Wiring outlets round my basement

[Max]

Our basement has one outlet in it and that's not enough. It's not that I want to run more eletrical appliances but I want to get rid of extension cords lying around the place. Installing the outlets is easy enough but I would like to know if I should route the new wires through conduit? I am thinking that I can run the wires along the joists to the top of the all above where the outlet will be then drop the wire to the outlet inside a piece of conduit. Is that the recommended way?

Cheers, Max

[kactuskid]

Basically you are correct. Any wires in conduit need to be THHN/THWN wires and NOT NM cable or Romex. If you want to use NM cable instead then you need to drill holes in the joist, at minimum 2" up from the bottom of the joist and string the cable through the holes to the desired location. Then you can sleave the portion of the cable that comes down the wall to the receptacle box using a piece of conduit. Then you would also want to attach a conduit coupling to the upper portion of the sleeve to protect the cable from being cut on the conduit.

Use metal box's attached the cement wall using tapcon screws and you are required to ground both the receptacle and the metal box using a pigtail.

And remember, all receptacles in the unfinished portion of the basement must be GFCI protected. You can install a GFCI receptacle in the first box with power wires connected to the LINE side of the GFCI, and then protect all downstream receptacles by connecting the wires to the LOAD side of the GFCI.

You'll need a 4x4x2" metal box and a 1/2" plaster ring to have enough room to install a GFCI on the wall.

[Max]

Thanks KactusKid. The outlet that is in the basement at this time is NOT GFCI so I will replace that and make it the first in the run.

I already have all the stuff I need to attach the outlet to the concrete wall so I am all set on that front. Just need to get the receptacles, conduit and wire.

Thanks again.

Max

[kactuskid]

Sounds good. Just make sure you also install a green ground wire inside the conduit. It makes for a safer ground rather than using the conduit as the grounding means. Have fun.

[Max]

Well, stage one almost complete...but...

The outlet that I have replaced with the GFCI, the first outlet in the basement run, had been patched into. By that I mean that some guys who came 2.5 years ago to install a radon mititgation system wired the their system into this circuit via the back of the receptacle. I guess that's what they do, pick any old circuit and attach to that. Seems like a dodgy job if you ask me. Anyway, I added the GFCI socket and another double outlet near our basement fridge. When I have only the outlets on the circuit everything is fine, the sockets all work. However, if I "patch" the fan in, like the other guys did, the GFCI trips immediately. I found this out through trial and error. Any idea why the fan circuit would trip the GFCI? For now I don't have the mitigation system patched in which means it's not running at the moment. I would like to get it back up and running but I would like to figure out why it won't run on a GFCI circuit. The fact that it trips the GFCI makes me think that there is something more sinister lurking.

Cheers, Max