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Bathroom electrical in an Ohio house: the code, the outlets, the light over the shower and who inspects

The wiring in an Ohio house answers to the National Electrical Code, which the state adopts by rule rather than rewriting, and since April 15, 2024 the edition for houses is the 2023 one. A bathroom draws several rules of its own in that code, because it is where water and receptacles share a wall. This page sets out which rule adopts it and which edition, what Ohio changed, what the code asks of a bathroom and of the fan, who holds the state credential, and which office inspects in Columbus and four Central Ohio counties. The wiring requirements are given as the documents restating the code describe them, because its own text is not published free to read.

Last updated September 2026 · Ohio rules, city and county pages and the documents restating the 2023 electrical code were read September 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base

Which code an Ohio house is wired to, and which edition

The Residential Code of Ohio does not write its own wiring rules. Its electrical chapter is a single rule, Ohio Administrative Code 4101:8-34-01, carrying the code's Section 3401, and that section incorporates the National Electrical Code, NFPA 70, and says those provisions govern the installation, testing and operation of the electrical systems of one-, two- and three-family dwellings and their accessory structures.

The edition year is not in that chapter. It points the reader to a separate referenced standards rule, 4101:8-44-01, and the year lives there: the 2023 edition of the National Electrical Code, in force for Ohio houses since April 15, 2024. The rule's own footer carries that date, and Warren County's building inspection department lists the 2023 NFPA 70 among the codes to be enforced in Ohio from that day. It is April 15 rather than March 1 because the Board of Building Standards withdrew its first set of rules over a drafting error in the sump pump exemption.

Until then Ohio houses were on the 2017 edition, and the state never used the 2020 edition for houses at all. The referenced standards rule shows it: its 2019 version lists the 2017 edition, and the 2024 version strikes 17 and writes 23 in its place. A bathroom wired before the spring of 2024 was built to a different rule book than one wired after, and the keep-out zone around a tub is one of the things that changed.

What Ohio changed, and the one change that reaches a bathroom

Ohio keeps the national rules almost whole. By the text of the state's own rule, the electrical chapter lists eight amendments to the adopted code, and only one of them touches anything in a bathroom. That one narrows the requirement rather than widening it.

It rewrites the opening line of the ground-fault section. Ohio's version reaches all 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles installed in the locations that section lists, where the national text reaches receptacles from 125 volts through 250 volts. An ordinary bathroom outlet is a 125-volt 15- or 20-ampere one, so the effect in a bathroom is small; it matters for a 240-volt receptacle, which Ohio's wording does not sweep in.

What the adopted code requires in a bathroom

One thing has to be said first. The National Electrical Code is published by the National Fire Protection Association, and its own text was not readable for this page: the free-access viewer asks for a sign-in and the online service is a subscription. Nothing below is a quotation of the code. Each requirement is stated the way one of three documents restating the code describes it, and the section named is the one that document cites: the International Code Council's 2024 residential code, correlated to the 2023 edition and printing the source section in brackets; a wiring handout from Weld County, Colorado's building inspection division, written to the 2023 edition; and Leviton Manufacturing's code-change portal, which reprints the 2023 text under a printed permission line. Ohio adopts none of the three, and its own rule is cited wherever Ohio changed something.

