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We had a house built about a couple of years ago and the electrician ran the cat6e, romex, and coaxial cable in the same hole in the floor joists. The hold is about a 2.5" hole with multiple wires/cables in it. Is this safe?

What I found when searching the issue was mostly on network performance. I know this could be bad for network performance, but I am only concerned about safety right now. Is this a fire or other sort of hazard? If the issue is just network performance, I am not too concerned. We've not had any problems with that.

The county inspector did not say anything about it either. It's all been approved, but I am concerned if this is safe. Is this something I should re-do as I am able to? Thank you. :)

Also, the basement is still unfinished so we can still get to lots of the wiring.

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isherwood
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flyoverinusa
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    I think being together in a hole is okay. Having them together in a junction box is when it becomes not okay, but that is more about having high(household) voltage able to touch/connect to the low voltage cables if they are bare/not insulated. – crip659 Feb 23 '23 at 13:22
  • This is normal. With cat6 cables, the network is unlikely to suffer. – Rohit Gupta Feb 23 '23 at 13:30
  • It's worse than that, with all those cables bundled I see a 310.15(B)(3)(a) violation - they won't be able to radiate heat enough to stay cool. With 5-10 cables bunched they are derated to #14=12.5A, #12=15A, #10=20A, and #8=38.5A. With 11-20 cables bunched it's even worse and you need #10 for 15A. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Feb 23 '23 at 19:22

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I can't quote you any NEC code references, but so long as you're not hanging the laundry (or anything else) on it, I don't see any safety concerns.

If there were safety concerns about NM-B wiring ("Romex™") running through joist bays, it would impact any joist bay penetration. If you look in other places, you'll see multiple NM-B cables running together - if there were any sort of safety issue, it would be far greater there than it would be here.

If the concern is about the hole in the joist, this is actually more safe than multiple joist penetrations would be. The fewer holes you put in your joists, the better.

The biggest issue really is the networking (and coax) cables running in proximity to 120v power possibly picking up interference. If you're not having any networking issues, they you're fine.

FreeMan
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  • Thanks for the responses. I won't worry about what's been installed, but when I run additional cat6, I will keep it separate. – flyoverinusa Feb 23 '23 at 18:49