Running wire to an EXISTING outlet with a box

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Conase 22 years ago

There has to be an EASIER way to do this job. I can get the jobs like this done, but they take longer than necessary.

Friend of mine wanted to run a cable wire to a wall box so he could have a cover plate for the cable outlet. The EXISTING box had flat twin lead for TV from years ago.

I drilled up into the cavity from the basement since the wire was being fed UP to the box. We could see the LIGHT so we knew we were in the right cavity. The wire needed to run only about 2 FEET to the outlet box.

We hooked fishing tapes twice but lost it.

Finally I CUT the strap one end of the box and was able to push the box out of the way to finally get the tape from the basement and make the hookup.

HOW DO THE "PROS" DEAL WITH THIS since time is $$$ ???

Situation I faced :

Guy had a STEEL box in the wall ( same box used for light swtiches or duplex outlets ).

The box had a MOUNTING STRAP consisting of a 1 inch wide steel band about 7 inches long welded to one side of the box - about 2 inches of strap on top of the box and about 2 inches below that box. Nails were used in the holes on each end of the strap to hold outlet box in place.

I CUT one of the 2 inch pieces allowing the box to be swung out of the way so I could get the cable wire being fed up from the basement.

I could find no other way.

Stupid shows on TV and in books always show a HOLE or HOLES when wires are being fished. Life should be so easy.

Would a pro simply use a punch to PUNCH THE BOX into the wall and then grab the fish tape and then install a new box ??? Awfully brutal and not very professional to me.

How do pros run wires to EXISTING boxes without destroying the customer's sheetrock or is that NOT possible ???????

I have searched DIY sites but they show nice big HOLES when fishing wires with NO existing boxes in them.

TIA

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Charles Krug 22 years ago

You can buy a dummy ring that fits in the sheetrock hole, with screws for the cover plate. What the pros do is cut a hole, fish the wire, then insert the dummy ring.

It's also what I do for any low voltage stuff.

In a situation like yours, I'd first make sure the existing box had a goodly sized hole for the coaxial. I'd drill it to half inch or take out a 3/4" KO if I had one. I'd use a deburring tool to . um . . deburr.

For this, a fish tape is overkill. Just unwind a wire coat hanger and poke around from above until you find the hole you made from below.

The advantage of the dummy ring is that you have a 2x4 inch hole to play with. Even fairly flexible things like phone cable will show up fairly quickly, and can be easily pulled through.

If the pro is especially cheap, he'll just drill through the floor or use an air return duct.

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Lou W 22 years ago

When dealing with old nail on boxes I use a sawzall to carefully cut the nail securing the box.Push the old box out of the way. Then I fish the wire/cable. Then I install a new oldwork box.

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Jim Thompson 22 years ago

[snip]

"Oldwork Boxes" with the rotatable ear mounting are God's gift to homeowners ;-)

...Jim Thompson

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Doug 22 years ago

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com.mado (Conase) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m28.aol.com:

I'm not a pro but I've had success dropping a chain through a knock out in an existing box then hooking it from below with a piece of coat hanger. A weight on a string might also work. Careful placement of the hole in the bottom plate relative to the box makes this easier. An insulation free cavity is probably required but that sounds like what you had.

Doug

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Mike Dobony 22 years ago

How much tape did you use? Overlap the wire a minimum of 6 inches. After you use enough tape, use about 3x more.

-- Mike D.

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Jeff Cochran 22 years ago

I often use a pull chain and a magnetic parts pickup from the auto repair store. For the OP, I'd have used a fish wire made from the wire used to hang ceiling grids, put a 1/2" hook in it, then loop a pull string and feed it from top. Hook the loop and pull it down.

Or as another post suggested, just poke down until I hit the hole in the plate.

Jeff

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Jeff Cochran 22 years ago

Lotsa fun tools and tips here:

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Jeff

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Running wire to an EXISTING outlet with a box

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