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Joined: Oct 2000
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![[Linked Image]](https://www.electrical-contractor.net/Forum/Images/Buried-Outlet1.jpg) ![[Linked Image]](https://www.electrical-contractor.net/Forum/Images/Buried-Outlet2.jpg) ![[Linked Image]](https://www.electrical-contractor.net/Forum/Images/Buried-Outlet3.jpg) This isn't something you see every day (thank God). While remodeling our nursery room and banging popped nails deeper into the wall, I noticed the ceiling light was flickering every time I hit the wall along this one stud only. Stud finder, that also detects electrical presence, shows electricity only near the bottom at approximately "outlet level".
Upon opening the wall I find an outlet box that the rockers have walled over and forgotten about. Nobody found it sooner because every circuit in this 16 year old house worked perfectly. Whoever shoved the wires back in the box managed to end up with both black (hot) wires touching each other and nothing else, and both white (neutral) wires touching the ground conductor, hence completing the flow of electricity from the feed to the out feed, however poorly.
After seeing this, and reading previous posts where EC's were complaining about rockers, I felt I had to pass it on. The wife's comments . . . "Oh, I always wanted an outlet there." Luckily, nothing of any major current draw was ever plugged into any outlets downstream. I was running a 14 amp air compressor in the same room, but it's outlet was on another circuit (again, thank God).
-- Mean Gene
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Bad indeed, but if this was a new home built to plans, I wonder why the electrician(s) didn't notice a missing outlet where the plan said there should be one.
Megging the line/neutral to ground on the final test would have caught this too.
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Joined: Aug 2002
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Gulp...That one's a real winner! Maybe it could be part of the What's in the walls thread ![[Linked Image]](https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/rolleyes.gif) P. S. Here's one I dug up: ![[Linked Image from 65.108.216.53]](http://65.108.216.53/elec/plastered_box.jpg) [This message has been edited by ThinkGood (edited 10-20-2003).]
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Joined: Oct 2000
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i'm forever cutting out buried boxes here, usually with some sheetrocker behind me in denial. usually i locate center, and cut just so the box can come thru the rock, which i then slap a tad to have it do, and pop the expected s.r. screws in a 2' circumfrence ![[Linked Image]](https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/tongue.gif)
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Joined: Dec 2000
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I was standing a few feet away from a rocker the other day when he torqued one of our boxes way back into the tin-stud wall he was covering. When I told him that it was no good, he told me he couldn't help it because "The framing's all *&^%ed up." I told him that I had to agree with him about the framing, and that I had been just a few feet away when he had framed the wall a couple of days earlier. ![[Linked Image]](https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/wink.gif) He fixed it right then and there ![[Linked Image]](https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/biggrin.gif) ...S
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Joined: Oct 2003
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All I was expecting to find was a cable with a really bad nick in it or a nail or screw in a cable. When I first saw it I thought it was intended to be a junction box with no cover or means of access. It wasn't until I realized the wires were stripped and just shoved back in the box that I knew it was intended to be an outlet.
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Joined: Oct 2003
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unbelieveable that no opponent wires touched, but all touched in the correct way ![[Linked Image]](https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/eek.gif) and there are no heat marks either. who strips cables this long? do you need the copper this long for making an O ring around the terminal screw?
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Joined: Sep 2003
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A few comments here: If I did new construction (I don't) I think I would leave the wires unstripped before the sheetrockers got here. Why would you strip them, they would just get covered in paint overspray from the painters? :andy: is right, I see no reason to strip them that long for any reason. I see this is a Slater box, I like those because of the push-in-the-screw holes. Anyone else use them? Thinkgood, did you replace that wiring? Or at least put in a junction box that's not filled with plaster? [This message has been edited by sparked (edited 10-21-2003).]
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Joined: Aug 2002
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Regarding the Slater box, do the screws then come out the normal way (turn with a screwdriver)? I hope it's not a one-way thing....that could be problematic when it comes time to replace the device.... Also, can two cables go through one knockout like that? I'm thinking one cable should go through each hole so that tab can grip it properly right? Not used to dealing with plastic boxes, that's why I ask the silly question. ![[Linked Image]](https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/smile.gif)
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Joined: Sep 2003
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Sven See here for a description of how to use a Slater box. http://www.passandseymour.com/pdf/O11.pdf Regarding the clamps, I wasn't sure about that either. I would use the one to the right.
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Posts: 7,400
Joined: April 2002
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