Mastering EMT Conduit Installation for Data Cabling Excellence: Tips, Standards, and Best Practices

Ever wondered why EMT conduit is the unsung hero of data cabling? Chuck Bowser, RCDD, is here to shine a light on the critical role of proper conduit installation in protecting your data cabling infrastructure. With an engaging walk-through of fitting new drops into my podcast studio, I'll demonstrate why getting the intricacies of stub ups and stub outs right is a game changer for project managers and designers alike. We delve into the depths of the Telecommunications Distribution Methods Manual (TDMM), unraveling the standards that spell out the difference between a job done and a job done well.

Getting your head around the often-confusing terms found in the codebook can feel like learning a new language. That's where I step in, decoding the "shoulds" and "shalls" of industry standards, and guiding you through selecting the perfect conduit size for your project. Explore the vital importance of conduit fill ratios and how mastering this aspect ensures smooth future additions to your cabling systems. And if you think you've got it all figured out, wait until you hear the insider tips from the Southwire app that can help you stay on top of code compliance with ease.

Finally, we unwrap the best practices for conduit installation, a cornerstone for any stellar telecommunications project. From managing those tricky additional bends to keeping your conduits pristine for future use, I cover it all, including the dos and don'ts for workbox placement. The nitty-gritty details of proper workbox and conduit placement are crucial for not only efficiency but also for safety. So, whether you're stringing cable through the rafters or planning your next tech upgrade, tune in for an episode that equips you with the knowledge to build a rock-solid telecommunication foundation. Cheers to making informed choices in the world of telecom—your listening journey into conduit expertise starts here!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Thursday night, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. You know they can only mean one thing Live after hours with Chuck Bowser, rcdd, your favorite RCDD. Don't be telling other people that I'm not, because you and I both know I'm your favorite RCDD. We got a special show lined up for tonight. Tonight's not a question and answer type of show.

Speaker 1: 0:37

Tonight's show is about conduit. Yes, emt electrometallic tubing. Why am I doing a show about EMT? Because, if you noticed, I'm in my podcast studio, yeah, yeah. And if you've been watching me on the short form content, like TikTok and Instagram, you noticed that I got a delivery of conduit this week, right? So I'm going to be putting a lot of new drops this weekend in the podcast studio, right? Send the new guy for some frequency. Greens for the new conduit. That's funny. Yes, now you'll see some pictures of my studio here in tonight's class. By the way, those of you who are watching on TikTok, I got graphics for tonight's show, so you might want to go to YouTube or Facebook or LinkedIn to see those graphics. You won't see them on the TikTok feed, so in those graphics you will see some pictures of my studio.

Speaker 1: 1:31

It's literally just a 12 by 32 shed and I haven't really done a whole bunch to it, other than I built one wall that will separate the two different sections of the podcast studio. Now, in real life technicians, you don't have to run conduit in this scenario. You can literally just drop the cable down through the cap plate, fish it through the wall, put in an MPLS, a box limiter or a cavity box I can't remember the name off the top of my head and that is a viable choice. I'm using conduit because I want to simulate work being done out in the field. So I'm going to be doing stub ups and stub outs, right? So, for those who don't know the difference between stub up and stub out, so a stub up means the conduit literally just pokes up through the ceiling, I mean. So a stub up means the conduit literally just pokes up through the ceiling, I mean through the cap, right? A stub out has that 90 degree turn to it, so it comes up and goes out. So I'm doing those. I'm going to be doing stub ups and stub outs, and I'm going to have way more boxes in my podcast studio than I really actually need, but I'm going to use it to demonstrate different things. I'll talk about that more in a little bit. So again, we're talking conduit.

Speaker 1: 2:50

I forgot to say hey, what are you drinking? What are you drinking? I am drinking ice water because I'm in the podcast studio and it is hot. Hot because I don't have the air conditioning in here yet and I live in Florida. So, oh, you know what we also forgot to do? We also forgot to do the acronym challenge. Holy Toledo, I am just really messing up. Here we go.

