ᐅ Removing Prefabricated House Wall and Ceiling Panels for Electrical Installation

Hello,

I am building a house with a prefab manufacturer and the house will be delivered in the summer. I had the painting work removed from the construction contract in order to have the opportunity to run some cables in the ceiling myself. Apparently, this is possible with some effort and planning without removing the ceiling panels, as there are many cavities and with the right cable installation tools you can apparently get over the rafters.

I also have the following question:

Can I also run some cables myself in the side walls and add additional outlets, or how are these walls constructed? The panels seem to be stapled in place – since the screed on the floor has already been poured and the tiles laid, I assume I cannot remove the entire panel. Is there any reason not to partially cut through the panel (essentially a narrow channel from the ceiling to the planned outlet), remove that section, run cables to the outlet behind it, and then reattach the panel section? Offhand, I would say I just need to make sure to plan the substructure properly so the cut-out panel section can be securely screwed back in place – and of course, to fill and finish everything neatly afterwards.

Thanks and best regards

LOL.

First, get familiar with the wall construction from the manufacturer. Maybe there is a design without an installation layer, where you would directly damage the vapor retarder (which you cannot seal again) and then end up dealing with mold caused by this.

Respect to electrical installation (EL). But the idea is borderline foolish. The extra cables from the supplier can’t be that expensive for you to be better off doing EL yourself.

As nordanney mentioned, with exterior walls (and possibly upper floor ceilings if you have a cold roof), you will most likely have a vapor retarder installed behind. It’s possible to patch everything up (the house manufacturers have to do this anyway if any repairs are necessary), but if you don’t do it properly, you could actually cause damage and make it much easier for the manufacturer to refuse warranty claims.

You can either have empty conduits (preferred/luxury solution) or pull wires (not ideal, but many manufacturers use this method for their own electricians) installed by the builder, so you can later pull cables yourself without causing damage.

Alternatively, you can have the cables installed by the construction company.

Ok – thanks for the tips and warnings – so at least it was worth asking “stupid” questions 😉… But it’s also because I wasn’t 100% precise – I’m actually only referring to “interior walls” – meaning those between two rooms. There shouldn’t be any vapor retarder installed there, right? At least, I don’t see the purpose of it in that case.

Yes, with interior walls you don’t have a vapor retarder, so you can theoretically be more flexible. I wouldn’t make a “slot,” but rather just cut out the adjacent ceiling panel (usually there should even be a sliding connection at the wall) and drill the box (?) in the wall. Then you can thread the cable behind the panels and have much less work patching everything up neatly. Ask for a beam plan of all the walls and ceilings, so you can see if anything might be in the way.

Also worth considering: house manufacturers almost never deliver ceiling elements with the drywall already installed because they need access for installations themselves. So, if you discuss this with the site manager, it should be quite possible that they allow you to run your cables in the first days after the house is set, before the ceiling drywall is installed. That way, you’ll have almost no extra effort—except maybe buying them a case of beer.

Thanks – the tip about the crate of beer is great.