View Single Post
  #6   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
Bob F Bob F is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 8,803
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.


If the wire comes from the attic, go up there and determine where
it drops into the walls. If that cooresponds to the same stud space
as the outlet, you can drill a new hole near the old one, and run a
wire puller down to the box, and pull a new wire. Or, you can use
a flex drill to drill from a box hole in the wall up into the attic or
down into the basement. One way or another, it probably can be
done without trashing walls. Things like insulation can make it more
difficult.

Bob