How to locate electrical box now covered
I have a new house where the drywall (sheetrock) guys covered one of the outlets in my workshop. This outlet was part of a circuit of 5 or 6 other outlets. We did not notice this until too late, therefore this circuit was never completed. How can we locate the “missing” box so that we can join the wires in that box and complete the circuit?
thanks,
Waring Abbott [email protected]
Replies
My drywall guy covered two on a house I did. Luckily I had plenty of pics of the whole process. I guess the first thing would be (if no pics) were your plugs at any standard of height and distance? Second if you remember about where it is, use stud spacing to help.
I dont know if there is any tool that will detect electrical through drywall but there may be.
Good luck.
Take a 4' level and search for the hump in the wall.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
There is no cure for stupid. R. White.
You can use a tone generator/tone trace to track the wire.
HD and Lowes has the set for about $80-100. You might be able to rent a better unit from a local rental house. The basic units are designed for IDing wiring and not tracing it through walls so it hase limited range, but you can often use one to find it in the wall.
Also you might try using one the stud sensor that has an Hot Wire option. You will need to energice the wires for it to work. Either the part from the panel direction or the other end by "plugging" the wires into an extension cord.
But I would try Spheres method and also look at where it "should be" based on whatever kind of layout that you used.
Lemme guess the box is flush w/ the stud..like my shack was at first.
I found 3 just by using "reconoitering"....I.E. where would I expect one?...works here. LOL
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
There is no cure for stupid. R. White.
metal box? would a rare-earth magnet find the box through the drywall? you'd have to have an idea of where to look (see Sphere's post), and I don't know if the magnet would work or not even if you knew exactly where the box was.
Then again, if you knew exactly where the box was, you wouldn't need the magnet...
if it's a plastic box, you'll need one of those special plastic magnets...
Some stud sensors find metal, as well as hot wires.
Like Sphere says. If you wired it then you have a very good idea of where they are. You can get within a stud space or two. Then look for any kind of hump. I also think I've heard you can use a compass and energize the wires, then the compass will point to them. I'm not a hundred percent sure on that. I'm not a big fan of having live wires dangling in boxes.
Tipi fest 06. I'm getting wood.
You need to have DC CURRENT flowing for it to form a field for a compase.But the wire ends are open, so no current.
So go to a box on one side or the other. Hook up a battery and there you go. Right?
Saves patching and all that.
Tipi fest 06. I'm getting wood.
But the connection in the box have not been made up yet.That was his orignal problem.
If it's in string of 5 or 6 boxes you have to have a wire going to it from either side to make the original circuit. So you hook it to the wire on a box from either side going in that direction.
Tipi fest 06. I'm getting wood.
Yes, based on what he orginaly posted it has two cables (or conduit) and is the middle of a run.But it is rough wiring and not made up.Thus unless you put enough voltage to get a plasma arc going in the box you will not get any current flow when you hook up power to the cables.No current flow, no magnetic field, no reaction from a compass.
Never mind.
Tipi fest 06. I'm getting wood.
There's a lot of great suggestions here, but if it were me, I would probably take the super low-tech approach: an ice pick. You've got to have at least some idea where the box is (height, span, stud locations, hump, etc.). Just take an ice pick and start poking holes until you hit the back of the box. You should be able to tell the difference between the box and anything else.
Afterwards, a dab of spackle should make those tiny exploratory holes invisible.
-Don
TAKE A FREAKING HAMMER AND BEAT HOLES IN THE WALL.
It's the only way your gonna make all these other geniuses happy.
Are your grounds made up?
Tipi fest 06. I'm getting wood.
How bout something like this
http://www.extechstore.com/browseproducts/DVA30-Adjustable-Voltage-and-Current-Detector.html
I know my electrician buddy uses something like it.