Construction Guide

This chapter includes techniques for electrical wiring specific to a Yankee Barn post and beam home.
Building a home requires pre-planning for wiring. As with any construction, the challenge is concealing and/or camouflaging the electrical wiring. This is done using standard building practices for the interior walls, partitions and floor systems.
Whenever possible, it is preferred to run your wiring through the interior walls or through ceilings. In the exterior “closed” wall panels of a Yankee Barn, several methods, outlined in this guide, can be used to conceal or camouflage the wires. These methods do not apply to the partial frame specification “open” panels.

You may have been doing some general thinking about lighting and outlets, as well as your furniture layout (so you do not get your bedroom wall outlet centered behind that big bureau!) Normally the electrical layout is worked out on site. Once the partitions are framed, it will be much easier to visualize the space and finalize the electrical layout. Take one set of your floor plans and mark it up prior to meeting with your electrician. Meet with your builder and electrician on site and room by room mark on the walls, ceilings and studs where outlets, fixtures and switches will go. Don’t forget the phone and cable outlets, as well as thermostats, smoke detectors and alarm lines.

When your electrician bid on wiring your Yankee Barn, his bid was probably based on installing an electrical service entrance (usually 200 amp), circuits for the major appliances, and a certain charge per outlet for an assumed number of outlets (see Yankee Barn’s Cost Projection worksheet for a more complete list). An “outlet” may be a switch or a wall outlet or a phone or cable outlet. The electrician’s bid generally spells out how many outlets were included, and the cost for each additional outlet beyond the bid quantity. After you have done your walk through, the electrician can count the outlets and you can see how you are doing compared to your budget.
Should you need a formal electrical plan, Yankee Barn will send you a copy of your floor plans that your local contractor can use to draw the electrical plan. The Yankee Barn technical staff can be a very helpful resource for your local professionals regarding issues that pertain to the Yankee Barn system but cannot prepare electrical plans that comply with various local codes.

9.1.1 Thoughts on Lighting, Fans, and Outlets
Light fixtures serve many purposes such as general lighting, highlighting (fireplaces, pictures etc.), reading or work areas, and mood lighting. Fixture and bulb types are designed for different uses. A quick trip to your electrical supply house will show you many of the options. Many supply houses have trained staff to assist you in selecting the best fixture for the intended use.

There are numerous types of lighting, most fall into the following categories:

• Ceiling Fixtures: recessed, surface mount, hanging, and track style. These can be used for almost any type of lighting.
• Wall mount: on beams or walls, these are good for general lighting or accent lighting such as around a mirror.
• Switched outlet: for lamps.

Suggested Fixtures

• Great Room: requires general lighting, best on beams. Track lighting above the fireplace or on beams to highlight areas below. Switched floor and wall outlets to control lamps. Ceiling fan mounted on the tie beam.
• Kitchen: General lighting on the ceiling can include surface mount, fluorescent, and track or recessed. Work area lighting can be recessed in soffits over cabinets and counters or strip lighting below cabinets. Hood and fan light at the range.
• Bathrooms: Baths with sloped ceilings use wall mounted lighting which can serve dual purposes both general and highlight as next to a mirror. Use a wall mounted fan in sloped ceiling baths. In larger baths with flat ceilings, a combination light/fan works well. In sloped ceiling areas adding soffits (dropped ceilings) above the tub, vanity or shower allow you to use recess lighting and provide visual changes in the space.
• Bedrooms: Overhead fixtures on flat floor ceilings or wall mounted fixtures (in rooms with sloped ceilings) to provide general lighting. Switched outlets can be used to control lamps.
• Office/Den: Similar to kitchen lighting. Don’t forget phone and cable/network jacks for computer hookups.
• Media Room: Lighting that can be dimmed. Provide additional outlets for equipment plus cable/phone jacks.
• Garage, Utilities, Laundry: Provide multiple wall or ceiling mount or fluorescent fixtures.
• Exterior: Provide walk and patio lighting. Use wall or ceiling mount fixtures in porches. Driveway lighting can be pole or low ground lighting (no snow areas).

Track lighting on tie beam and fan on ridge beam in the Great Room.	Track lighting on beams.

Wiring in interior partitions can be run using standard techniques, which are not discussed in this guide. When wiring outlets in the exterior wall of a Yankee Barn, generally the horizontal runs are best in the basement or the second floor joists with short upward runs for outlets or switches. A number of possible wiring techniques are discussed below. These techniques are suggestions only, and should be reviewed with a licensed electrician.

