Any and all junctions must be accessible.
You mention pipe. This is a conduit install?
Is this commercial or residential?
Are the studs wood or metal?
Is it a drop ceiling or gyp?
Can you get to it from above?
Is it a switch leg or a through the box switch?
Is there any other wiring in the box now?

You need to get wire from where it is now to the new location.
You need to install a new box for the switch. You need a blank
plate for the existing switch box. You cannot cover the existing
box with anything preventing access to the location.

Depending on location, it may be easier and cheaper to run a new
switch leg to a new "cut in" box at the new location and abandon
the existing.

I'm sure your electrician fella knows all the problems and is
suggesting the fastest, quickest, easiest solution for your
problem.

--
______________________________
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




wrote in message
ps.com...
I just had an electrician over. I realize that he is an
electrician
and I am a no-nothing, so I assume that what he told me was
accurate,
but still.... I have a light switch in a central location on
the
wall. I want to move that switch further over about a foot
closer to
the edge of the wall. He told me that he would have to cut out
the
drywall between the two points (possibly more depending on wire
pipe
locations), and then we would have to get the drywall repaired
and
repainted. Suddenly, moving a light switch turns into a $2,000
project (my exaggerated estimate, not his). How come the wires
that
are currently in the wiring pipe up to the switch cannot just be
extended horizontally from point A to point B where the new
switch
would be? Then, he would just cap the old hole with a cover and
cut
out a single square for the new switch. I understand that I do
not
know NEC codes (or anything about electricity for that matter),
but is
there no easier way to move a light switch one foot?

Thanks,
Zack