Electrical – run #10 and #12 cables through the same hole in framing lumber

electrical

I'll begin by saying that I'm no electrician. I was just wondering about the following:

TLDR: Is it ok to have two 12/2 cables and a 10/3 cable going through the same 3/4" hole?

For a washer and dryer there are currently two blue boxes with two yellow cables, which I suspect to be 12/2 cables, going through a hole (through wood, but not a floor joist) maybe 3/4" wide. Turns out a gas dryer wasn't possible so I needed a larger wire, so I ran an orange 10/3 cable through the same hole as the 2 12/2 cables.

My question is whether or not this is OK? The reason I did this is because the ceiling is going to be boarded up and now is the time to do it. The 10/3 cable going to the panel has a drop ceiling so I am going to let the electrician handle the wiring of that (though for now I did just run it along the joists and to the panel).

The 10/3 cable is pretty thick so I did have to tug a little bit to get it through the hole, but it appeared to be undamaged and fine. I'll add by saying that the 10/3 and 12/2 cables are not running parallel once through the hole. In fact they diverge (something like below)

                              ^
                              |
                              |
                              |
                              |
                              |
                              |
                              |
                              |
                              |
                            12/2
                              v
<---------10/3 cable ------>  * 

Best Answer

In the US, as far as the National Electrical Code is concerned, you can run three cables through a hole bored in a joist or rafter as long as you can run the cables without damaging them.

If the bored hole was longer than 24", you would have to observe the rules for bundling and do derating calculations - that is, figure out the diminished current carrying capacity of the cables. This would be very unusual in house construction, there are not many walls, beams, etc. that are 24" deep.

There may be local codes that apply in addition to or instead of the NEC - can't say what applies for your area.

Some people have their own rules about how many cables can go through a single bored hole. Sometimes these rules of thumb are pretty popular, and can be confused with actual code requirements, even by inspectors.

The safest thing to do in these situations is contact your local code enforcement department and ask. Of course, it's often a lot easier to drill another hole.