I posted about a week ago that I had found a junction box with five
wires going to it behind the bathtub in the second floor bathroom I am
remodeling. I was able to completely remove three of the wires and
still had two that were providing power all the way to the other end
of the house.

One wire provided power to the kitchen lights on the first floor. I
was able to remove a couple of floor planks at the point just above
the stairs and pull that wire through and wound up with a long enough
wire to route it through the wall by the stairs all the way to the
basement and install a new junction box there that is not hidden.

The other wire provides power to a couple of outlets in the kitchen
and the flood light to the back yard. I found where it runs down into
the first floor wall but it does not come out into the basement so I
had no idea how it was routed to the other side of the house. There
was another wire there too that was not hooked up to the old junction
box that I had no way of knowing what it was for.

I wound up opening a hole in the drywall near the ceiling on the first
floor to see where the wire went. I found another junction box there
and all it did was hook up the wire I was tracing to the other wire
that went back up under the bathtub and into the wall behind the
bathtub.

I removed the new junction box and pulled the wire all the way back to
behind the bathtub and wound up with a long enough wire to run through
the wall into the next room where I can hook it up to an outlet there
that is on it's own circuit.

I was not able to remove all of the old wire but at least there are no
more hidden junction boxes on those circuits and I was able to break
up a larger circuit into two separate circuits.

If I ever get the time to re-do the kitchen ceiling I can get rid of
pretty much all of the old wire left in the house. But it will have to
do for now.

David

On Sep 5, 8:00*pm, hibb wrote:
I posted about a week ago that I had found a junction box with five
wires going to it behind the bathtub in the second floor bathroom I am
remodeling. I was able to completely remove three of the wires and
still had two that were providing power all the way to the other end
of the house.

One wire provided power to the kitchen lights on the first floor. I
was able to remove a couple of floor planks at the point just above
the stairs and pull that wire through and wound up with a long enough
wire to route it through the wall by the stairs all the way to the
basement and install a new junction box there that is not hidden.

The other wire provides power to a couple of outlets in the kitchen
and the flood light to the back yard. I found where it runs down into
the first floor wall but it does not come out into the basement so I
had no idea how it was routed to the other side of the house. There
was another wire there too that was not hooked up to the old junction
box that I had no way of knowing what it was for.

I wound up opening a hole in the drywall near the ceiling on the first
floor to see where the wire went. I found another junction box there
and all it did was hook up the wire I was tracing to the other wire
that went back up under the bathtub and into the wall behind the
bathtub.

I removed the new junction box and pulled the wire all the way back to
behind the bathtub and wound up with a long enough wire to run through
the wall into the next room where I can hook it up to an outlet there
that is on it's own circuit.

I was not able to remove all of the old wire but at least there are no
more hidden junction boxes on those circuits and I was able to break
up a larger circuit into two separate circuits.

If I ever get the time to re-do the kitchen ceiling I can get rid of
pretty much all of the old wire left in the house. But it will have to
do for now.

David

Wow! You did a great job of fixing some real screw-ups by a previous
owner. Hidden junction boxes of course are illegal, but there are
still some idiots who will use them instead of buying a long enough
wire to eliminate the need for a splice. At least they used a box and
didn't just splice the wires inside a wall cavity.

On 9/5/2010 10:40 PM, hr(bob) wrote:
On Sep 5, 8:00 pm, wrote:
(snip)

I removed the new junction box and pulled the wire all the way back to
behind the bathtub and wound up with a long enough wire to run through
the wall into the next room where I can hook it up to an outlet there
that is on it's own circuit.

I was not able to remove all of the old wire but at least there are no
more hidden junction boxes on those circuits and I was able to break
up a larger circuit into two separate circuits.

If I ever get the time to re-do the kitchen ceiling I can get rid of
pretty much all of the old wire left in the house. But it will have to
do for now.

David

Wow! You did a great job of fixing some real screw-ups by a previous
owner. Hidden junction boxes of course are illegal, but there are
still some idiots who will use them instead of buying a long enough
wire to eliminate the need for a splice. At least they used a box and
didn't just splice the wires inside a wall cavity.

Heh. Found a couple of those floating butt splices (so far) in this
place. If previous owner had been in beating range at the time, I would
have been in jail. I still need to rewire the basement fluorescent
fixtures, where he 'connected' them by beating the ends of the romex
leads flat, and plugging them into the ceiling outlets. Didn't see that
(and neither did the so-called inspector), until I popped some tiles
loose, looking for a path to run a wire to add a stairwell light. Been
that way for years, and I never leave them on when I am not down there,
so decided not to disturb them until I have all the parts and the
ambition to redo it properly.

--
aem sends...

"hibb" wrote in message
...
I posted about a week ago that I had found a junction box with five
wires going to it behind the bathtub in the second floor bathroom I am
remodeling. I was able to completely remove three of the wires and
still had two that were providing power all the way to the other end
of the house.

One wire provided power to the kitchen lights on the first floor. I
was able to remove a couple of floor planks at the point just above
the stairs and pull that wire through and wound up with a long enough
wire to route it through the wall by the stairs all the way to the
basement and install a new junction box there that is not hidden.

The other wire provides power to a couple of outlets in the kitchen
and the flood light to the back yard. I found where it runs down into
the first floor wall but it does not come out into the basement so I
had no idea how it was routed to the other side of the house. There
was another wire there too that was not hooked up to the old junction
box that I had no way of knowing what it was for.

