miamicanes
Active Member
Well, I just finished cutting a hole in the drywall where my first new outlet is going to go, and made a discovery... I'm not yet sure whether it's cause for celebration (I don't need to run a new set of power lines after all) or agony (thick metal pipe, small hole, general home-improvement tools... ouch).
The conduit looks exactly like the gray electrical conduit they sell at Home Depot, but it's metal... probably steel. Quite solid. The wires inside it are loose, so if cutting the conduit leaves me with two sets of wires that are too short, I can easily string new ones from adjacent outlets along the same conduit.
That said, what's the best way to go about cutting it that won't involve the purchase of more than $50 worth of new tools at Home Depot? Right now, I have a ~4x4 hole cut in the drywall, with the conduit passing from left to right in the center. Ultimately, it looks like I'm going to have to cut the conduit in two places, somehow wrestle a new box into position, and attach the conduit to that new box. Is THAT even likely to be POSSIBLE, or am I probably going to have to cut the conduit in two places to create a gap big enough for the new box to fit between them, then pull out ALL the wire leading to adjacent receptacles, and pray that there's enough room inside the original conduit to let me shove Romex through it (so the fact that the original conduit won't be mechanically-fastened to the new box won't be a code violation since the wire running inside of it is technically approved for direct runs inside walls anyway)?
Any saw suggestions? Since I'm probably going to have to enlarge the hole in the drywall, am I better off making two tall, narrow vertical extensions to make room for the hacksaw blade, on the theory that the narrow holes will be easier to patch? Or would it ultimately be easier to just find the nearest stud, and cut away a 2x2 foot square around the whole area and just plan to replace the whole section with a new piece of cut, taped, and pasted drywall?
This is all virgin territory to me right now... I've never cut a hole in drywall that was too big to fix with a 6"x6" metal patch, nor have I ever cut metal pipe... in OR out of wall.
Obviously, it goes without saying that I'm going to have ALL the house power turned off while the cuts themselves are taking place, just in case someone left a "hot neutral" in there at some point over the past 25 years
The conduit looks exactly like the gray electrical conduit they sell at Home Depot, but it's metal... probably steel. Quite solid. The wires inside it are loose, so if cutting the conduit leaves me with two sets of wires that are too short, I can easily string new ones from adjacent outlets along the same conduit.
That said, what's the best way to go about cutting it that won't involve the purchase of more than $50 worth of new tools at Home Depot? Right now, I have a ~4x4 hole cut in the drywall, with the conduit passing from left to right in the center. Ultimately, it looks like I'm going to have to cut the conduit in two places, somehow wrestle a new box into position, and attach the conduit to that new box. Is THAT even likely to be POSSIBLE, or am I probably going to have to cut the conduit in two places to create a gap big enough for the new box to fit between them, then pull out ALL the wire leading to adjacent receptacles, and pray that there's enough room inside the original conduit to let me shove Romex through it (so the fact that the original conduit won't be mechanically-fastened to the new box won't be a code violation since the wire running inside of it is technically approved for direct runs inside walls anyway)?
Any saw suggestions? Since I'm probably going to have to enlarge the hole in the drywall, am I better off making two tall, narrow vertical extensions to make room for the hacksaw blade, on the theory that the narrow holes will be easier to patch? Or would it ultimately be easier to just find the nearest stud, and cut away a 2x2 foot square around the whole area and just plan to replace the whole section with a new piece of cut, taped, and pasted drywall?
This is all virgin territory to me right now... I've never cut a hole in drywall that was too big to fix with a 6"x6" metal patch, nor have I ever cut metal pipe... in OR out of wall.
Obviously, it goes without saying that I'm going to have ALL the house power turned off while the cuts themselves are taking place, just in case someone left a "hot neutral" in there at some point over the past 25 years