New construction - 7000 Sq. Ft. House

[wkearney99]

I added a charging station to our new row of cabinets, being installed tomorrow. Left enough room for a vertically mounted power strip, near the front of the cabinet - shelves are slightly recessed. Anker USB strip will be mounted on the top shelf.

Funny you should mention it - Lutron Lumaris will be the undercabinet strip light. I felt the need to splurge for the high CRI. 126" total, 2 drivers needed. Paul at Hank's is helping to spec, well short of MSRP (but still pretty steep). Control via RA2, from KPs and from Picos mounted under-cabinet. Dimmers mounted hidden away inside upper cabinet.

 
Paul at Hanks has been a terrific source, I've gotten quite a lot from him (and plan to get a few more things).  
 
We've been in the new house for 2 years and have lived without the under-cabinet lighting.  Long enough to get a better feel for what and where we want it.  I put some cheap RGB tape up in the master bedroom and we like the color changing feature.  Now that RGBW is more common it's likely I'll go with that.  Curiously, when I sampled some tape a while ago I discovered I didn't like the 2700k tape for the under-cabinet lighting.  The color temp just wasn't quite right with the Silestone counter.  But I definitely think that white made from just RGB is not ideal.  Thus Lutron's lack of RGB options leads me to skip Lumaris.  
 
I've also got some clear acrylic drop-down cookbook holders I want to install.  I want to put a tablet in one (with wireless charging) and the other for paper/books.  Their placement would definitely involve the lighting, I just haven't made the time to figure it out.  Thus going with tape vs modular would give me a little more flexibility.  Or just more excuses to delay the install...

 

[Neurorad]

I left a couple spots in the kitchen for under-cabinet tablets or TV, flanking the sink, end of cabinet runs, wired with cat6 (and short HDMI to the upper cabinet, if I ever go that route).
 
iPads always on the counter anyway, hasn't been a huge push for the under-cabinet mount, from the wife.  Not a lot of good options, given my shallow depth.  The ideal solution would be a drop down with a magnetic catch, like the Launchport.  I would have to hack something together, to make that happen.  Maybe I'll look into it more after we finish this Phase 2 of the kitchen remodel.  I've personally fallen out of favor with iPads, would only be for the wife, so not a huge incentive to get that done.
 
Haven't seen the OP for a week, guess he's busy.
 
All my HA/AV additions to the house have been done piecemeal, some during full renovations (MBa, kitchen), though much without (distributed audio with keypad control, basement to attic conduit, alarm keypad cabling, water sensors, new TV locations).
 
Doing all of this during new construction would be impossible for me, attending to every detail.  It's taken us a year to get a single row of cabinets installed.  I've put a lot of time into it, researching every possibility.  So many little details to consider.
 
Sometimes the overpriced subs are worth the money.  Though, some are just overpriced.  I'm on my third electrician since the kitchen renovation started, a few years ago.  First one I told, in writing, 'use in-wall rated cable'; ended up with lamp cord behind drywall, that portion had to be redone.  Brought in a good one, on the ball, nice job.  He got busy, so I tried to save some money with the next - he had limited experience with LV lighting, and his prices magically shot up.  Brought the good one back in to finish up the prewire on this current cabinet, redoing some of the other guy's boxes.  I may have to wait 6 weeks now for him to come back for the trim out, but it will be worth it.

 

[Neurorad]

Cabinet guy had to cut some drywall, to flatten the surface the upper cabinet cleats attach to, wall was kind of curved. He found a Romex end, up high on the wall, not sure where it goes. Thanks shitty electrician.

I'll try to tone it out, but bottom cabinets already installed. Probably fed the old in-cabinet lights.

 

[wkearney99]

Well at least that's the upside of new construction, nothing old left behind. But I hear you on crappy sub-contractors.

As you no doubt already know, there is the paralysis of over analysis. 2 years sounds like a long time but I swear 18 months of it was just getting over the trauma of building the place to begin with!