I wound up opening a hole in the drywall near the ceiling on the first
floor to see where the wire went. I found another junction box there
and all it did was hook up the wire I was tracing to the other wire
that went back up under the bathtub and into the wall behind the
bathtub.

I removed the new junction box and pulled the wire all the way back to
behind the bathtub and wound up with a long enough wire to run through
the wall into the next room where I can hook it up to an outlet there
that is on it's own circuit.

I was not able to remove all of the old wire but at least there are no
more hidden junction boxes on those circuits and I was able to break
up a larger circuit into two separate circuits.

If I ever get the time to re-do the kitchen ceiling I can get rid of
pretty much all of the old wire left in the house. But it will have to
do for now.

David



Sounds like you handled the situation completely and correctly. Good DIY!

Most of the regulars do appreciate the closure of a post like yours. It is
always nice to know the results.



--
Colbyt
Please come visit http://www.househomerepair.com

In article , (aemeijers) writes:

| Heh. Found a couple of those floating butt splices (so far) in this
| place. If previous owner had been in beating range at the time, I would
| have been in jail. I still need to rewire the basement fluorescent
| fixtures, where he 'connected' them by beating the ends of the romex
| leads flat, and plugging them into the ceiling outlets. Didn't see that
| (and neither did the so-called inspector), until I popped some tiles
| loose, looking for a path to run a wire to add a stairwell light. Been
| that way for years, and I never leave them on when I am not down there,
| so decided not to disturb them until I have all the parts and the
| ambition to redo it properly.

I found something in the basement of the house I bought which, while
certainly not difficult to remove, was at least as disturbing. Hanging
down from the ceiling and almost to the floor was a lamp cord with a plug.
The cord disappeared among the clutter in the ceiling. When I finally got
around to following the cord I found that it ran across the ceiling to
where it terminated on another plug which was plugged in to the outlet
on an (always live) ceramic lampholder. The previous owners had little
children too...

Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com

On Sep 6, 3:13*pm, ddl@danlan.*com (Dan Lanciani) wrote:
In article , (aemeijers) writes:

| Heh. Found a couple of those floating butt splices (so far) in this
| place. If previous owner had been in beating range at the time, I would
| have been in jail. I still need to rewire the basement fluorescent
| fixtures, where he 'connected' them by beating the ends of the romex
| leads flat, and plugging them into the ceiling outlets. Didn't see that
| (and neither did the so-called inspector), until I popped some tiles
| loose, looking for a path to run a wire to add a stairwell light. Been
| that way for years, and I never leave them on when I am not down there,
| so decided not to disturb them until I have all the parts and the
| ambition to redo it properly.

I found something in the basement of the house I bought which, while
certainly not difficult to remove, was at least as disturbing. *Hanging
down from the ceiling and almost to the floor was a lamp cord with a plug..
The cord disappeared among the clutter in the ceiling. *When I finally got
around to following the cord I found that it ran across the ceiling to
where it terminated on another plug which was plugged in to the outlet
on an (always live) ceramic lampholder. *The previous owners had little
children too...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Dan Lanciani
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ddl@danlan.*com

Maybe he always kept a bulb in the low0hanging socket.

On 9/6/2010 7:52 PM, Dan Lanciani wrote:
In , (hr(bob) ) writes:
| On Sep 6, 3:13=A0pm, ddl@danlan.*com (Dan Lanciani) wrote:
| In , aemeij...@att=
| .net (aemeijers) writes:
|
| | Heh. Found a couple of those floating butt splices (so far) in this
| | place. If previous owner had been in beating range at the time, I would
| | have been in jail. I still need to rewire the basement fluorescent
| | fixtures, where he 'connected' them by beating the ends of the romex
| | leads flat, and plugging them into the ceiling outlets. Didn't see that
| | (and neither did the so-called inspector), until I popped some tiles
| | loose, looking for a path to run a wire to add a stairwell light. Been
| | that way for years, and I never leave them on when I am not down there,
| | so decided not to disturb them until I have all the parts and the
| | ambition to redo it properly.
|
| I found something in the basement of the house I bought which, while
| certainly not difficult to remove, was at least as disturbing. =A0Hanging
| down from the ceiling and almost to the floor was a lamp cord with a plug=
| .
| The cord disappeared among the clutter in the ceiling. =A0When I finally =
| got
| around to following the cord I found that it ran across the ceiling to
| where it terminated on another plug which was plugged in to the outlet
| on an (always live) ceramic lampholder. =A0The previous owners had little
| children too...
|
| =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Dan Lanci=
| ani
| =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 ddl@danla=
| n.*com
|
| Maybe he always kept a bulb in the low0hanging socket.

It wasn't a socket; it was a plug. Both ends of the lamp cord had plugs.

Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com

The ceramic lampholder probably had a twin at the first end of the
basement, and he was backfeeding it with a suicide cord, since he didn't
know how to, or care to, wire it properly. I've found lamp sockets
screwed directly to joists, or high on the wall in sheds, powered by zip
cord stapled to the wood and run under the round porcelain.

--
aem sends...

"Dan Lanciani" ddl@danlan.*com wrote in message
...

stuff snipped

It wasn't a socket; it was a plug. Both ends of the lamp cord had plugs.

Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com

Sounds like an interrogation tool. Did you buy a former CIA rendition
house?

--
Bobby G.