When ladders wont fit, conduit/fish-tape combo comes to the rescue

Mark Berning

Laibe Electric Co.

Problem

Running cable through a roof truss that is only 10 to 12 feet from the floor, with no room to set up a tall ladder, can be problematic.

Solution

Make a 90° bend 10 inches from one end of a 10-foot, half-inch-diameter conduit, and use a 20-foot piece of fish tape with bent hooks at both ends.

Procedure

•Hook the conduit over the first truss.

•Push the fish tape into the conduit until it reaches the floor.

•Slip the cable through the eye at the end of the fish tape (see figure), and pull the fish tape and cable to the top of the conduit.

•Lower the cable and conduit to the floor, and remove the cable from the eye in the fish tape.

•Repeat steps 1-4 at every truss, pipe, duct, and conduit until you`ve crossed the entire room.

•For taller rooms such as in a warehouse, all you have to do is add more conduit and a longer fish tape.

For installations where there`s no room for a ladder, connect a cable end to fish tape and then feed through a bent conduit that can hook over every truss, pipe, and duct in your project area.

Mark Berning is a foreman technician at Laibe Electric Co. (Toledo, OH).