Speaker 1: 3:10

Somebody tell me what does TDMM stand for. What does TDMM stand for? Tell me in the chat box? It has something to do with today's show. Matter of fact, it's directly related to today's show, right? Aaron Lloyd's in the house, one of the newest RCDDs out there. He's in the house today. Ed, the old tech guy, is here on YouTube watching as well. He's also drinking water. Good job. Shotzi's in the house. Shotzi is drinking his usual Diet Dr Pepper, diet Dr Pepper. Aaron's drinking water too, nice, nice. So Shotzi in for the win. 10,000 points. Oh, wait a minute. It's a tie. It's a tie between Shotzi and Daryl, the RCDD on TikTok.

Speaker 1: 3:58

Tdmm telecommunications distribution methods manual. That's what that stands for. And why is that important to tonight's show? Because we're talking conduit right Now. There's two ways you can do conduit. You can do it per code or you can do it per standards.

Speaker 1: 4:17

Tonight we're talking about the things that you need to know to install conduit per the TDMM, because that's going to give you the best chance of your data cabling working the way that it was designed. So who's the audience for this show? Right, I mean for tonight's episode. Think about it, because most low voltage people don't put in conduit. We don't. But there are some low voltage installers who can install up to 10 feet of conduit in union areas per union contract. There's other areas that aren't union where low voltage installers who can install up to 10 feet of conduit in union areas per union contract. There's other areas that aren't union where low voltage people can put in conduit. So if you're out there installing conduit, tonight's show is going to benefit you.

Speaker 1: 4:55

If you're a project manager or an estimator designer, tonight's show is going to benefit you because, even though you don't install conduit, when you hire for those of you might hire an electrician hiring the conduit, you'll tell them look, make sure to install the conduit per the TDMM, the telecommunications distribution methods manual, and, by watching tonight's show, when you go out there, inspect that job and make sure that that electrician installed that conduit. You'll know if they installed it per the TDMM because you watched tonight's show. When you go out there and inspect that job and make sure that that electrician installed that conduit, you'll know if they installed it per the TDM because you watched tonight's show. Right, that's the beautiful thing about this. That's why I'm doing this, and I'm not sure how this idea oh, I know how this idea came to me. The conduit arrived and then I started thinking, hey, man, I need to do this, I need to do that, I need to do this, I need to do that. And I was like wait, that's a whole show. That's what I'm doing, a conduit show tonight. And if you watch my short-form content over the next two weeks, you will see me putting in work boxes, you'll see me installing conduit, you'll see me doing bends. I'll talk about all that stuff. Tonight. I am not going to show you how to bend conduit. I am not going to show you how to do setbacks and all that other stuff. There's other channels out there that you can watch to do that on YouTube, lots of great channels.

Speaker 1: 6:15

Tonight I'm really focusing on the differences between how the codebook says to do the conduit and how the TDMM and the standards say to do conduit. Before we get too much further along, we really got to focus in on two very important words and those words are should and shall. Should and shall, because the TMM is heavily into those two words. Now, anytime you see the word shall, that is a requirement. You have to do the work the way that that book is telling you how to do it. Because it's a requirement, especially if you have signed a contract with the customer and that contract stipulates that the work will meet and or exceed the standards. Well, you think you better know what's in the standards right Now let's talk about the word should.

Speaker 1: 7:07

Should is a recommendation. I'll give you one real quick example. I don't have a piece of cable in here. Well, I mean, I do have a couple of spools of cable over there, but I don't have a piece cut. So the standard tells us that we have to run. We have to terminate all four pair on one single jack.

Speaker 1: 7:25

The standard tells us all four pair have to terminate on one single jack. It says it shall terminate on one jack. The reason it says that is because it wants the cable to work with all voice systems, all computer systems. There are some voice systems that only need one or two pair to work. There are some voices that need four pair to work. That's a shall, that's a shall, that's a shall. So anytime you see the word should remember that's a recommendation and it's not a hard requirement.

Speaker 1: 7:51

And the reason I point that out is because I'm going to tell you some things in tonight's show. I'll say, hey, this TDM says you shall do this or you should do this, but you shall not do that or something like that. So that's why I'm covering that right. So again, we're going to cover all this information on conduit. So let's start this conversation and if you have a question about conduit, right, if you have a question about conduit, put it in the notes. Okay, put it in the notes or in the comments and I'll try to get to it. I promised my wife I wouldn't go past 30 minutes tonight. I don't think that's going to happen. Sorry if you're watching, baby, yeah, if you find out this way, because I am already eight minutes into the show and I haven't made it to the first section yet.

