Can you bury a junction box behind cabinets without a cover plate? If it matters, it is a commercial building. I was told this is acceptable. This seems like a huge red flag to me, cover plate or not.

Junction box must be covered and accessible. My older code book references 370-28 and 29.

I bet the person who told you this was acceptable was the one who wanted to do it.
It is not, on several levels.

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Originally Posted by stanfortyman

I bet the person who told you this was acceptable was the one who wanted to do it.
It is not, on several levels.

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This was the direction of the GC. I'm a finish carpenter, and was installing cabinets. I told the super that I thought it was not legal, but was told that the electricial contractor said it was fine. Think I might call the electrical contractor and let them know what's going on.

Thank you for the advice.

The easiest thing to do is use a box extension, let it protrude into the cabinet and put on a cover plate. Or, cut a hole in the cabinet back, install a cover plate and then a small access cover. That is acceptable.

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The easiest thing to do is use a box extension

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That may be the easiest thing to do but the best thing to do would be to rewire and eliminate the problem.
That however, is between the GC and electrician.

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Originally Posted by ma0641

The easiest thing to do is use a box extension, let it protrude into the cabinet and put on a cover plate. Or, cut a hole in the cabinet back, install a cover plate and then a small access cover. That is acceptable.

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The problem with that is, the cabinet has fixed shelves. The junction box is a double and just happens to fall in the middle of the shelf. So, even if you cut the back of the cabinet to make it visible, you wouldn't be able to remove the cover without removing the cabinet and the granite top. I would assume based on my understanding of NEC 370-29 that would not be legal.

Read 314.29...
Clearly you can't allow this.