Working with airtight drywall boxes

Running wires into airtight electrical boxes can be a pain. When the wires are stripped from their casing, one of them inevitably catches a rib on the back side of the wire-retention tab or bends off in a different direction than the rest of the wires because of the pressure required to lift the tab. I’ve even seen the foam gasket surrounding the box torn by an errant wire. My father, Tom, improvised a little tool that makes it easier to run the wires.

As shown in the drawing, my father bent a length of coat hanger into a hook shape that lifts the tab from the back of the box and locks it in place, allowing the wires to be inserted without damaging the seal. Even better, the hook allows the wires to be pulled back out. In cold weather, you won’t break as many tabs.