Originally Posted by
Victor Robinson
I'm putting a few new ceiling boxes in my unfinished shop/garage. In the near future when I finish the room, I'll be dropping the ceiling by a few inches. What's the preferred way to leave a little extra wire at the J-box so it can be dropped and/or moved in the future (maybe 12-18"). Would you just leave some slack or would you fold up the wire/coil it outside the J-box? I'd like to do a neat job in phase 1 just in case I never get to dropping the ceiling/finishing the room. Thanks.
When installing lighting in a drop ceiling you can use a whip (hot, neutral, ground in flexible conduit) to go from the box to the fixture. This is typical in office build outs. I've done more of these installations than I care to remember and in practically all the cases we were installing 2x4 troffers. Whips are no more than 6' in length due to code requirements and the gauge was usually one size smaller than the conductor they tied into. They typically come to the jobsite coiled in cardboard drums with 100 or more 16/2 with ground whips and connectors installed.
You can cut your whips to any length you need. Buy either BX (wires already installed) or 3/8" Greenfield (flexible conduit) and install your own conductors. Make the splice in the box and at the fixture and you're done. If you leave yourself some slack it will be easier to install the fixture.
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