joining wires without a junction box within a wall

[Duane Bozarth]

A. Probably the inspector didn't say anything because he was unaware of what you did. Alternatively, he could have just been incompetent, but that's less likely.

B. The "why" is precisely because of the "in" in inaccessible. It then becomes not only a problem w/ destroying the finish wall in a house when there's a problem, it's a hide and seek game to find the location of the hidden box that has the loose connection in the even there is a problem--and trust me, there be a problem of some sort at some point in time.

[Sasha]

Inspector did see all junction boxes. I never hid anything from him. I don't understand why junction box may become a problem. I have 55 years old house and wiwing was done so-so. However I didn't find any loose connection in any of the box. If wires are screwed properly using proper wire nuts I do not see why they may become loose or any other problem.

[zxcvbob]

OP asked about joining wires without a box, and I was trying to make the point that doing it without a box would be more trouble and probably more expensive than doing it right -- and would still be a poor job when you were done.

Best regards, Bob

[Duane Bozarth]

A. In short, stuff happens...

B. All I can say is I'm amazed any inspector would see junction boxes to be covered over permanently and let it pass...

C. Think about the poor schmuck who eventually ends up w/ this place and has no idea where this multitude of additional boxes are?

[wkearney99]

Go read up on aluminum wire for a good story on how 'screwed properly' turned out not to be the case.

Wire is cheap and it's really not all that hard to just pull fresh ones. Sure, it's more work than just tacking on more mistakes but, really, why even take the risks?

[George E. Cawthon]

Ah. I kind of missed that point in your last sentence and got sidetracked by the many other comments I was reading about the boxes. Sorry.

[maradcliff]

You are correct.

Either rewire the whole thing, or place a junction box in the attic or basement with a new piece of wire from the box to your outlet or device. Use wirenuts to connect them together, not just tape. Tape is only allowed if you twist and solder, which is far too much hassle.

[Chris Lewis]

According to zxcvbob :

I'm not recommending this:

Was helping a friend rewire a house (almost complete wall teardown and removal of K&T), and we were left with a beautiful plastered ceiling we didn't want to touch, and we needed some way to reattach the K&T to the ceiling fixture to the new wiring, and it was in a real bad place to put an accessible box.

So we held off on that, with the hope that the inspector would have a good idea on his next visit.

The inspector told us to twist the wires together with at least 2" or so of twist, solder (with ordinary solder), tape thoroughly, and "don't let me see it".

This is basically replicating K&T connection techniques.

[K&T was mid-air spliced all the time.]

That's not legal. But the inspector told us to do it...