Metal conduit mounted over french cleats?

[James W Glenn]

I am wondering how to integrate these two "technologies" on my shop walls. I have an insulated and sheet rocked 2 car garage with a grand total of 3 available receptacles. I am planing adding a sub panel and running metal conduit around the shop. I also want to mount french cleats along 3 walls from bench top to 8' up. The most direct solution is to treat the cleats as paneling and mount all the conduit on the face of the cleats. I don't see how this would be a code problem, but I haven't sat down and read the whole book yet. Are there any complications I'm not seeing? Thanks, Woody

[Julie Moriarty]

Conduit is run through metal studs all the time. It is attached to metal cabinets, equipment, furniture partitions, etc. No code violation problems that I've ever seen. By attaching the conduit to the metal cleats, you are grounding them. Grounding is good.

[James W Glenn]

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about the French cleats. I want to do some thing like this above my benches, but with twice as many cleats.
FH12SEP_WALLSYS_14.JPG

[glenn bradley]

If you mount conduit to the face of the cleats, how would you attach fixtures? I must be missing something.

[Garth Almgren]

If you make the wall cleats the same thickness as conduit, you could run the conduit right below a cleat and they won't interfere with each other.

[Doug Ladendorf]

If you make the wall cleats the same thickness as conduit, you could run the conduit right below a cleat and they won't interfere with each other.

+1 Exactly what I was thinking.

[Lee Reep]

If you really want cleats coming down to bench height, then why not run the conduit down from the top of the wall? Then you would just need a small gap vertically thru the cleats. If you have attic access above the shop, maybe you could run your wiring down thru ceiling into the conduits, otherwise horizontal runs of conduit along the very top of the wall and turning down to the vertical conduit drops would mean less interference with the cleats.

I've been thinking about cleats also, along a concrete wall of my basement shop. But I would only come down part way, so storage is just on the upper half of the wall. I'd just run a horizontal conduit slightly above bench height, and below anything on cleats, to provide outlets along that wall.

[James W Glenn]

The fixtures would be mounted on the cleats. I am looking for a more eloquent method. I have not physical examined the conduit and mounting straps, but suspect I would need use 4/4 cleat stock to keep a horizontal conduit run between 2 cleats below the cleat face. I was considering running 1/4 spacers under the fastening points, so that 3/4 french cleats would not collect dust in the top groove. Vertical conduit runs would have to "cut " channels in the cleats. I am assuming that the conduit mounting straps can be attached to drywall anchors, and the conduit run up between the studs to maintain load bearing of the cleats. The end result would look something like this, but with wood and stuff:pipes.jpg

[James W Glenn]

Part of the my idea is wanting to have wood paneling all around the shop. The french cleats will give me 70% of the advantage with 30% of the material. I would like to integrate the wiring design with the cleats so that it looks good with the shop empty (not that that will ever happen).
The Center Pompidou reference came to mind 20 years ago, when I was helping an old school commercial electrician wire a work shop for a neighbor. I considered him an artist, he considered me a dumb-ass. I still don't know much about electrical design but I've seen some nice work.

[Julie Moriarty]

The fixtures would be mounted on the cleats. I am looking for a more eloquent method. I have not physical examined the conduit and mounting straps, but suspect I would need use 4/4 cleat stock to keep a horizontal conduit run between 2 cleats below the cleat face. I was considering running 1/4 spacers under the fastening points, so that 3/4 french cleats would not collect dust in the top groove. Vertical conduit runs would have to "cut " channels in the cleats. I am assuming that the conduit mounting straps can be attached to drywall anchors, and the conduit run up between the studs to maintain load bearing of the cleats. The end result would look something like this, but with wood and stuff:

If I'm understanding you correctly, you want to install conduit and cleats in such a way as to make the cleats protrude from the wall more than any part of the conduit. 1/2" EMT is 3/4" OD. The couplings and connectors are 15/16" OD for the set screw type. You roll the fittings so the screws won't protrude out from the wall. The problem you'll encounter is the boxes you will use for switches, receptacles and junction boxes. They are typically 1-1/2" deep. You can get shallower boxes but they are a real pain when trying to fit in a device, especially when there's splices in the box. And when you bring flush wall-mounted conduit into a box, you have to make a small offset, known as a box offset, so the conduit enters the box fitting properly.

If aesthetics matters to you, you could use Wiremold. It's more expensive but you won't need to know how to bend conduit. They make different size raceways, some as wide as the box. And you can incorporate phone, cable and/or data into a run provided you get a raceway that has a divider built in. One of the nice things about Wiremold is it can be run tight into corners. Conduit bends protrude out from corners, even if you're using a short radius bender.

This is a pretty good video on installing Wiremold.


One thing I would change is using EZ anchors over plastic anchors in the drywall.

[Garth Almgren]

Part of the my idea is wanting to have wood paneling all around the shop. The french cleats will give me 70% of the advantage with 30% of the material. I would like to integrate the wiring design with the cleats so that it looks good with the shop empty (not that that will ever happen).
The Center Pompidou reference came to mind 20 years ago, when I was helping an old school commercial electrician wire a work shop for a neighbor. I considered him an artist, he considered me a dumb-ass. I still don't know much about electrical design but I've seen some nice work.

Well, how about this - you could cut a trench in whatever you have on the wall already (drywall?), and sink the conduit in that, attaching directly to the studs. Then you could attach the cleats on top, straddling the conduit (may need to run a dado for clearance) and it would hide the conduit completely.

[Daniel O'Neill]

If you make the wall cleats the same thickness as conduit, you could run the conduit right below a cleat and they won't interfere with each other.

+1 Same here. Also when I've seen people do french cleats there is usually a spacer board on the bottom of the cabinet (for example) that keeps the thing hanging on the wall in a more plumb manner. This would also assist in the cleat covering the conduit.

[Tom M King]

What's up near the ceiling, and what type ceiling? Thinking of a way to not use conduit, but access the studs with a removable something, and drop wires behind the sheetrock to old work boxes. I've done the same type thing by removing baseboards in old houses more than once.