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	Subject - crawl space wiring Eric VanWells Is a crawl space considered an unfinished basement? I want to know if I can staple 12-2 romex to the bottom of a floor joist or if it is a code violation. I have not found any thing on crawl spaces specifically, only unfinished basements. Ryan I have never seen anything on it either but I can tell you that I have never drilled through joist in a crawl space. So my advice is to save your time and just staple the wire to the bottom of the joist your back and arms will thank you. kbsparky I had an inspector once try to make me install running boards in a crawl space, calling it an "unfinished basement". I challenged him on this, offering to comply if he could show me that the county tax assessor was charging the owners for the square footage of "unfinished" floorspace. Since he could not justify his explanation of the definition of "unfinished" basements, he had to withdraw his assertion that a violation was present greenelectric Great thinking, some inspectors take themselves as the ones with the ONLY right call. sparky13 Is this crawl space subject to storage. Keep in mind type nm cable has to be protected from physical damage. kbsparky C'mon here! IT was a freakin' crawl space, not a storage space! Complete with low clearance, and dirt on the floor. A place where you had to be on your hands and knees to navigate, under a house. That danged inspector crawled across that space, and "found" a small nick in the type SE cable that fed to the heat pump under there. We had simply taped it over, since there was no real damage to the cable. He required us to replace it, saying it was "damaged" .... sparky13 Wow settle down . Apparently the guy had to much time on his hands stedder Yea Ken calm down! Ya shoulda whacked him over the head and left him there to rot!! Sparky 13 is right he had much to much time on his hands, isn't there something somewhere that says as long as the sheathing / insulation is brought to manufacturers specs ie. with tape, all's good? willie Hello Fellows, In our juristidction basements do not start until they have 6' of height, therefore you can staple to the bottom of the joist. I found this out by asking our electrical inspector who wasn't quite sure, and he got with the building inspector who found the answer in a building codes book.