The requirementWhat the code adopted for Ohio houses requires, as those documents restate itSection, as the restating document cites it
Ground-fault protection for the receptaclesAll receptacles located in a bathroom have ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection, in the outlet or in the breaker. Ohio's amendment narrows that section to 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles.210.8(A)(1), read with Ohio Administrative Code 4101:8-34-01
The 20-ampere circuit, and what else it may feedAt least one 20-ampere branch circuit supplies the bathroom receptacle outlets and is to have no other outlets. An exception permits outlets for other equipment where that circuit supplies a single bathroom, which is how one circuit comes to carry the outlet, the light and the fan.210.11(C)(3) and its exception
A receptacle within reach of the basinAt least one receptacle outlet within 36 inches of the outside edge of each basin, on a wall or partition beside it, on the countertop or on the side or face of the cabinet, and no more than 12 inches below the counter.210.52(D)
The keep-out zone at a tub or showerNo receptacle inside the tub or shower, or within 3 feet horizontally of any outside edge, from the floor to 8 feet above the tub rim or shower threshold. New in the 2023 edition, with a new exception for a single receptacle for an electronic toilet or bidet seat.406.9(C) and its exceptions
What may hang over a tub, and how a shower fixture is markedNothing hung on a cord, chain or cable, no lighting track, no pendant and no ceiling fan with a light kit may have any part inside a zone 3 feet horizontally and 8 feet vertically from the top of the tub rim or shower threshold. A fixture inside that outline is marked for damp locations, or for wet locations where shower spray reaches it.410.10(D)
Paddle fansNo metal part of a ceiling-suspended paddle fan in a bathroom or shower space may sit inside that same zone. This is a section of its own, new in the 2023 edition.422.18(B)
SwitchesA switch is not installed within wet locations in a tub or shower space unless it is part of a listed tub or shower assembly.404.4(C)
A heated floorThe heating cables of an electrically heated floor have ground-fault protection, whether embedded in concrete or poured masonry or run under a floor covering. This one is read only at the model residential code's restatement.424.44(E) and 424.45(E)
Arc-fault protection, for comparisonOhio's own amendment names kitchens, family rooms, dining rooms, living rooms, dens, bedrooms, closets, hallways, laundry rooms and other similar rooms. A bathroom is not named in it.Ohio Administrative Code 4101:8-34-01

The keep-out zone is the row that most often moves a plan, and it has an exception for the small room: where the bathroom is narrower than the zone, the required outlet may go opposite the tub rim or shower threshold, on the farthest wall. The zone stops at a floor, wall, ceiling, door, window or fixed barrier.

Protection follows the tub as well as the room: a separate item in the same section reaches a receptacle within 6 feet of the outside edge of a bathtub or shower stall, wherever that tub is. That is in the same section as the bathroom rule, 210.8(A), and this page gives it without an item number, because two documents written to the 2023 edition number that item differently.

The fan, and the window it is allowed to replace

The fan requirement sits outside the electrical chapter, in the code's building-planning chapter. Ohio's residential code lets a bathroom have either a window or a fan: Section 303.3 asks for an aggregate 3 square feet of glazing with half of it openable, and its exception excuses that where artificial light and a local exhaust system are provided. Ohio prints these sections without the model code's R prefix, so it is 303.3. The other sections a window meets in the Residential Code of Ohio are on the page on windows and glass in a Central Ohio house.

Where the fan is the answer, Ohio's Table 1505.4.4 puts a bathroom or toilet room at 50 cubic feet per minute run intermittently, or 20 continuously. That is a floor rather than a target, and what a particular room wants, how long to run it and what a long or crushed duct does to it are on the ventilation page.

The same exception settles where the air goes: exhaust air from the space is to be discharged directly to the outdoors, so a fan ducted into an attic or a soffit cavity does not meet it.

The state license, and the line it does not cross

The electrical trade sits under the same statute as plumbing. Ohio Revised Code chapter 4740 creates five contractor credentials, for electrical, heating and air conditioning, refrigeration, plumbing and hydronics work, issued by the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board in the Department of Commerce, and it creates no journeyman or residential electrician category at all. The board itself, and the way a credential belongs to a named individual, are on the Ohio code page.

That credential is written for commercial work. The statute defines the projects it covers as buildings subject to Ohio's building law, but not an industrialized unit or a residential building as that law defines one. So the statute does not require a state credential of the person wiring a house, though an electrical contractor may hold one; that is drawn out of the statute's own definitions rather than a sentence any Ohio agency publishes.

The city layer is where a state credential reaches a house, and it differs by city. The City of Columbus issues no electrical credential of its own: it registers a contractor who already holds the state one, asking for that credential and a surety bond on the city's form, and the only journeyperson credential on the city's list is for plumbing.

Who inspects electrical work, and why the answer is an address

Ohio builds electrical inspection into what a residential building department is. The state's certification rule requires such a department to have a person with a level 2 or 3 electrical safety inspector specialization, with no condition attached, while it requires a plumbing inspector only if the department is certified to enforce plumbing provisions. Plumbing inspection is often a health district's job, as the code page sets out; electrical inspection belongs to the building department. Which one is a question about the address, and the table names only the office each jurisdiction's own page names.

