ECN Electrical Forum
Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals

Help!!
I'm being held captive by the "Evil Drywaller" and his henchman "The Painter"

WOW! never seen one that bad :eek . I hate painted over outlets. espesly when you have to crack out all the paint to plug something in.

Some people take filling the gap around boxes just a little too far.

Now the mystery will be, is the receptacle in a box or was it just directly buried in the plaster?

Errrm, let me guess! No cover plate but all papered over and then painted over the wallpaper? Think I've occasionally seen that method.

Is this a California thing?


Bill

Maybe it's cheaper than buying wall plates.

Boy, I'd be scared to death plug anything into that!

Yeah, the wall may just swallow up your plug, cord, appliance and then go

BUUUURRRRRPPPP!!

Carefull—people are going to start demanding 'em

I just hate those unsightly outlets is there anything you can do to hide them?




[This message has been edited by smokeeater 38 (edited 01-05-2004).]

Should the ground sockets be at the top, instead of the bottom?

(Ducking, and running for cover...)

When I install devices before the finish work is done, I cover them with masking tape. Many painters and sheetrock/wall texture people use spray equipment.

Snotty homeowner more concerned with appearance than safety:

"Can't you do something to hide that icky outlet?

Let's finish it nicely covering the screw hole and call it "Decora Series 2".

That's exactly what Home Depot sells their translucent "PaperIt" wall plates for.
Here in Europe I've seen old rotary switches and outlets with real clear glass wallplates. I think modern versions of those are still sold for a scary price. Especially the old receptacles looked good. They were of the ungrounded round-pin variety and only had 1/2" round plastic covers around the pin holes, everything else was glass with wallpaper behind. They also incorporated a 1 or 2A fuse (though links up to 10A were available).

I saw the problem right away.

The ground should be up.

[This message has been edited by ThinkGood (edited 02-12-2004).]

Thinkgood,

Could you point me to the past discussion about which way the ground goes? I'm pretty new here and I wouldn't know where to start looking.

Yes. I see a big problem. You can't insert a plug into it because the contact holes were "photo-shopped" in.

But seriously....there is (or was) one manufacturer who incorporates the socket and/or switch "mechanism" into the wallplate, so that you wire the entire thing up and then attach it to the wall box. Of course if the plate shatters you have to swap out the entire thing.

It's a Colombian company - the logo I've seen embossed on their products is something like EXE but haven't been able to find anything on the Internet about them.

Three years ago I brought home one of their surface mount receptacles but wasn't able to find the standard flush-mount sockets anywhere. If I ever go back I'll continue my "hunt".

Jps1006,

I believe it's been discussed/argued several times here, but this is the only one I could find easily . . .
http://electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000057.html

Actually Sven, that is a real product. They're called Masque Wall Plates I think. Notice the warning at the bottom of the bag.... well I'm sure someone would try if that wasnt there. I dont trust them for soome reason, but I'm really not sure why...

Two thoughts from me. I remember and old inspector saying the ground should be the first to make and the last to break. If the ground prong is up the ground can disconnect before the hot and neutral. Thats why it goes down. Gravity being what it is. Second how many apliance today have grounds on them so the point of the ground protecting seem to be mute. Just my 2 cents.

Sparked,

Seriously? My bad then...

I don't like them either. My issue would be that the plug's pins wouldn't be going the entire way into the socket.

*EDITED TO REMOVE ASCII ART BECAUSE IT DOESN'T COME OUT WELL WHEN YOU USE VARIABLE WIDTH FONTS* (Sven)

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 02-14-2004).]

Right the first time sparked! I only wish I had photoshopped the holes in. Some consumer (read sucker) will probably think these things are great and plug his space heater in one hole, and the outlet strip in the other. The shallow prong penetration is what bothered me too, and the thought of dust/debris building up between the cover and the receptacle is disturbing.

But as for the ground pin question...



The real question is right or left?

LOL,
I saw this product at the ElectricWest show, and got a free t-shirt.
Their website isn't up yet, but it looks like they've got it under control!!



...S

My old apartment was ½ done with those Masque things... The maintenance crews were in the process of changing the prehistoric Slater backwires out to Decora's when the Home Depot a block from there imported what I can honestly say, isn't the greatest idea... I looked behind some of them & found the original recept with the prong holes nice & gray from overheating... But hey, they "look" good... (Till they melt) I'm kinda suprised to find a UL listing on those as well, since they do inhibit full insertion into a wall recept...