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New Circuit for Bath Heater/Vent, Part I

2007.06.23

The next electrical project is to run a new 20-amp circuit to wire up the bathroom heater/vent.  When I was buying the house, the inspector noted that there was no source of heat in the bathroom.  Also observed that the vent fan was using a piece of aluminum gutter downspout rather than a proper vent pipe…  So I had a handyman guy that my realtor knew install a new unit that I bought, which included a heater.  However, the instructions said a separate 20-amp circuit was required… so we decided he would just wire up the vent fan and light together to the old switch on the existing 15-amp bathroom circuit.  Even if he’d had the time and materials available to wire up a new circuit, the old panel was full.

At any rate, now that I have a new electrical panel, I can finally wire this up properly.

Pulling wire through basement ceiling

I started today with pulling the wire along the basement ceiling.  To get from the panel in the basement to the heater/vent in the attic, I have to run along the outside wall, make a 90-degree turn, across towards the other side of the house, up inside the bathroom wall, and then a little further over in the attic.

For the first run, I had to drill a new hole through a joist, but otherwise, I used the same route the electrician had used to run the wire for the new garage circuit.  Drilling the hole was a little frustrating, but nowhere near as bad as my experience in the garage attic.  Getting the fish tape to come out the other end took numerous tries.  Pulling the wire was simple enough.

I had to cut a new hole in the basement ceiling along the outside wall where the wire would need to turn.  While trying to run the fish tape through from that hole to the one next to the adjoining wall, I ended up tearing out a larger section that had been damaged in the demolition and was barely holding on anyway.

Exploratory drilling

Well, now I gotta figure out where to cut another hole in the middle of the ceiling somewhere to run up the bathroom wall above.

I had purchased this long 1/8th-inch drill bit, figuring I could use it to drill down from the bathroom and see the hole in the basement ceiling below.  So, I carefully pried the base molding out with a putty knife, stuck the drill bit down between the base molding and the drywall, and drilled down as far as the drill would go.  I pulled the drill out and went down to look for the hole.  Hm… couldn’t find it.

Ok, I’ll drill another hole, and this time leave the drill there, maybe the end of the drill bit will be easier to spot.  By the way, the wider putty knife is there to keep the rotating drill chuck from scraping the paint on the wall.  Too bad I only thought of that after I scraped the paint on the wall.

I went down again, but no drill bit, no hole.  That bit seemed plenty long, but I think the additional height of the base molding was just enough to prevent the end of the drill bit from poking through the ceiling drywall below.

I decided I’d have to do it by measuring from the two outside walls (the bathroom is in the back corner of the house), then do the same down below.  I marked the spot on the ceiling, and then cut out a square hole.

I ran the fish tape from the previous hole over by the outside wall along between two joists to the new hole, then pulled the wire through.

Now that I had the hole, I could stick the drill up in there with the long narrow bit and drill up to see where I was.

Between the bathroom and bedroom there are some built-in cabinets.  Before drilling up, I removed the bottom drawer, figuring that’s where the bit might come up.  Sure enough, there it was.

Pulling wire up inside wall above

Back down in the basement, I guessed a distance from the little pilot hole over to somewhere within the wall cavity above, and drilled the larger hole to run the wire.  Then inside the built-in drawer space, I cut a hole in the wall, and pulled the wire through.