How to Run Overhead Electrical Wire to Garage

Most homes will have an attached garage, where power and electricity will already be available for use. However, if your home has a detached garage or shed, you’ll have to run power to it separately.

A standard option is to run overhead electrical wiring to your garage from your home. Today, we’ll walk you through how to run overhead electrical wire to the garage and the steps you’ll need to take to get power to your shed or detached garage.

2 Reasons to Power Your Detached Garage

There are a couple of reasons why you’d be concerned about running power to your detached garage –

1. Run equipment in your garage or treat it as a work station, in which case it’ll be the same as running power to a workshop.
2. Power outdoor lighting attached to your shed or garage.

Running Power to Your Detached Garage/Shed

There are a couple of ways you can run power from your house to the shed or detached garage –

1. Underground electrical service – run underground wiring.
2. Overhead electrical service – run overhead wires to the garage.

In either case, you’ll have to rely on more than one circuit. Moreover, it’ll be better to add a sub-panel to the detached building to handle power distribution.

What Parts Do I need to Run Overhead Power to My Detached Garage?

The parts you’ll need to run overhead power to your garage are –  

1. Weather-proof mastheads
2. Turnbuckles
3. Guy-wire
4. Rigid conduit
5. Wiring or cabling
6. Insulation material
7. Guy-wire clamps
8. Cable ties

How to Run Overhead Electrical Wire to Garage – Setting Up an Aerial Wire to Garage

There are times when running a line underground is impractical. Moreover, you’ll often run into obstacles, including the driveway, patio, or other structures around your home that’ll get in the way of running a wire cleanly underground without making a big mess.

In these cases, you’ll have to run a wire overhead to power your detached garage.

To Run an overhead Electrical wire to your garage, follow these five steps:

Step 1 – Ensure the overhead cables don’t go over any of your common service areas around your house – including your driveway and patios. Moreover, make sure you don’t run overhead wires over your swimming pool, hot tubs, or Jacuzzis. All of these are significant safety hazards, and you should avoid them at all costs.

Additionally, you could be in trouble with your local building laws if you don’t keep your overhead cables a safe distance away from your home’s water features. To get an exact number, do a check-up with your local building regulatory office.

Step 2 – Set up two 13 feet tall conduits. One on the side of your main home where you’ll run the power from, and the other against the side of the detached garage, where you’ll run the power to. For this next step, you’ll need to brush up on your carpentry and roofing skills.

To set these up correctly, you’ll have to be proficient in basic carpentry skills. Otherwise, you’ll have to rely on hired help to get this part done. Setting up conduits 13 feet high comes with the convenience that you can easily reach the top with an extension ladder, and it’s a clearance height for most vehicles.

Step 3 – Run a guy-wire between two independent supports, like the conduits attached to your home and garage. You’ll need a guy-wire because electrical cabling and wires cannot support their weight, and so you’ll need to add some mechanical support with the guy-wire.

Ensure that you properly insulate the guy-wire, and it’s rigid enough to support the cabling’s weight. For this, you can use National Hardware N267-013 2573BC Guy Wire which will do that work for you.

Also, make sure to allow slack for the guy-wire as it’ll contract and expand depending on the outside temperature. If you’re not careful, the wire will end up ripping itself out when it gets too cold.

Step 4 – Wrap the electrical cabling around the guy wire, once every 12-14 inches. Ensure you leave slack between each gap to allow the wires to contract when the weather gets cold. Instead of wrapping the wire, you can also use cable ties to hold the wiring in place.

Step 5 – Ensure the conduit’s masthead is weather-proof to prevent water from reaching the main electrical panels.

And that’s all there is to know about running an electrical wire outside above ground.  With your new direct aerial wire to the garage, you’ll be able to run outdoor lights or power tools.

Overhead Electrical Cable to Shed or Garage – FAQ

Conclusion

And with that, you know how to run overhead cabling to a detached shed or garage. Remember to check with local building laws to ensure you have permission to run overhead cabling – the rules and conditions vary from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Next, remember to hire professionals if you need help setting up the conduits, masts, or wires. Finally, don’t run wires over water features, especially swimming pools; otherwise, you run the risk of electrocuting family members.

Helpful Products For Your Garage

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you found it helpful. Here are a couple of websites I’ve found that have some helpful products I have personally used to organize, maintain, and help add some style to my garage over the years.

These are affiliate links, so if you do decide to use any of them, I’ll earn a commission. But in all honesty, these are the exact products that I use and recommend to everyone, even my own family.

Garagebasics.com – Garagebasics.com does have everything you need to create the most attractive and organized garage on your block. I purchased Garage Basics Diamond garage floor tiles for my new garage floor and I couldn’t be happier with the result.

Click the Garage Basics website link above to find everything from storage racks to garage workbenches and see why this is my go-to site when looking for products to improve my garage.

Dooropenersandmore.com – Dooropenersandmore.com sells a large selection of replacement garage door opener remotes, keypads, and receivers all in one place! When my LiftMaster remote failed last year, dooropenersandmore.com came to my rescue.

I was really surprised at the number of brands they carried and their prices were lower than I could find anywhere else. If you need replacement parts for your garage door remote, keypad, or receiver, click the link above. Plus, shipping is free on orders in the United States!

If you need replacement parts for your garage door remote, keypad, or receiver; click the link above to see why they’re the best.