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JoeSpareBedroom JoeSpareBedroom is offline
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Default Pulling wire in the walls

"Eigenvector" wrote in message
. ..
One question, when re-wiring an outlet, for instance to replace the old
useless Romex with clipped grounds, with fresh new 12/2 - how do you tell
where the wire goes? I mean how do you tell without hacking chunks out of
the wall?

In my house it looks reasonable that the Romex goes from the attic and
drops down to the outlets, so in this case it would be stapled to the
studs going up - but what's the easiest way to determine that without
major destruction of the wall? For all I know it could be threaded
through the studs (or worse in front of the studs as was done in a few
spots). I guess you could use a stud finder or the like, but old Romex is
pretty heavily shielded and it'd be easy to lose the run among the studs.

If I'm looking at demolishing the wall, I might as well remove the entire
wall in one sheet - at least then I can put up insulation while I'm there
and clean out the buggies.



Depressing news: In my previous house, built in the 1940s, the Romex was
stapled every which way. Goodbye, walls, at least for the part I rewired.
But, when we got estimates for redoing the kitchen, 3 electricians said they
were comfortable snaking new wires in existing walls, even though it meant
the wires couldn't be fastened to the studs. How they expected to do this, I
have no idea.