Speaker 1: 8:32

So let's talk about selecting the right size conduit. What size should I use? Should I use three quarter inch. Should I use one inch? Should I use one and a quarter inch? Well, there's some general guidelines Now. If you have a conduit that's running from the telecommunications room all the way to your workbox, mounted on the wall right, so it's running from the telecom room to the workbox and it's all in conduit, all in conduit Then you should be using and it's going to feed up to one or two workboxes. You should use one inch EMT, one inch EMT. If you're going to feed three work boxes off that one conduit, then that has to be an inch and a quarter conduit right.

Speaker 1: 9:15

Now I'm not doing runs from the telecom room to the drops in my little podcasting. I'm doing stub ups or stub outs, right? So I'm using three quarter inch conduit for my stuff. Three quarter inch conduit. For those who may not know, I can get about five cables through a three quarter inch conduit and still be within my fill ratios and still be fine and dandy. So let's talk about fill ratios. That's the next section Fill ratio.

Speaker 1: 9:43

It's very confusing to some people because there's fill ratios for conduit and there's fill ratios for fire stopping. We are not talking fire stop fill ratios tonight. We're talking conduit fill ratios, right? So if you want to be compliant with the code, the code tells us in table 9.1, if you want to go look it up, if you have three or more cables, the maximum fill ratio is 40%. You can't go above 40%. You can certainly put in less right. Matter of fact, the lower the fill ratio, two benefits there for you. The lower the fill ratio, the less stress you have to put on the cable pulling it through the conduit system. The lower the fill ratio, there's more room for cables in the future. Customers will always add cable to the future. So let's talk about fill ratios as they're talked about in the TDMM.

Speaker 1: 10:34

There are several charts in the TDMM fill ratio charts. You have a couple 40% fill ratio charts and a couple 30% fill ratio charts. You have a couple 40% fill ratio charts and a couple 30% fill ratio charts. Now you might be wondering why do they have a couple 40% fill ratio charts? There's actually three of them. So there's a 40% fill ratio if you've got a straight run of conduit, there's no bends in it. Then there's another 40% fill chart which has one 90 degree bend, and then there's another 40% fill chart which has two 90 degree bends, and then you'll notice, when you compare those charts together, the number of cables drops down every time you go through those. And there's even some 30% fill charts in there as well.

Speaker 1: 11:16

Now, fill ratios is one of those things that a lot of people, a lot of people, don't truly. They know the 40% number, but they don't know how to get there right. They don't know how to get there. So I've got and I tried to do this on. I tried to. I was practicing with this earlier and I couldn't get it to work right. So I had to create two short, tiny little videos and we're going to watch them right now. One video is how to figure out the fill ratio for your conduit, right? So let's go ahead and watch that one.

Speaker 1: 11:45

Fill ratio calculators and some apps. I like to use the Southwire app because it gives me lots of options. All you got to do is just select the type of EMT you're using here I'm going to be putting in three quarter inch in my shed and then you just got to tell it what kind of cable you're going to put inside of it. Now, since this is geared for electricians, you're going to have to spin this thing like the wheel of death. They get to the bottom and put in user defined. So once you put in that, now you got to put in the OD of your cable. Now, the cable I'm going to be shoving in mine is going to be 0.23, or maybe even 0.25, depending on which one I'm putting in. And I found that by looking it up. And then I just put in the next field how many cables am I going to put in that conduit? And voila, look at that. It gives me the fill ratio and I'm less than 40%. So I meet that. Now, since I don't have any bends in this, I don't have to de-rate this because I'm just doing stub ups. See how easy is that. So Southwire is a really good online calculator and I downloaded the app. The thing I really like about their app for fill ratios I don't know if you caught that it had actually two wires that you could put in there. So if you've got Cat 5E and Cat 6A, you can put in the OD for each of those and come up with the correct fill ratio. You could also use that too to do fill ratios for fire stopping. If you know the fill ratio for your fire stop. If your fire stop fill ratio is 18%, you would just put in the cables until you get to 18% and then you know you're within your fill ratio. So that's an easy way that you can calculate fill ratios in the field and know that you're right Because, again, like I said, a lot of people don't really know.

Speaker 1: 13:26

Mark's in the house. Hello, mark, glad to see you, matthew's in the house. Matthew, I should have invited you on because I'm talking conduit and you're the electrician. I'm just a knuckle-dragging cable guy. Glad to have you here, though, right Now. So I'm putting in three quarter inch EMT for my stub ups and my stub outs.

