes through a few 2″ x 4″s and then stick a piece of wire through those holes your qualified to “rough wire” for your future outlets, switches and light fixtures.

Wiring Outlets for a Basement

Common Methods for Wiring Basement Outlets. You do not need to run a separate wire from each outlet to the electrical circuit breaker panel. The outlets can be wired with a loop between each one, then the first or last outlet box can have the wire that runs to the electrical panel.

How to Wire Your Basement

Electric Wire. There are only three types of wire that you will need to finish your entire basement wiring project. These are in nor particular order: 12/2, 14/2 and 14/3 wire. I have wired 95% of all of my basements since 1992 using just these 3 types of wire…and that’s it!

Installing Electrical for Your Basement

For any bathroom, including a basement, you need a GFI outlet and in most areas a dedicated circuit for the bathroom. Double check your local code. So bottom line - if you want to "just" add some outlets to an unfinished basement, yes the need to be GFI. But if do the permits, framing, drywall, etc. - then it's finished and outlets can be standard.

Wiring unfinished basement ???

I plans for the basement are to finish the basement. I will probably just get a 1000' spool of 12-2 w/ground wire. I plan to have a family room/ rec room with a extra bathroom and bedroom down there.

Creating Your Basement Electrical Plan

Now walk through your basement and think about when someone will want to turn on a light. Even if your basement is one big open space, like mine is, you still want to think about certain areas as "rooms" and group the lighting accordingly. Plan for wiring outlets. As you saw in the video, you should have an outlet on every wall and every 6 feet.

Wiring Diagrams for Multiple Receptacle Outlets

Wiring Diagram for Dual Outlets. Here 3-wire cable is run from a double-pole circuit breaker providing an independent 120 volts to two sets of multiple outlets. The neutral wire from the circuit is shared by both sets. This wiring is commonly used in a 20 amp kitchen circuit where two appliance feeds are needed, such as for a refrigerator and a microwave in the same location.

How to Rough

Leave one bare copper ground wire an extra 6 in. long. Thread the long ground wire through the hole in the top of the special green wire connector and splice all the ground wires by holding them together and twisting the connector clockwise until it’s tight.

8 Dos and Don'ts for Finishing Basement Walls

If you want to run electricity in your basement wall, local codes will determine how many outlets you must install, and who can install the wiring (usually a licensed electrician). The standard...