[Super_33]

Hey everyone, I'm a residential electrician of 11 years from Chicago (local 134) and I was considering moving out of state. The only problem is being a pipe bender from Chicago it is hard for me to leave behind my favorite part of the job by moving to a romex area. I've done several houses in romex and I am strongly in favor of the conduit system. From what I've learned so far Chicago and New York are the only areas in the US that bend pipe in residential. Is this true? are there any other areas that bend pipe?

Thanks for your time fellow electricians. :thumbsup:

 

[JohnJ0906]

If you enjoy pipe bending, you would want to stick with commercial work around here. Little to zero conduit in houses.

 

[JohnJ0906]

And Welcome to the forum! :thumbsup: (almost forgot... )

 

[Speedy Petey]

NY has almost nil conduit in a residence. Even down in NYC.
Mostly sleeves for protection down basement walls and such.

Most underground work is in PVC.

You want to bend pipe, do commercial work exclusively.

I get the best of both worlds.

 

[LGLS]

Hey everyone, I'm a residential electrician of 11 years from Chicago (local 134) and I was considering moving out of state. The only problem is being a pipe bender from Chicago it is hard for me to leave behind my favorite part of the job by moving to a romex area. I've done several houses in romex and I am strongly in favor of the conduit system. From what I've learned so far Chicago and New York are the only areas in the US that bend pipe in residential. Is this true? are there any other areas that bend pipe?

Thanks for your time fellow electricians. :thumbsup:

Nix NY off your residential conduit list. Like others said, look for work in commercial and industrial settings. Emphasize you love of conduit work, you won't have a problem gaining employment.

 

[brian john]

While you are at it NIX conduit in houses.

 

[goose134]

Come on Brian. Conduit in houses is nice. Every single time I read about someone having to blast a dozen holes in a wall to get a piece of Romex to an outlet that needs another circuit. Or every time I hear about "I need a 3 way switch and an outlet in this box, can I..." Crap. Take off cover, remove device. Begin pulling wire.

 

[brian john]

Yeah helps keep the price of housing down because someone needs a baseboard heater in a cold room. NAH

PLUS

blast a dozen holes

When I did residential service I seldom had to NEATLY cut holes for fishing NM. I was young and green then I am sure the residential service experts here are much better than I was then.

 

[Greg]

I hope you didn't want a warm climate becuase, you can scratch Fl off your list for conduit in houses, not to mention our resi market has tanked.

 

[Speedy Petey]

Come on Brian. Conduit in houses is nice. Every single time I read about someone having to blast a dozen holes in a wall to get a piece of Romex to an outlet that needs another circuit. Or every time I hear about "I need a 3 way switch and an outlet in this box, can I..." Crap. Take off cover, remove device. Begin pulling wire.

Goose, what is your solution to ADDING switches or receptacles? Can you run MC or metallic flex?

Yes, it is typical to SOMETIMES have to make holes to snake wires, but this is a last resort for those of us who care. Also, with basements and attics it is rarely needed. I can get a wire to places unknown to the common man. :thumbsup:
I can't do this if I was forced to run conduit.

 

[JohnJ0906]

Yes, it is typical to SOMETIMES have to make holes to snake wires, but this is a last resort for those of us who care. Also, with basements and attics it is rarely needed. I can get a wire to places unknown to the common man. :thumbsup:

Agreed!
I have amazed myself at a few of the no-hole fishes I have done... :whistling2:

 

[Celtic]

From what I've learned so far Chicago and New York are the only areas in the US that bend pipe in residential. Is this true? are there any other areas that bend pipe?

Thanks for your time fellow electricians. :thumbsup:

Scratch NJ from that resi. list as well....NM is the norm.

You could continue pipe bending here in industrial settings...most comm. work is MC.

 

[randomkiller]

Other than those favor jobs or helping out an EC friend, I haven't touched NM or UF in ages and don't really care for it. Commercial-Industrial is the way to go for pipe work.

 

[kbsparky]

You can install conduit in houses anywhere you want to.

You might not be competitive in the marketplace, but the Code does allow it. :whistling2:

 

[brian john]

STRICTLY MY OPINION, but if you want to be employable in a wide range of the market place, it is good to have residential and commercial expierence.

In this area residential dies with the market, but commercial can remain so so or die but government has always been strong. Residential seems to die first and come back last.

 

[waco]

Nobody I know of runs conduit in residential in Ohio. Conduit and MC (or smurf tube) are about all that gets run in commercial, although old houses now used for commercial are often still wired with Romex. Go figure.

 

[goose134]

Just so we are clear. Conduit is for new installs and exposed work. Greenfield and BX are allowed for retrofit in existing installations. No Romex or plastic boxes. I didn't write it. It is the code here.

 

[aricsavage]

You could do solar installs, we do them all in pipe.

 

[frenchelectrican]

here in state of wisconsin it is super rare to see conduct in resdentail side one city try to enforce that part but somehow they dropped that requirement. [ i dont have much detail related to that city which they atempted that ] but for commercal / industrail side sure we run pipe and MC as normal romax on commercal is still kinda limited but allowed per state code.

Merci, Marc

[the resdentil side seems start to slow down somehow but commercal / industrail side still going but seems start to slow down a bit i dont know how much it will slow down yet.]