If you buy any of the $10 wiring books at Home Depot they will show you how to easily add outlets in your situation. The tall baseboard will make it very easy. You won't need any "elbows", just holes in the sheetrock hidden by the baseboard to allow drilling through each stud. You can repair the holes or not since the baseboard will cover the holes. I suppose you could notch the studs, but I like the idea of running the romex through the center of the stud: less chance of a baseboard nail causing a short.

Unfortunately, the wiring book I bought at home depot did not address my situation. I've just finsihed installing 12 recess lights and putting addtional outlets inside my house. However, I'm not sure if an attached garage has speicfic codes. My first question is the height of the wire from ground. Is there a mnimum requirement for the garage?

The installed baseboards are 6" tall and well finshed. I'd like to just tug the wire underneath the boards, instead of having the pry out the nice boards. Unlike the inside of the home, these gargae baseboards are 4" off the ground, providing ample space for the wire.

Why not just surface mount the wire, armoured or in suitable conduits? My garage has only a single outlet, and that's how it was done. I plan to add more and will do the same. I don't mind the look of them, after all, it is a garage. I'll probably spraypaint the walls anyway, so the cables etc will be quite unobtrusive.

Surface is my last option. I was hoping to keep the finished look of th garage nice. It looks like I have to bite the bullet to put lots of holes in the dry wall & plywood (shear wall) to hide the wires. Any other suugestions?

Put your holes below the existing baseboard and drill or notch the studs to route your wiring. Use nail plates to cover the notches or protect the holes, then patch the drywall. At that level, the patches will be hard to notice. If the wall is uninsulated, getting the wires from the receptacle cutout to the bottom of the wall is easy. If insulated, a little more difficult, but doable.

Why is there a 4" space below the baseboard? Are there concrete blocks down there?

The baseboard sits on top 4" concrete. I don't know if the concrete elevation is part of the foundation. The studs sit above the concrete. They are not exposed. I've trying tuging a wire up behind the base board but it's blocked by some dense rubber like strip. I pulled part of the strip off, only to encounter sprayed foam. Arrrrh!

The dense rubber strip is probably the foundation seal. I myself wouldn't want to poke holes in it.
How about channeling the drywall, put conduit in the channel and mud it in or cover with something like a chair rail type of trim?I keep my outlets at 30' to 36" off the floor. Beats kneeling on a wet floor in the wintertime to plug something in. When you get a little older this is important.

Chair rail sounds like a great idea. Thanks!
I didn't know about foundation seal. Is it for mositure protection?

It's to keep the lumber of the house from touching concrete, so yes, it's a moisture seal and ait infiltration seal and also slows down stuff like termites and other bugs.

Yes, that's exactly what the foundation seal's for, unfortunately, the Roman empire's secret for making waterproof concrete was lost with them, so moisture will permeate concrete unless it's sealed from outside/underneath, in the case of a house. The foundation seal prevents the timber from rotting.

The chair rail does sound like a good idea, I'd suggest you put a warning label or a drawing showing the conduit's location or some such, when you sell the house, since anyone nailing the chair rail for some reason could get a nasty surprise - my FIL attempted to screw down a flooring joining strip, only to discover the previous owners had run a pipe directly underneath!

Thanks everyone! I found a potential short cut! Please let me know if this safe. On the other side of this long garage wall is the dining room. The breaker for the plugs is 20 amp. I could fish a wire out from a dining room outlet to the garage. It will be the exact location I want. This will mess up the labeling on the breaker panel. Is this a big no-no?

just remark the breaker to indicate it also serves part of the garage.

Wow! That makes the job so much simpler. Thanks! I will proceed.

Use a GFI outlet in the garage.

Make sure the circuit does not supply power to the counter top outlets in the kitchen, if it does, it would be a huge violation to serve the garage.

By the way other electricians while we are here. Is the dinning room code just requiring it to be on a 20 amp circuit? It may be with the kitchen counter tops but I take it, it is also allowed to mix with the living room or other areas (as long as it's not with the kitchen of course).

I've just checked around the house. The dining room outlet is in the same circuit with an outlet on the countertop of a small bar. There is no plumbing for water. It's just a little space above the undercounter wine cellar, which runs on a different circuit. The dining room outlets are also in the same circuit as the breakfast nook next to the kitchen. However, the outlets above the countertop in the kitchen are in a different circuit.

I hope the countertop outlet above the wine cellar in the dining room is OK with the garage extension.

Can I proceed? Advise please.

do you have an accessible attic above your garage? if so garage walls arent typically insulated and this makes it fairly easy to fish wires up and down walls. i wouldnt tap off of the dining room circuit. i dont think code allows it plus if you have any lamps plugged into that circuit it will dim when you turn on a power tool.

There is no attic because the garage is under the bedrooms. The garage is insulated, which is an option chosed by the original buyer who backed out after the house was about to be fnished.

I found this statement in an article called: COMMON WIRING METHODS USED CONCERNING WIRING AN ATTACHED GARAGE (http://www.selfhelpandmore.com/homewiringusa/1999/maindwelling/attgarage/index.htm):

"Outside receptacles, basement receptacles, and garage receptacles can be run on the same circuits, and can be protected by the same GFCI device. 210-8 Kitchen 210-52-B-2 and bathroom 210-11-3 receptacles must be dedicated as their own circuits, therefore kitchen and bathroom receptacles must not be wired on the same circuits as the garage, basement or outside receptacle circuits.210-52-B-2 and 210-11-3"

It didn't address if the garage outlets could be part of other circuits. It did say that they cannot be part of the kitchen or bathroom circuits.

I'm so confused!

Please help!

Anyone?

I think we're out of options. Go back to the chair rail thing and you won't have any questions on if it's ok or not ok to put on that circuit. Good luck.
Hank