Speaker 1: 13:44

So now the next question obviously is well, how big of a hole should I drill through my caps? Again, it's a wood frame, as you can see, it's all wood frame. How big of a hole should I drill through that? Because I want the hole big enough that the conduit fits through there, but I don't know one so big that the conduit's kind of, you know, flopping around in there. So there's another good resource out there that you can figure out, and let me again pull up that resource as well. Again, I had to record this as a video because it wouldn't let me do it live.

Speaker 1: 14:12

So here we go Through some wood caps and wood studs. So I need to know what size hole to drill for my three quarter inch conduit. So you go to American Fittings. They have a great resource which tells you which size drill bit that I'm going to need to use, and I'm going to be using a one and one eighth inch drill bit. See how easy it was that. No, actually I'm not going to use a one and one eighth inch drill bit. I'm using a one and one eighth inch auger bit.

Speaker 1: 14:38

I love these things, right Matter of fact, they just came in today via Amazon. The reason I love these things is because they got these little ends on them. These things will actually screw into the wood and it pulls this into the wood so, and this one actually might be a tad bit big for some of my cavities, so I also got a short one as well. Right Now, when you're drilling holes through wood especially like residential instructions like that, drilling holes through wood, especially like residential instructions like that Key thing to remember try to drill through the middle of the stud, because there's a code and maybe Matthew can tell me the number off the top of my head, because I can't think of it you have to be an inch and a quarter away from the edge of the wood, the edge of the two by four.

Speaker 1: 15:22

And if you can't get that inch and a quarter, then you're supposed to put in a nail plate. Well, I'm not going to put in a nail plate, I'm going to drill in the middle of my wood because I know for a fact that that's going to work fine for that right. So that's what I'm going to be using for my. I'm using three quarter inch. And just remember, you know, the higher the fill ratio, the harder you got to pull on the cable. And when you pull too hard on cable through conduit and this is why you should install it per the TDMM, not code when you pull too hard on communications cabling, you're going to change twist rates, you're going to stretch copper. You might even break copper conductors. Ask me how I know that. One right you could use pulling lubricant. Actually I'm doing a video coming up soon with some pulling lubricant. Polywater sent me some. I'm going to do some stuff. Now.

Speaker 1: 16:04

When you put in conduit you've got to make sure that all of the conduits are reamed or fitted with bushings at both ends. So the reason for the reaming is you want to make sure you know. When it comes from the factory there's still some rough edges on this. So when you're pulling cable out of this it could damage the cable and from the cable just sitting in the conduit over years and vibration of the building, it could chew through the jacket. So you're supposed to put on some type of either this is called a bang on bushing, you just put it on, you hammer it on I'm not going to put it on here because I still got to install this right, so it would look like that or they make the bushings that you can put on here and then you screw on the plastic bushing. Okay, they've got to be reamed and footed so that way you don't damage the cable. And that is a code requirement, that's not a TDMM requirement, right? So let's talk about some guidelines.

Speaker 1: 16:51

First thing I want to talk about is the workboxes themselves and the placement of those workboxes. So there's some general rules that you're going to want to know, right? The first thing you want to know is you always want to try to put your telecommunications workbox within one meter of the electrical Because think about it you're going to plug in a computer. The computer has to plug into the electrical at the work. So you got to be within one meter. And for those who don't know how to convert meters to feet, one meter is 3.28 feet, right? Also a great idea. You'll notice where I show you I'm placing mine. I'm not placing mine in the same cavity as the electrical. I'm going to the adjacent cavity, but I'm still within my 3.3 feet. You also want to make sure that you match the height to your electrical box. So I told the electricians when they put in the electrical workbox in the podcast studio I wanted them mounted at 16 inches AFF. So I'm going to match that when I put them in.

