Big-Foot

Thans for the replies guys.. Kurt - The Garage is detached and a good 30' from the huse. Does that count? Marc - Good reading you and your link. I have bookmarked it for future reference! Thanks..

This forum software and our ipad do not get along. Tried to edit and add that the house is in Minneapolis MN and also that the ceilings are done in plywood as well. Thanks for any pointers!

Hi guys, long time reader and have searched but could find nothing on this. I am about to put my home on the market and a friend of mine mentioned I might have a problem area to address. The garage is a large 2.5 car unit with an addition off on one side. The walls are thoroughly insulated with fiberglass, but the walls were covered with plywood rather than sheet rock. He said that the fact that it is heated will require sheet rock on the walls. I have had a 100k BTU gas furnace in there in a corner for years and no issues and liked the fact that the walls could take a beating without damage. Plus, it was easy to hang cabinets etc as the plywood is 1/2" thick. What say you guys and gals - do I need to cover the plywood with sheet rock in order to meet any requirements? Other options? The house is in Minneapolis if that matters

Hi guys, Long time lurker and first time post here.. First off let me introduce myself. I am a Technologist with an engineering background and education. I do fabrication (racecars and restorations) for fun. I'm working on my kitchen which was last remodeled back in the early to mid 50's. There are a lot of outlets in the kitchen and most of them are worn out so I was going to replace them. In the process I found that there are two circuits. One 15 amp and one 20 amp. All wiring is good solid core 12g. The top of the outlets was wired to the 15 amp and the bottom to the 20 amp. No GFCI anywhere. Well, long story short, I altered the wiring to only bring the 15 amp to the outlets and I wired in a GFCI outlet for that entire leg. Everything is honky dory. The 20 amp leg I am using solely for the Micrwave, garbage disposal and refrigerator. I went to install a 20 amp GFCI into that second circuit and suddenly the 15 amp GFCI now trips whenever I plug my circuit tester into it. I don't even need to push the button. With the GFCI out of the 2o amp circuit - everything is fine and both circuits work perfectly. Now - according to my unprofessional knowledge, and from what I have seen in my breaker boxes (yes I have two - which may have just answered my own question) the neutrals are all tied to a single bus in each box. The 15 amp circuit in one box and the 20 amp in the second box. Both coming off of the same inbound leg as best I can tell. What I suspect is happening is that there is a single neutral that has been shared (hidden inside a wall somewhere) and that even though electrically it seems to make sense and work, the GFCI senses a ault and trips as soon as there is any current flow. So my question is - Should I run a common neutral connection between the neutral busses in both boxes? Give up on the notion of installing a GFCI in the 20 amp circuit? Note that the basement in this house is totally finished and ripping out ceilings and walls is not an option. I welcome your thoughts! Thanks!!!