Where the house isThe office its own page namesWhat that office publishes
City of ColumbusDepartment of Building and Zoning ServicesIts electrical inspections determine that wiring, equipment and systems are installed in accordance with the code, and its electrical permit application carries boxes for a one-family and a two- to three-family structure.
Franklin County, outside a cityEconomic Development and Planning Department, building divisionThe department issues building permits for one-, two- and three-family residential structures, and the county is on the state's residential certification list.
Delaware CountyDepartment of Building SafetyThe county's building code requires a permit before anyone installs, alters, repairs, removes, converts or replaces an electrical system the state's codes regulate.
Licking CountyBuilding Code DepartmentA permanent electrical service to a site-built house needs an approval and an inspection, and all customer-installed electrical components must be inspected before being covered or energized.
Fairfield CountyThe township or the city; the county covers commercial constructionThe county building department says its work does not reach residential one-, two- and three-family structures. Violet Township is certified separately and is on the state's list; the county is not.

The state list behind two of those rows is the Board of Building Standards' residential certification list, printed August 16, 2023 and the newest copy found. A jurisdiction certified since then would not be on it, which is why the Fairfield reading rests on the county's own page too.

A heated floor, and the inspection that cannot be recovered

A heated tile floor is the one bathroom item where an inspection decides the order of the work. The City of Columbus says all heat mats and cables must be inspected before they are covered by any floor covering, including thin-set mortar and tile, in the construction industry communication its building department publishes on floor heat mats. The same document asks for a rough inspection against the manufacturer's instructions and a final inspection with the resistance readings on site. Licking County states the same principle for every customer-installed electrical component, before covering or energizing.

With the ground-fault requirement in the table, that is three moments rather than one: the protection designed in, the mat seen before the thin-set, and the readings taken at the end. None of them can be put back once the tile is down. What goes under the tile is on the floors and subfloors page.

What is behind the wall, by era

One material has a federal agency's own dates. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says houses built before 1965 are unlikely to have aluminum branch circuit wiring, and that cables installed between 1965 and the mid 1970s in new houses, in additions and as part of rewired circuits may contain it. The commission gives the end of that era as the mid 1970s rather than as a single year, and this page does not tidy it into one. The Commission's fuller statement on that wiring, and the code editions that added ground-fault and arc-fault protection, are set out on the page about what wiring a house has by era.

It also says how to tell. Cable with aluminum conductors is hard to distinguish by eye, so the commission asks a homeowner to read the printing on the jacket, where such cable carries Al or Aluminum; a marking reading CU-clad or Copper-clad alongside means copper-coated aluminum wire, which its repair advice does not cover. On the hazard the commission is quoted and nothing added: in its own words, the fire hazard it investigated occurs at connections with aluminum wire, and it tells a homeowner not to attempt the work.

Knob-and-tube wiring, the older system, is deliberately not dated here: no government agency, university or standards body was found publishing a range for it.

What a bathroom remodel meets

Ohio's residential code exempts a short list of electrical work from approval, in Section 102.10 of its administration chapter. Among them are reinstalling an attachment plug receptacle but not the outlet it sits in, and replacing a branch circuit overcurrent device of the required capacity and type in the same location. Swapping the device in a box already in the wall is exempt; putting a new box in the wall is not.

That is the line most bathroom work crosses. A new circuit, an outlet where none was, a fan where there was none, a switch moved out of a shower space or a heated floor is work the code expects to be approved and inspected, and the office is the one the address answers to. How the Columbus process reads from a homeowner's side is on the permit page. Nothing here states a requirement for any one address.

The short version. Ohio houses are wired to the 2023 National Electrical Code, adopted by rule 4101:8-34-01 and in force since April 15, 2024; before that it was the 2017 edition, and Ohio never used 2020 for houses. In a bathroom the adopted code wants ground-fault protection on the receptacles, a 20-ampere circuit for them, an outlet within 36 inches of each basin, nothing hung or plugged in inside a zone 3 feet out and 8 feet up from the tub rim, and protection under a heated floor. An openable window, or a fan at 50 cubic feet per minute ducted outdoors, satisfies the ventilation rule. Who inspects is decided by the address.

Sources

Every figure, date and quotation on this page comes from one of these documents, read on the date given. Where two of them disagree, the page says so.

Common questions

Which edition of the National Electrical Code do Ohio houses have to meet?

