Can you legally turn a commercial shed into a house?

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Xist

Office. I am trying to get quotes for running electricity 37' from the house to the shed. Plumbing only came up because someone told me to turn it into a tiny house and rent it out.

I just listed the extra work that would need to be done.

A 50 foot extension cord and a power strip is less than $100. It seems silly to pay thousands for an electrician to run power before you know if this shed office is going to work.

As rmay said, DC power will be cheaper. All in my campervan solar system was less than $1000. That would run lights and computers but not HVAC.

[Xist]

I don't need a toilet, this is just an office!

I posted a power strip and an extension cord and Oil Pan said that it was the wrong way!

Why wouldn't the shed work?

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Xist

I don't need a toilet, this is just an office!

I posted a power strip and an extension cord and Oil Pan said that it was the wrong way!

Why wouldn't the shed work?

An extension cord and power strip isn't the right way to run power permanently. It is a perfectly safe and inexpensive way to do try it out temporarily.


Why won't the shed work? My understanding is that you want an external office space to get away from the distractions inside your house. It might work, or it might not.

External distractions:

Your brother and mother might just come out to the shed to visit and distract you.

Internal distractions.

You will still have YouTube and ecomodder in the shed. You may find you aren't actually any more productive in the shed than in your room in the house. Do you want to find that out after you have spent thousands to convert the shed?

Will you like working in the shed?

You may find you don't actually like working away by yourself. This year I started working from home 1 day a week. It is nice to avoid my 2 hour commute but it is also lonely sitting by myself in an empty house.

[oil pan 4]

Run it in ridgedetail metal conduit down 2 feet go horizontal with PVC.

[Xist]

Oil Pan, are we still discussing the proper way, or is this for an extension cord to see how this works?

"Ridgedetail" does not have any results with Google, Home Depot, Lowe's, or Amazon, but "ridgedetail metal conduit" got me this:

At 24 in. deep, run direct-bury UF-B wire cable. There’s one restriction: It needs a conduit where the cable is exposed on the outside of the house and to 18 in. below the ground

How to Bury Underground Cable

This stuff?
I would need to order that.

A licensed electrician would charge at least several hundred dollars plus materials to run lines from your house to a shed 50 ft. away (not including any work inside your house). You can do the job yourself for a materials cost of about $140.

To run the wires inside rigid conduit, you’ll need a hacksaw, a pipe bender capable of bending 1/2-in. rigid conduit with an outside diameter of 3/4 in. (about $30), and a fish tape long enough to reach through the buried pipe ($15 to $60). You’ll also need a pair of pipe wrenches to screw the sections of pipe together, a drill and 1-in. bit capable of penetrating your siding, and wire cutting and stripping tools. The total cost of this project is typically about $2.20 for every foot of buried conduit, plus about $25 for LB fittings and miscellaneous hardware.

Tools:

• Non-Contact Voltage Tester
• 1-in. Drill bit
• 4-in-1 screwdriver
• Drill bit set
• Drill/driver - cordless
• Hacksaw
• Pipe wrench (2)
• Pliers
• Spade
• Tape measure
• Torpedo level
• Wire stripper/cutter
• Mattock
• Pipe bender
• Fish tape
• Leather gloves.

Materials:

• [wires?](white and black)
• Conduit straps
• Duct seal
• Electrical boxes
• Electrical tape
• EMT (electrical metallic tubing)
• Fittings (connectors and LBs)
• GFCI
• RMC (rigid metal conduit)
• Stranded electrical wires
• Switch
• Wire connectors

1. "A few weeks before you start the project..."
   
   Aw nuts!
   
   "...contact your local building department to obtain an electrical permit if one is required.
2. A few days before you dig, call 811 to have your underground utility lines marked."
   
3. Drill the hole into the house before you start digging just in case you run into an obstacle and have to choose a new location."
4. Choose a box location
5. Calculate the length of electrical metallic tubing (EMT) needed to reach from the back of the LB to the box.
6. Drill a small hole with a long bit to make sure you’re in the right spot.
7. Drill a 1-in. hole for the LB and conduit.
8. Screw a 1/2-in. Conduit connector into the back of the LB
9. Attach a piece of 1/2-in. EMT that’s long enough
10. Mount the LB to the siding
11. Go inside and add a conduit connector and a metal electrical box to the other end of the EMT.
    
    It shows a small version of this image:
    
12. Measure from the bottom of the trench to the bottom of the LB fitting.
13. Mark that measurement on the conduit.
    
14. Pull back on the conduit bender until the end stands straight up. A magnetic level lets you know when you’ve got a perfect 90-degree bend.
15. Thread an LB onto the end.
    
16. Thread the pipes together one at a time until you reach the other end. Assemble the conduit run aboveground to make tightening the connections easier. Support the conduit with 2x4s until you’ve connected all but the last section.
    
17. Measure for the last section of conduit.
    
18. Adjust the measurement for the distance the LB protrudes from the wall.
19. Hold the bent conduit in place to mark it for cutting.
20. Mark the pipe, cut, and bend it.
21. Connect it to the LB with a compression connector
22. Connect the conduit
    
23. Feed the fish tape through the conduit.
24. Use stranded wire, not solid wire. Use THWN-2 14-gauge stranded wire if you get power from a 15-amp circuit or THWN-2 12-gauge stranded wire for a 20-amp circuit.
25. Loop the wires through the fish tape and wrap them with electrical tape.
26. Wrap the hook on the fish tape so it can’t snag.
    
27. Pull the wire through the conduit. This is a two-person job—you need a helper at the other end to feed the wires into the conduit. Leave enough extra wire on each end to reach the inside metal box plus 12 in.
    
28. Connect the wires inside the shed to a switch. [according to this example]
29. Run them to a GFCI receptacle.

Electrical Wiring: How to Run Power Anywhere

[oil pan 4]

My bad my android auto correct likes to add words on the end of other words and I don't always catch them all.
It's RMC.


There's several mistakes on that guide. But better than any diy install than I have ever come across.

[Xist]

What are the mistakes?! How do I avoid them?!

[oil pan 4]

In most places the box that goes through the wall outside needs to be at least 2 feet above the ground. I think that's national code.
That's the main one, any inspector is going to see that.

And no plastic insulation bushings were used on the inside of the RMC and EMT connections, If your inspector is former nazi ss they will make you pull all the wire back out and install the insulating collars/bushing.
Going from the inside box to the outside box I always connect the boxes together with RMC.

[Xist]

Outside box two feet off of the ground, RMC connecting the inside box to the outside box, and what is the proper technique for bushings?

[oil pan 4]

The bushings are stupid easy, I just think most people don't know about them.
They insert into the conduit ends at each end of the conduit, install before the wire is pulled and held in place by a cap.