 

[LarrylLix]

The loose end was probably the Electrician doing you a favour with an end to connect your undercounter lights to or some other gadget you mentioned to him. Not telling you wasn't a favour though. they assume you know the ropes.

 

[Neurorad]

I toned it out. Ran halfway down the wall along a stud, and stopped. I pulled hard on the exposed end, and it came free of the single u-nail that held it. It was a 4 foot length of abandoned Romex, cut at both ends. Electrician figured it was stapled firmly, just left it in place, nobody whow found it wold care, because it wasn't live. We didnt pull all the drywall. Not a huge deal, he cut both ends, but annoying. False alarm.

Current, newest code (maybe a couple years now) says you have to label it, if you abandon it. I'm sure he has no idea, and if he did, was too lazy to go buy a labeler.

 

[drvnbysound]

I toned it out. Ran halfway down the wall along a stud, and stopped. I pulled hard on the exposed end, and it came free of the single u-nail that held it. It was a 4 foot length of abandoned Romex, cut at both ends. Electrician figured it was stapled firmly, just left it in place, nobody whow found it wold care, because it wasn't live. We didnt pull all the drywall. Not a huge deal, he cut both ends, but annoying. False alarm.

Current, newest code (maybe a couple years now) says you have to label it, if you abandon it. I'm sure he has no idea, and if he did, was too lazy to go buy a labeler.

 
I'm sure the label just fell off ^_^ [/sarcasm]

 

[LarrylLix]

Yeah, It's been  while, but I thought the Canuck code outlawed leaving abandoned cables behind just a few years back.
The NEC is usually very similar to ours.
 
Good catch with the toner, though.

 

[Del91574]

Current, newest code (maybe a couple years now) says you have to label it, if you abandon it. I'm sure he has no idea, and if he did, was too lazy to go buy a labeler.

Code is only accessible portions must be removed if abandoning. Exception is if tagged for future use.
 
Unless the wall/studs were completely exposed, perfectly legal to cut back to the last accessible point. Most HO's don't want to pay for cable removal, let alone more demolition to expose cabling that is being abandoned or disconnected.

 

[Neurorad]

Code is only accessible portions must be removed if abandoning. Exception is if tagged for future use.
 
Unless the wall/studs were completely exposed, perfectly legal to cut back to the last accessible point. Most HO's don't want to pay for cable removal, let alone more demolition to expose cabling that is being abandoned or disconnected.

I stand corrected. I was under the wrong impression that abandoned cable had to be labelled.

 

[Del91574]

I stand corrected. I was under the wrong impression that abandoned cable had to be labelled.

It's a fine line.
 
Code will NOT require you to perform demolition to remove an abandoned cable. The only time you are required to label an abandoned cable is if it isn't cut back to the last accessible point or you're abandoning in place, which is a great loophole to require a label (which also negates the removal).
 
The artistic interpretation is whether or not a drop ceiling in it's entirety or cables that have since been covered over by other cable plants and whether or not they're accessible.

As far as HV, it's only required for cables in raceway with some caveats. In the case of romex or normal HV wiring methods, I'd cut it back and then strip/twist the line and neutral to make it apparent the cable goes nowhere.

 

[tmbrown97]

I'd cut it back and then strip/twist the line and neutral to make it apparent the cable goes nowhere.

I was just going to add that comment... isn't that the generally accepted standard?

 

[drvnbysound]

I know it certainly seems to be in the HV field - all modern primary and subpanels that I've seen are done this way. However, I rarely see that in a LV panel. In most all of the LV panels I've observed, the insulation is left on until a couple inches before the termination (RJ45-terminations are obviously an exception).

 

[Del91574]

I was just going to add that comment... isn't that the generally accepted standard?

Not required anywhere. This is the difference between a minimum standard, prescriptive code and what can be viewed as good practice to make intents obvious.