Eigenvector wrote:
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.



The simple answer is to leave the old wire in place but disconnected at
each end. And if you are being kind to someone who comes after you then
both ends can be labeled neatly. Then you run new wire in the easiest
way which is safe and code-compliant.

If you are dealing with an unfinished basement then coming up from there
has always seemed the easiest way to manage outlets to me. An unfinished
attic has always seemed easiest for ceiling fixtures.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com