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Old timer told me to run wires in conduit inside attics, I thought he was crazy until last Tuesday
So I've been installing alarms for about 4 years now, mostly residential stuff around Columbus. This old guy Tom who's been doing it since the 80s kept telling me to always run my wires inside EMT conduit when they go through attics. I thought he was just being paranoid and old school, right? Last week I had to go back to a house I did 6 months ago because three zones went down. Got up in the attic and found a squirrel had chewed through like 8 wires and the insulation was all torn up. Took me almost 4 hours to re-run everything properly with conduit. Now I'm wondering if Tom's advice is worth the extra time and cost on every job or if I just got unlucky. Anyone else had animals mess up their runs or do most of you just use cable ties and hope for the best?
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sarah_hart4d ago
Did you ever see the aftermath of a job my buddy Mike had last year? He skipped conduit on a big attic run and came back three months later to find a rat nest made entirely of chewed-up alarm wire and insulation scraps. Even with the extra time, I'd say Tom's advice is worth it just to avoid that kind of headache.
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the_nathan4d ago
Wait, hold on. I gotta push back on this a little. @sarah_hart, that rats story is gross for sure, but it's also a pretty rare thing. Most attics don't turn into a rodent hotel overnight. Conduit is overkill for alarm wire in a dry attic. You're adding an hour to every run for something that might never happen. Sometimes skipping the plastic tube saves the customer money and gets the job done just fine. I'd rather take that risk and move on to the next job than spend my whole day fighting with conduit in 120 degree heat for no reason.
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