Speaker 1: 17:49

Now you do have some choices when you put in those workboxes. Right, you do have some choices and the one choice is if you've got one inch conduit or smaller, oneinch conduit or smaller, one-inch conduit or smaller, then you can put in a four-by-four box. A four-by-four box it's four inches by four inches. I was hoping my shipment would come in today and I could show you, but Home Depot didn't deliver it yet. They delivered the conduit, they delivered the 90-degree bend and they delivered the other stuff, but they didn't deliver my box. So four-by deliver my box. So four by four box. And you probably think well, chuck, a face plate's not four by four. You're supposed to put a single gang reducer on that four by four box. Why the four by four box? For future growth, to make sure you don't exceed bend radiuses for, like your cat six A or your fiber. That's why the four by four box. But I mentioned earlier that if you had a, if you had a conduit coming from the telecom room going to three work boxes Remember I said that conduit had to be an inch and a quarter in that scenario Then you should be using a four by eleven, sixteenths by four by eleven, sixteenths box, and that box should also be two and a half inches deep, ok, because you've got to give it room for everything to for the cable to be in there and then the jacks to be able to fit in that as well.

Speaker 1: 19:07

Now let's talk about the conduit in the ceiling. Right, the conduit in ceiling. So if the conduit is in the ceiling, same kind of rules apply there, right? You can't have the conduit sitting right on the right on the tiles, because you know you have to be able to have the tile to get in the ceiling and do your work. The electrical inspector has to be able to get in the ceiling to inspect your work. The fire department, after they put out a fire, they have to go into the building and if they put the fire, they're going to go into the ceiling and check for extension. So again, just like our cable has to be at least three inches above the grid, so does conduit, so does conduit. And the TMM tells us that there should be 12 inches of clear vertical space above the EMT. So, 12 inches of clear vertical space above the EMT, some ceilings, that's going to be hard to get. It truly is. Let's be honest about it right Now.

Speaker 1: 20:06

Let's talk about the bends. You're not supposed to have any single bend that's more than 90 degrees. I did order some pre-made 90 degree ends because I do know how to bend conduit. As a matter of fact, I got my bender over there in the corner right. I do know how to bend conduit, so I want to do a comparison which is better, pre-manufactured 90-degree bends or made in the field bends? That's why I ordered a couple of these, so I can kind of do two conduit runs. And I told you I'm going to go crazy with this stuff, right? So no more than 90-degree bend. You can't have more than 180 degrees of transition between any two pull points. And what does that mean? That means two 90-degree bends, right? Or you know, you might have maybe a 22 and a half and then another 22 and a half and then you know, whatever, whatever. When you add them all up, you can't go past 180 degrees of transition. Now, you also can't have any continuous pieces of conduit that are longer than 100 feet 100 feet If you have a conduit.

Speaker 1: 21:03

Let's use an example Wrong graphic. It's this graphic. Sorry, I really should have my glasses on so I can see these things. So let's say I have a conduit running. It's 250 feet long. 250 feet long, well, that's obviously more than 100 feet. So every 100 feet I have to put in a pull box. So here I'm using two inch conduit. I'm running the conduit from the telecom room to the first pool box conduit, from the first pool box to the second pool box and then from the second pool box to the work area outlet. I should have labeled that W-A-O. The work area outlet is the faceplate. The T-O's, the telecommunication outlets, are the connectors in the faceplates, right? So my total conduit run is 250 feet. That means I need a minimum of two pull boxes okay.

Speaker 1: 21:45

Now I'm allowed to have. I told you earlier that you can have 180 degrees of transition, that's you know, two 90 degree bends between pull points, between pull points. So in this scenario that I'm showing you right now, you can have six 90 degree bends. You can have two between the telecom room and the first pool box, you can have two between the first pool box and the second pool box and then you can have two between that second pool box and the work area outlet for a total of six 90 degree bends for the entire run. Now the reason I point that out is because a lot of people misapply that rule. They always say well, you can't have more than two 90-degree bends between pull points, not for the entire run. That's why I make sure that I point those out. Also, you've got to make sure bonding and grounding kind of needs to be bonding and grounding on both ends. Make sure you're in accordance with your local and your national codes. And here's some other things too. Make sure if you're putting in conduit I'm not going to have that issue here, but in the commercial environment where you might be putting in conduit, make sure to avoid areas that are heat sources like boilers, incinerators, hot water lines, steam lines. Why should I stay away from those? Because my cable's in conduit, because the heat is going to heat up the conduit and then the conduit's going to heat up the cable. Now, at minimum communication cable doesn't like heat, it shows up as attenuation, right, so make sure that you stay away from those. So you know 90 degree bends. A lot of people like using those.

