Down To the Wire

Electricity. It's not just a good idea, it's Ohm's Law!

(nerd humor /off)

Several months ago, we updated the electrical outlets on the ground floor to add, well, grounding. They'd been two-prong ungrounded outlets since they were first installed (1930s? 1960s?) and it was past time for them to get upgraded. That project went well, but it also highlighted another problem: We don't have enough electrical outlets in those rooms.

The front room has two outlets, which is okay. The middle room has three, which seems luxurious. But the back room -- the largest of the three -- has only a single outlet, and it's in an inconvenient location. So we'd resolved to not only upgrade the outlets we had, but to add more someday. Today was that day.

Adding new outlets was a bit tricky because it's an old house. On the plus side, we're working on the ground floor, which means we've got access to the crawlspace underneath. That's much easier than working on the 2nd or 3rd floor with no access to the under-floor space. Also, it's a wood-frame house, so you can drill through anything if you really want to. Much better than working with brick or concrete.

On the downside, the walls and floor are very thick. Two of the three outlets were going on outside walls, which adds and element of chance. Where are the studs? Where are the floor joists? Can I get there from here?

The first step is picking the location where the new outlet will go and hoping there isn't a wall stud behind it. Tapping the walls works with drywall, but the thick plaster and lath sounds the same everywhere. Electronic stud finders aren't any help, either. So I started by drilling a very small hole into the baseboard. If it hits air after about four inches of drilling, I know I haven't hit a stud. But that doesn't mean the stud isn't close by on one side or the other, blocking the electrical box. So I stick a bent wire into the hole and wiggle it around, feeling for obstructions. If I can spin the wire in a complete circle, I know I've got a few inches of clearance on either side. It was just dumb luck, but I found clear space both times I tried. Success!

Next comes cutting the rectangular cutout for the junction box. A Dremel Multi-Max tool is perfect for this job. It allows you to jab straight cuts in confined spaces. I've got to cut through three layers: the wooden baseboard, the plaster, and the wooden lath behind that. Unfortunately, the Dremel blade cuts beautifully through wood but is badly dulled by old plaster. So I've used up a brand new blade after only two or three outlets.

Now for the fun part: wiring. Making holes in the walls is all very entertaining, but ultimately we've got to feed new Romex into (and out of) the holes. And connect one end of the wire to the juice. More good news: There's exactly one live outlet already in the room, and we can theoretically just daisy-chain the Romex from that outlet to the new ones. Piece of cake.

More bad news: Once I crawl under the house I can't tell where I'm working. So I create a little landmark for myself by pulling away the quarter-round shoe molding and drilling a tiny hole straight down through the floor. Then I poke a stiff red wire through the hole until I'm pretty sure the wire is hanging down in the crawlspace. Then crawl under the house, find the red wire, and measure from there. When I'm done, I can gently nail the molding back into place and cover the hole. No harm done.

Still more bad news: To make holes for the Romex to pass through, I have to drill straight down through the floor, but there's no room to fit a drill in the little 4-inch hole for the box. This is where a spiffy little right-angle adapter comes into play. It allows me to hold the drill outside while sticking the drill bit into the hole and drill straight down.

Yet more bad news: The new outlet is on an outside wall, which means the floor underneath it is unusually stout and heavily braced. Even with the right-angle drill, I can't just drill straight down, or I'll hit the thick 12-inch floor joists. There's no way I can drill through that much wood, and I would't want to, anyway. How am I going to feed Romex down through that kind of structure?

Some good news: Because this is an outside wall, there are two 2x12 redwood floor joists instead of just one, but -- hooray! -- they're paired with a bit of space in between them. So if I'm really lucky, say my prayers, and eat my Wheaties, I might be able to feed the wire through the gap in between the two. The only trick is measuring the distance accurately, and I've got a red wire to help me there. After just one or two false starts I manage to drill straight down into the gap between the floor joists, leaving a nice tidy hole that doesn't weaken or damage anything. Now just drop the Romex through the hole and you're almost done!

Lather, rinse, repeat with the two other outlets. The middle outlet (above) was the hardest of the three because I had to feed wire into it as well as out of it. Feeding Romex up through the hole in the floor is much harder than pushing the wire down. This called for a bit of fishing wire and some electrical tape, but eventually it came up through the dark recesses of the subfloor and into daylight.

The third outlet was the easiest of all because it backed up to the dumbwaiter shaft, which is hollow and big enough to stand in. I could see the back side of the plaster, avoid the studs, and feed wire from either side of the wall. Luxury!

After all that work, the room looks... almost exactly the same as before. All that effort, for no apparent difference. But at least we know that we've got four working outlets in the room now, and that's what we wanted.