The 2023 edition, in force for houses since April 15, 2024. Ohio does not write its own wiring rules: the electrical chapter of the Residential Code of Ohio is a single rule, Ohio Administrative Code 4101:8-34-01, and it incorporates the National Electrical Code by reference, then lists eight Ohio amendments to it. The edition year is not in that chapter but in a separate referenced standards rule, 4101:8-44-01. Until April 2024 Ohio houses were on the 2017 edition, and the state never used the 2020 edition for houses at all, so a bathroom wired before that spring answers to a different rule book than one wired after.

Does every outlet in an Ohio bathroom need GFCI protection?

Yes, and Ohio narrows the rule slightly rather than widening it. The code adopted for Ohio houses requires ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for all receptacles located in bathrooms, at section 210.8(A)(1) as the documents restating the 2023 edition cite it. Ohio's own amendment rewrites the opening line of that section so it reaches 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles, where the national text reaches receptacles from 125 volts through 250 volts. An ordinary bathroom outlet is a 125-volt 15- or 20-ampere one, so the protection is required either way. It may sit in the outlet itself or in the breaker.

How close to a tub or shower can a bathroom outlet be?

Not inside it, and not within three feet of it. The 2023 edition drew a keep-out zone: no receptacle inside the tub or shower or within 3 feet horizontally of any outside edge, from the floor to 8 feet above the tub rim or shower threshold, at section 406.9(C) as the restating documents cite it. The zone stops at a floor, wall, ceiling, room door, window or fixed barrier. Where the room is narrower than the zone, the required outlet may be installed opposite the tub rim or shower threshold on the farthest wall, and a single receptacle is permitted for an electronic toilet or bidet seat.

Can a light fixture or a ceiling fan hang over a bathtub?

No part of one may sit inside a zone 3 feet horizontally and 8 feet vertically from the top of the tub rim or shower threshold. That reaches anything hung on a cord, chain or cable, a lighting track, a pendant and a ceiling fan carrying a light kit, at section 410.10(D) as the restating documents cite it. The 2023 edition added a section of its own for paddle fans, at 422.18(B), covering metal parts of a ceiling-suspended fan in a bathroom or shower space. A fixture that does sit inside the tub or shower outline has to be marked for damp locations, or for wet locations where shower spray reaches it.

Does Ohio issue a state license for residential electrical work?

Not one written for houses. Ohio Revised Code chapter 4740 creates five contractor credentials, for electrical, heating and air conditioning, refrigeration, plumbing and hydronics work, and no journeyman or residential electrician category. The statute defines the projects those credentials cover as buildings subject to Ohio's building law but not a residential building, so the chapter does not require the credential for work on a house, though an electrical contractor may hold one. Columbus issues no electrical credential of its own; it registers a contractor who already holds the state one, and the only journeyperson credential on its list is for plumbing. That reading comes from the statute's own definitions, not a sentence any agency publishes.

Who inspects electrical work in Columbus and Central Ohio?

The office depends on the address. In Columbus the Department of Building and Zoning Services runs electrical inspections, and its electrical permit application carries boxes for one-family and two- to three-family structures. Outside a city in Franklin County the county building department issues permits for one-, two- and three-family structures. Delaware County requires a permit before an electrical system is installed, altered, repaired, removed or replaced, and Licking County says customer-installed electrical components must be inspected before they are covered or energized. Fairfield County's building department covers commercial construction and says it does not regulate one-, two- and three-family structures, so a township or a city inspects there.

Does a heated bathroom floor have to be inspected before the tile goes down?

In Columbus, yes. The city's building department says all heat mats and cables must be inspected before they are covered by any floor covering, including thin-set mortar and tile, in the construction industry communication it publishes on floor heat mats. The same document asks for a rough inspection against the manufacturer's instructions and a final inspection with the resistance readings on site. Licking County states the same principle for every customer-installed electrical component, before covering or energizing. The heating cables themselves need ground-fault protection under the code adopted for Ohio houses. None of it can be put back once the tile is down.

How can a homeowner tell whether a house has aluminum branch circuit wiring?

By reading the printing on the cable jacket rather than by looking at the outlet. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says houses built before 1965 are unlikely to have aluminum branch circuit wiring, and that cables installed between 1965 and the mid 1970s in new houses, in additions and as part of rewired circuits may contain it. The commission says such cable is hard to tell apart by eye, and that cable with aluminum conductors carries Al or Aluminum marked on the jacket, while a marking reading CU-clad or Copper-clad alongside means copper-coated aluminum. In its own words, the fire hazard it investigated occurs at connections with aluminum wire.

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