Speaker 1: 23:22

But there's also these things called we used to call them conduits, now they're called conduit bodies. So the standard basically says that conduit bodies are not recommended to be used. Not recommended to be used Okay, let that word sink in not recommended. So what does a conduit box do? A conduit does? It's just used to change direction, right. A lot of times your conduit bodies have a cover. You take off the cover, you pull the con, you pull the cable through, then you feed it through the other one. It comes in a couple of different things, right, you have the 90 degree ones that go left, right or out the back. You have the T configuration. Excuse me, you have the T configuration. You have the t configuration. You have the c configurations or the straight line fittings. Again, the steering basically just tells us stay away from them, stay away from them, right? That's. That's the best advice I can give to you for conduits. Again, it's just remember, it's a recommendation, though, not a hard requirement. Not a hard requirement.

Speaker 1: 24:20

Let me look at my notes. I forgot where I was at. Uh oh, capacity. So I mentioned earlier that you can have a run with multiple telecommunication outlets on.

Speaker 1: 24:30

So the way that the verbiage actually reads in the tdmm here we're looking at one of the walls on my podcast studio. Here you see to the, about the middle of the screen, you see the electrical receptacle. It's already there. Already there, and a little bit to the right you see my first telecommunications outlet, my first work area outlet. You see the conduit. Well, you see the line which will be the conduit coming into the box, and then you notice there's a conduit goes out and goes to a second box. So the way the TMM reads it says you can do up to two boxes but you should not do more than three. So, as you notice, it goes from the second to the third and I kind of got that third one, the third one highlighted in yellow. So you can do up to three on a conduit that's fed back from the telecom room. But remember that that conduit has to be an inch and a quarter right, an inch and a quarter because we talked about earlier right.

Speaker 1: 25:18

So for complex installations for example, conduit more than 100 feet then it's also recommended that you use what's called a breakaway swivel with an appropriate shear pin. I have one down on my podcast studio. I forgot to bring it up. I was in panic mode trying to get everything working in my new studio for the thing tonight. So what does that really mean? It's a swivel. It actually has got a piece where you can tie your string onto it and it swivels. And the shear pin is rated to different ratings. You can buy one, for example, with a 600-pound breakaway. So if you pull it on too hard, it will literally destroy that swivel, but at least your cable's not broken. So if you have a cable that's in conduit that's more than 100 feet, great idea to use a breakaway swivel. Right, breakaway swivel.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Now let's talk about the bend radiuses. Right Now, like I said, you know I'm using the pre-made ones and I'm bending my own as well, right, but the TDM does give us some guidance on the bend radiuses. So if you have anything up to two inches, I'm sorry, any conduit larger than two inches outside diameter, then the bend radius has to be 10 times the internal diameter of the conduit. So two inch trade size or higher, the minimum bend radius is 10 times Conduit or EMT up to two inches. Then the bend radius is going to be maximum of six times the inner diameter, the diameter of the conduit.

Speaker 1: 26:48

Now there are some scenarios where you're actually allowed to have a third bend in the conduit system. A lot of people don't know this right and it's kind of pretty simple. So you are allowed to have a third bend if you have one of three specific scenarios going on, right. If the total run length is less than 33 feet, you're allowed to have three bends. Most of the conduit I'm putting in my podcast will be far less than 33 feet. Matter of fact, I'm doing stub ups and stub outs, right, the only ones that might come close to that in my ceiling here I'm going to run two conduit runs. One will have two 90 degree bends and come back out, and one's going to have four 90 degree bends. So I can do testing and I can show you how much more exertion you got to put on a cable to get it through this four 90s. So if your conduits run like this, less than 33 feet, you are allowed to have a third bend. You're also allowed to have a third bend if you increase to the next trade size of conduit. So if I go from that one inch to one and a quarter inch, then I can put that third nine to be bend. And then the third scenario is um, where you're allowed to put in a third degree conduit. A third 90 degree conduit is if that that first 90 degree bend is within 12 inches of the feed end, right. And the theory behind that is, once you put the cable, once you're putting the cable in, you're pushing it past that first 90-degree bend. So the person on the other side, when they're pulling on the pull string, they're literally only pulling for two 90-degree bends. So if it meets any one of those three circumstances then you're allowed to have a third bend.

