Since I plan to finish up wiring the kitchen outlets in the next week or so, I thought it would be a good time to take a step back and talk about how to actually go about wiring a kitchen. This is definitely not an easy project, but I personally believe it is within the capabilities of just about anyone willing to spend some time learning how to do it. The most dangerous part is the risk of electrocution, but you should never be working near live wires anyway, so you should be fine.

In terms of timing, it has taken me much too long to actually wire the kitchen, but I have been working in fits and spurts. If I had actually dedicated eight straight hours a day to the project, I would estimate that the rough in would have taken me three days or so, even as a novice. One of the biggest keys to being successful with this is having a good plan. Once you have that, you can start making that plan a reality.

The first step I did was to mark all of the studs where I was planning to attach an outlet. I took a Sharpie and drew a line where I wanted the bottom of the outlet box to be with an arrow head pointing to the side of the stud where I would install it. The only real requirement is that the outlets are no more than 20” above the counter (or no less than 12” below it). I measured our current outlets, and they are 8” above the counter top which I feel is about right though many people recommend 12. It’s really up to you; if you’re really undecided, I would recommend drawing a box at 8” and 12” in pencil in your current kitchen and seeing what one works for you (or if you want it somewhere in the middle). Once you decide, add 36” to that number since that is the typical counter height.

While marking, there are a few things to keep in mind that may change the exact placement of your outlets from where they are drawn on the paper. As long as you keep no more than four feet between outlets, it’s okay to move them a couple inches in either direction to accommodate these things:

1. Plumbing. You should probably plumb your kitchen first since it’s a lot easier to work wire around plumbing than it is to work plumbing around wire. We technically did this (except for the vent pipe), but it’s been so long that I don’t remember very well, so I’m going to have to spend some time thinking before I can write that post.
2. The placement of the studs. It’s much easier to attach an outlet to a stud so you should try and do that whenever possible. Studs are typically 16” on center which means that you want no more than three studs between outlets. Sometimes, you may have to drop to two. My personal feeling is that more outlets in a kitchen is not a bad thing, so I did this a lot.
3. Windows, sinks and other fixtures. Depending on the height of the window, you may or may not be able to get an outlet underneath it. Regardless of the height, you will need to find a way if the window is more than four feet wide (unusual but possible). The good news is that most windows are placed above sinks. Since sinks are not considered countertops, you don’t need to place outlets over them (which would not make sense anyway). You do, however, need an outlet within two feet of the edge of the sink to meet code requirements.

Once you have the outlets marked, I would recommend marking the other circuits in your kitchen. I do the same line with an arrow head for these outlets as well though you should keep in mind that the dishwasher is often wired directly into the circuit and doesn’t have an outlet. I also label with what the outlet is for and a type of wire to run (you could do amperage as well but I like to figure out the gauge once and then not think about it again). Here are the other circuits you might have:

1. An oven, stove, and/or range. These will typically be 50A and 240V which means 6/3 wire.
2. The vent hood for the oven/stove. This is typically 20A and can be plugged in, but you should check the owners manual for the vent hood you have/will buy.
3. A refrigerator. This needs its own dedicated 20A outlet.
4. A dishwasher. As I mentioned before, you will often just wire this directly into a 20A circuit and thus don’t necessarily need an outlet box (though many new dishwashers  I’ve seen do come with a plug if you want to go that route).
5. A chest freezer, if you have one.
6. A microwave if you have a newer one that draws a significant amount of power (over 1200W or so). Older ones with less power draw can probably be plugged into a small appliance outlet—you just want to make sure you don’t overdraw those circuits.
7. A garbage disposal.

Most of the above appliances will be 20A and 120V, so they will be wired in 12/2 wire, but as always, check the manual for the specific appliance you have.

Once you have the lines drawn, you’re ready for what is (in my opinion at least) the worst part about electrical: drilling holes. You will probably want a right angle drill for this though you may be able to get away with a shorter bit in a regular drill held at a slight angle for most of the holes you need to drill. However, there will inevitably be a gap between studs smaller than 16” for something like a window or corner, so you will need a right angle drill available even if you only use it for a couple holes. You can rent one if this is going to be one of the only times you need it, but if you’re planning any other major renovations, it’s probably best to just invest in one. You don’t use it that often, but when you need it, nothing else is going to work.

As much as possible, I would recommend using twist drill bits like the one shown below. You should be able to get a half inch one which will work just fine for a 12/2 wire. As you get bigger than half an inch, however, you typically have to move to either a spade bit or a hole saw. The spade is typically faster but it does cut a rougher hole and sends chips flying everywhere. However, it typically works fine for electrical. The only problem I had with it was that nails absolutely destroy them (I lost two bits this way), so if you’re working in a place where there might be nails and need a big hole, you might have to move to a hole saw. They cut much slower, but I’ve found them harder to destroy (probably because they cut much slower).

The other interesting drilling situation we ran into was studs so close together that even the right angle drill wouldn’t fit between them. While there may be other options for this, the route we took was a bit extender. Basically, we would drill the hole in one of the studs bordering the small gap and then put the drill into the larger bordering gap with the extender on (but not the bit). Then, we would put the bit into the smaller gap and place it into the extender before drilling. The resulting holes weren’t pretty, but you could run wire through them. The only problem was that I could only find an extender with a ¼” shaft and couldn’t find any ½” twist bits with a ¼” shaft, so we had to use the spade bits for all of these holes.

I drilled all the holes over the course of a couple weeks, doing three or four a night. You could do them all in a day if you want, but I found it to be tiring, tedious work that I just preferred to do in small batches. You will obviously need to drill holes between all the outlets that need to be wired together and enough holes to run a wire to each circuit from the breaker box. However, there are a few things you can do to make your job easier:

• Run wires together if they’re going to a similar place. You probably can’t just take all the wires and run them together since there will be enough differences in where they’re going (and, depending on your interpretation of code, may not be allowed), but you could probably bundle two or three.
• Keep in mind that there are two small appliance circuits, so you can choose to not wire between two of the outlets. I would try and pick two that have a tricky path between them such as around a window or a corner.
• If you don’t have a ceiling up in the floor below your kitchen, run wires parallel to the rafters under the floor instead of taking them through the wall whenever possible.

Now, you are finally ready to do the actual wiring. Given how long this post is already, however, I will plan to make a second post detailing how we accomplished that and the lessons learned from it. Stay tuned!