9.2.1 First Floor Outlets
Yankee Barns are usually wired with electrical boxes mounted in the walls like stick-built construction. Usually self-supporting (“old work” type) electrical boxes are mounted in the drywall or a "smart box" which can be fastened to an adjacent stud, and the wires are fished up through the wall vertically from the floor system. Closed wall panels on the 1st floor have the drywall cut 4" above the floor so drilling and installing wires is easier. After wiring is done a 1/2" CDX Filler board is installed. Later 5" baseboard or baseboard heat covers the filler.

To install first floor outlets:

1. Cut openings for the outlet boxes in the drywall, and cut out any foam insulation if necessary.
2. Directly below the box cut out, and in the space that will be hidden by the mop boards, drill a 3/4" or larger hole at an angle through the drywall, the wall shoe and 1st deck plywood.
3. From the basement, have an assistant fish the wire up through the drilled hole. It should be quite easy to guide the wire into the 1 1/2" space directly behind the drywall, up to the outlet box cut-out.
4. Install a self-supporting (old work box) electrical box or a "smart box" which can be fastened to an adjacent stud. Spraying a little expanding foam behind the electrical box restores the integrity of the insulation. If your local electrical code does not allow the use of old work boxes, install the box adjacent to a stud and screw the box to the stud.

9.2.2 Wall Switches
Most wall switches can be mounted in partition walls which are wired using standard methods. When a switch must be in an exterior wall, it can be cut into the drywall and the wire fished up from the basement just like a wall outlet. An alternative that is sometimes used is to add a decorative post at the door opening to hide the wiring and switches. Make a 3/4" rabbet in the decorative post. Then, cut a hole in the post for the electrical box.

9.2.3 Ceiling Fixtures
Lights and fans in the first floor ceiling are installed conventionally, feeding up from interior partitions.
If you plan on installing regular recess lights be sure you have ordered the 2x8 joist floor system. If you have 2x6 joists, you can use mini-recessed lights.

9.2.4 Second Floor Outlets
It is easy to run wires through the Yankee Barn floor system to a point below the outlet location. Outlets in partition walls are installed in the conventional fashion. To fish wires to outlets in the exterior walls of the second floor, the procedure is the same as on the first floor (see 9.2.1 First Floor Outlets), except you will be drilling an angled hole through the floor joist into the wall cavity. If necessary, an access hole can be cut in the drywall near the floor level. The hole can be filled with expanding foam spray, and hidden behind the baseboard or patched when the drywall is being finished.

9.2.5 Fixtures Mounted on Roof Support Beams
It is often desirable to install fixtures or ceiling fans from the roof support beams using shallow surface mount boxes. In addition to mounting fixtures on the bottom of the beams, attractively designed lighting fixtures can be installed on the vertical faces of the beams. This has been done in the Yankee Barn show home in Grantham, NH, for example, in the kitchen and over the bathroom vanities.
On frames with roof beams (Mark I, Prairie Barn, Olde Farms, and Hampton), wires can be concealed on the top of the roof beams prior to installation of the chamfer strip. See Illustration 9.2.5A: Wiring at the Plate. There will need to be a hole bored in the beam to get the wire to the fixture. If you plan to hang a fixture from the ridge beam, it is necessary to rough wire the ridge from the exterior before installing the roofing.

There are at least four methods for the electrician to get the wiring to the ridge beam:

1. Run wire up an interior partition.
2. Snake wire up through air space in roof panels.
3. Rabbet a groove in gable rafter and run wire, or run behind exterior trim.
4. Wire mold along beam (using a color to match ceiling or beams).

9.2.6 Exterior Outlets and Fixtures
Exterior outlets are installed in the same manner as first floor outlets. For fixtures higher on the wall, like floodlights, wires can be chased vertically in the corners behind corner boards or horizontally above the eave chamfer strip.

9.2.7 Exhaust Fans
Fan vents can be run through partitions to outside walls or out through the floor systems. Occasionally you may need to build a ceiling chase as illustrated in the photograph.

9.2.8 Greenhouse Exhaust Fans
A greenhouse may require additional mechanic ventilation. The simplest method is a “through the wall unit” located high in a gable wall that vents directly outside. You may want to install a thermostat to have it function automatically.