Speaker 1: 28:17

Now we have conduit coming into a telecom room. The TDM tells us that they should terminate near the corners, near the corners, not in the middle of the wall, and that's to allow for proper cable racking. And if you have conduit coming up through the floor right from, say, the floor below, let's say you, you know, if I wanted to run a conduit down and go across and come back up, it's got to come above the floor. The conduit's got to come above the floor one to three inches. One to three inches. And the reason for that is and it won't happen here in my podcast studio, but it can certainly happen in a commercial office building If the fire department comes in and they put out a fire, there's going to be staining water and that's going to keep water from going into the floor below.

Speaker 1: 28:58

So final things to know about conduit installation Make sure you leave it clean, dry and unobstructed. Make sure you ream and fit it with bushings. Make sure you cap it for protection, like I showed you. Make sure you label for identification. I was going through the administration section in team internet because our study group is covering that tonight. And oh, by the way, this is on my pro tip list Leave a pull string. Leave a pull string for somebody, and that pull string has to have a maximum rating of 200 pounds. 200 pounds, right? So we were talking about those pull boxes. Okay, last thing about the pull boxes oh, must be 630.

Speaker 1: 29:34

The last thing about the pull boxes how do you know how to size the right pull box it's kind of a pretty simple process. The right pool box? It's kind of a pretty simple process. The length of the pool box has to be 16 times the largest conduit that enters into the pool box. So if I got a two-inch conduit coming into a pool box, 16 times two is 32 inches, so the length has to be 32 inches. Right, that's how you make sure that you size that correctly. Now there's also another rule about pull box that you really need to know Never change I apologize, you can probably hear the rooster out there going never change directions in a pull box.

Speaker 1: 30:13

Right? You want to go in one side, go out the opposite side. If you have to make a change of direction somewhere in that vicinity, do it outside of the pull box. Never do the change of direction inside the pull box, because what will happen is those cables will get all jammed tight to the corner of the conduit and it makes it hard to run more cable in the future, right? So never, ever, change the direction inside of a pull box. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.

Speaker 1: 30:42

Some final things about that Make sure that the the, the pool box that you're putting it in. Make sure you locate it in a place that's going to be easy to do, the easy to get to access. You know you don't want to put it somewhere where they can't get to it because you know there's a bunch of stuff in the ceiling. All right, make sure that it's also listed for that purpose. Listed for that purpose, right? Listed is a pretty simple word In the codebook we have listed and labeled. Listed means that that product has been tested by an NRTL, a nationally recognized testing laboratory, so it meets the standards set up by the NFPA the flame and the smoke standard. So then it's put on the list that you're allowed to use.

Speaker 1: 31:25

A lot of times customers will say well, is it a labeled product? What does that mean? Label means it's got the UL label on it somewhere. Right, because they know that if, oh, I'm in trouble, I'm in trouble. My wife was watching the show. She heard me say what I said oh, no, oh. My wife was watching the show. She heard me say what I said oh no, oh no, yes. So yeah, that's what Label Me. Label Me has got the UL label on it somewhere. So Ahmed says amazing, channel. Thank you, ahmed. I appreciate that. I appreciate that a lot. The above provides full ratio of contents based on cable size. Yes, it does. Yes, it does. All right, let me see Any other questions before, because I wasn't really watching the thing. Yes, always leave a pull string Me. And that LinkedIn user agreed on that.

Speaker 1: 32:11

Is PVC acceptable for conduit? The TDM does allow for some uses of PVC. They're very specific. Maybe that could be a future show. Maybe that's a future show, right? Especially outside plant conduits sometimes put in PVC. Jehu's in the house. Hello, jehu, pool box has to be NEMA rated, exactly, right, right, there you go. Somebody says Ed says I offered you more work today and you said you were too busy. Ha ha, ha ha. You're talking about Jehu, you're talking about me. I'm kind of lost there. So there's the conduit, there's the conduit, the things that you need to know to be successful in conduits. Again, look me up on LinkedIn, facebook, youtube, send me questions. I'm looking for a subject for next week's live stream. I haven't gotten a lot of questions lately, so what subject would you like me to talk about next week? Till next time, everybody Remember knowledge is power.

Speaker 2: 33:03

That's it for this episode of today's podcast. We hope you were able to learn something. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future content. Also, leave a rating so we can help even more people learn about telecommunications. Until next time, be safe.