Romex cable runs in an unfinished basement can it be stapled to bottom of joists or do I have to drill holes in the joists.ALSO do outlets in unfinished basements have to be gfci.

Drill holes is mostly done. If cable must be on the bottom, then a runner, say a 1x6, must be installed the entire path of the cable, and then the cable is stapled to the runner.

TK,

I thought drilling through "Joists" was forbidden. Please educate me.

I forget the rules but you want to drill the center of the joist which is where the joist will loose the least amount of strength.

There is a max limit for the size of the hole relative to the joist size.

I know what Kiss means, and may be misinterpreted. He means in the center top to bottom of a joist, not center of the span. You can stay away form any nail face edge at least 1.25 ".

Only in the outer thirds on each end, never in the center third of the span.

Don, where did you ever get that idea? Standard construction, old and new, at least stick framing here in northeast, every basement ceiling, first floor ceiling, and so on, is drilled. This assumes standard floor framing 2 x 8, 2 x 10, 2 x 12.

It is pre-engineered truss that cannot be drilled without specs and design. Maybe your thinking of that?

Here is a better description of the rules:

rules on drilling thru wood floor joist - TOH Discussions (http://advice.thisoldhouse.com/showthread.php?t=2984)

Yep, notching and drilling both allowed but you got to follow the rules. TOH had a TV show covering this too.