[roadrnnr]

Got new house in Moultrie creek and am going to put some cabinets in the Garage Pre cast walls

Does anybody know what is a safe depth to hammer drill concrete anchors in these wall as not to hit any electrical?

I have a Stud finder that supposedly picks up metal and A/C but It can't be trusted

Thinking of 1 3/4 concrete anchor bolts to hold the Cabinets

Thanks

[villagetinker]

If you do not get any good information, I believe I still have a signal generator and an AM radio that can be used to trace the wire, however this requires the circuit breaker to be turned off while tracing. This will get you close, I believe there are commercial units that will be much better.

[roadrnnr]

Originally Posted by villagetinker

If you do not get any good information, I believe I still have a signal generator and an AM radio that can be used to trace the wire, however this requires the circuit breaker to be turned off while tracing. This will get you close, I believe there are commercial units that will be much better.

I actually looked at a wall that was still on a trailer down here. They are 6" thick and seems the wiring runs down the middle horizontally
of the wall if I am looking at it correctly

[Stu from NYC]

Somebody should have a drawing of the walls.

[villagetinker]

Vertical from the outlet location to the top of the slab makes sense, but I agree with the OP that you do not want to hit these wires. It occurred to me the house plans filed with the county MAY have these details. I was able to get mine several years ago by calling Sumter County Building Department and giving them my address and an email, I received 16 or 17 pages of house plans. Ours in a block home so it did not include the type of detail you are looking for, but the drawings for yours should have this for the actual construction so these are not hit when the house is assembled.

[Altavia]

If you are here, check with your rep if ok to visit a similar home under construction predrywall on a Sunday they are not working to take a look.

[LeRoySmith]

You could look in the sprinkler control cabinet, breaker panel and an outlet and see where the conduit exits each enclosure. I'd assume they are pretty uniform in depth in the form.

[Goldwingnut]

The precast wall plans are available for your home from the county (Sumter County at least, can speak to Lake County’s system) by requesting the information from the county website. I requested all documents on file for my lot when I was purchasing an investment property earlier this year, it took only 2 days to get a response in the form of an email with links to all the documents

You can submit a public records request here:
https://sumtercountyfl.nextrequest.com/requests/new

[onfire]

The precast wall has furring strips (wood or aluminum) to create a space for electrical, pipes etc.

[DonH57]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

Somebody should have a drawing of the walls.

I was wondering about as-built drawings availability.

[Goldwingnut]

I've checked the plans I received from the county on my precast home. They show a lot of good information and details but do not address conduit in the precast walls, only the grout tubes (for securing the walls to the foundation).
As previously mentioned they do have furring strips between the drywall and insulation but that does not cover the outside receptacles. I'm doing some more looking at a bunch of picture I have and will share the information as I find it.

[Ellis]

Good question! I was wondering myself. Seems to me the main guy you deal with (can't remember his title) that your realtor turns over to you when purchasing the home should have the answer to that.

[wamley]

My best guess is the feed to the electric panel comes directly up from the slab into the bottom of the main electric panel. Since all electric in the villages is fed underground vs overhead power poles. This is a typical installation. Not famiair with the wall construction, but precast walls would have preinstalled conduits and boxes for outlets & switches. It makes sense that all feeds to outlets & switches would be vertical as well with outside, block or concrete walls being feed from overhead. If you take off the outlet or switch plates you can see where the wire are coming from also look up on the attaic and see along the top of the wall if the feeds to & from outlets from the main panel are being distributed along the top. Good luck.

[MandoMan]

Originally Posted by roadrnnr

Got new house in Moultrie creek and am going to put some cabinets in the Garage Pre cast walls

Does anybody know what is a safe depth to hammer drill concrete anchors in these wall as not to hit any electrical?

I have a Stud finder that supposedly picks up metal and A/C but It can't be trusted

Thinking of 1 3/4 concrete anchor bolts to hold the Cabinets

Thanks

When I used the precast Superior Wall System in a house I had built in Pennsylvania 25 years ago, it was about 2” of high strength concrete with fiberglass strands , an inch of styrofoam, and 2x6” steel reinforced concrete studs capped with 1x2” pine nailing strips. Thus, from the surface of the drywall to the back edge of that nailing strip, you had 1 1/4”. Depending on what you were attaching, you could determine how long your drywall screws should be.

However, if the walls today are like the drawing below, instead of that system, Superior Wall Systems in Florida (and they really are Superior!) no longer use concrete studs, but incorporated steel u-beams backed with 6” of foam.

This means you DO NOT need an impact hammer, and you DO NOT want to use those big bolts! You are drilling through a half inch of drywall and 1/16” or less of steel.

Note on the drawing that there are TWO channels in the foam where the wires are run (see those little red circles?). In a garage, chances are that any wires run through the bottom holes and then up to any higher outlets.

Use a stud finder to find the steel studs and mark them each with a bit of tape. Aim for the center, but as you can see, they are a couple inches wide. Drill a pilot hole with a small drill bit, say 1/16”, to be sure you are on the stud. If it goes right through, you aren’t on the stud. If it stops in a half inch, you are on it.

I have used sturdy drywall screws, specialty screws for installing cabinets, deck screws with square head or star drives. I have used regular electric drills and bigger, stronger drills. With screws, remember that you need threads where the studs are, not smooth necks on the screws. I strongly recommend using a ladder when working above chest level so you can put a little weight against the back of the drill. You won’t need to drill pilot holes, so long as you go slow and use enough weight. I installed a bunch of disability grab bars last week doing this. Worked really well. If you are hanging wall cabinets, use the dedicated cabinet screws, not drywall screws. They are more brittle and more likely to snap off with a lot of weight.

[Freehiker]

Originally Posted by MandoMan

When I used the precast Superior Wall System in a house I had built in Pennsylvania 25 years ago, it was about 2” of high strength concrete with fiberglass strands , an inch of styrofoam, and 2x6” steel reinforced concrete studs capped with 1x2” pine nailing strips. Thus, from the surface of the drywall to the back edge of that nailing strip, you had 1 1/4”. Depending on what you were attaching, you could determine how long your drywall screws should be.

However, if the walls today are like the drawing below, instead of that system, Superior Wall Systems in Florida (and they really are Superior!) no longer use concrete studs, but incorporated steel u-beams backed with 6” of foam.

This means you DO NOT need an impact hammer, and you DO NOT want to use those big bolts! You are drilling through a half inch of drywall and 1/16” or less of steel.

Note on the drawing that there are TWO channels in the foam where the wires are run (see those little red circles?). In a garage, chances are that any wires run through the bottom holes and then up to any higher outlets.

Use a stud finder to find the steel studs and mark them each with a bit of tape. Aim for the center, but as you can see, they are a couple inches wide. Drill a pilot hole with a small drill bit, say 1/16”, to be sure you are on the stud. If it goes right through, you aren’t on the stud. If it stops in a half inch, you are on it.

I have used sturdy drywall screws, specialty screws for installing cabinets, deck screws with square head or star drives. I have used regular electric drills and bigger, stronger drills. With screws, remember that you need threads where the studs are, not smooth necks on the screws. I strongly recommend using a ladder when working above chest level so you can put a little weight against the back of the drill. You won’t need to drill pilot holes, so long as you go slow and use enough weight. I installed a bunch of disability grab bars last week doing this. Worked really well. If you are hanging wall cabinets, use the dedicated cabinet screws, not drywall screws. They are more brittle and more likely to snap off with a lot of weight.

The precast walls are solid concrete and there is no drywall covering them (in the garage).