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[email protected] clare@snyder.on.ca is offline
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Default Adding a switch to an outdoor GFI outlet

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:28:01 -0700 (PDT), Jason Carlton
wrote:

I have a GFI outlet on an external wall, next to an outside door. On
the inside wall of that door, I have a switch for the outside light,
and that switch is a little over 3' from the GFI outlet (at an angle).

How difficult would it be to install a second switch at this location
for the GFI outlet? Am I going to have to remove a portion of the
interior drywall to get to the existing wires, or is there an easier
way?

For anyone that's kept up with my earlier posts, this is NOT the same
GFI outlet that the contractor poured gasoline into! LOL This one is
on the other side of the house.


It is POSSIBLE to add circuits in a house without removing drywall or
plaster in many cases. My dad wired a lot of older houses (rural
electrification) several decades ago and often only had to knock a
couple small holes in the wall to get the wiring in. Upstairs
floorboards were often removed to gain access, and his drill bits were
as long as six feet to reach from either the upstairs or the basement.

I'd investigate the feasibility of dropping the wire down from the
GFCI and across the basement that 3 frrt, then back up to the switch.

I just put ceiling lights (and also wired for ceiling fans) in 3
bedrooms of my daughter's house without making a single hole in the
drywall. Took better than 4 hours per room, working in th "attic"
between trusses on 2 foot wide sheets of plywood that I skidded around
over the joists to keep from going through the ceiling. Needed 42 inch
long drill bits to get through the "fire stops" between the switch box
and the upper sills, and a fish tape with a red LED on the tip to find
the holes in the box. An in-the-wall camera would have helped, but I
didn't have one then.