delia_peterson
Covered in Compost
Removing a light fixture (New Photos!)
- Thread starter big brown horse
- Start date
enjoy the ride
Sufficient Life
It never occured to me to worry about there being no junction box -which is silly of me because my first two houses were old knob and post too. In fact I re-wired the whole second house because there were places in a closet where lamp cord wires came out of the wall, went up a foot or so then back into the wall. Turned out the fridge was running off that. And if you turned on the toaster while anything else was runnng, the fuse blew.
Scary.
Scary.
Farmfresh
City Biddy
The copper wire that is un-coated is the ground wire. That wire does not need capped.
If you look inside of the light switch box and see the black wire capped off there as well you are nearly there. If that is what you find, then they just pulled a 3 strand wire in case you ever needed to run something else off of the switch. (It is actually 4 strands counting the ground wire)
Un-screw the wire on the red wire, remove light fixture cord and then re-cap the red wire.
Repeat this procedure for the white wire. Then taking the electrical tape wrap the wire a couple of rounds and then wrap up and over the wire nuts and then back to the wire. This secures the wire nuts even better.
Tape wrap each wire.
Repeat the process in the switch box. Remove the switch by un-screwing the screws on the switch and then cap each wire and tape them.
You might also add a piece of making tape to label on each end of the 3 strand wire. Stating that the wire goes to the junction box where the light came out. I would also label it at the light junction end stating the wire goes to switch box. That way the next person has a lot less problems.
All that is left to do is screw the lids on the junction boxes and hang that picture!
If you look inside of the light switch box and see the black wire capped off there as well you are nearly there. If that is what you find, then they just pulled a 3 strand wire in case you ever needed to run something else off of the switch. (It is actually 4 strands counting the ground wire)
Un-screw the wire on the red wire, remove light fixture cord and then re-cap the red wire.
Repeat this procedure for the white wire. Then taking the electrical tape wrap the wire a couple of rounds and then wrap up and over the wire nuts and then back to the wire. This secures the wire nuts even better.
Tape wrap each wire.
Repeat the process in the switch box. Remove the switch by un-screwing the screws on the switch and then cap each wire and tape them.
You might also add a piece of making tape to label on each end of the 3 strand wire. Stating that the wire goes to the junction box where the light came out. I would also label it at the light junction end stating the wire goes to switch box. That way the next person has a lot less problems.
All that is left to do is screw the lids on the junction boxes and hang that picture!
- Thread starter
- #34
big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
Thank you Farm Fresh!! That is what I thought, just needed a bit of back up.
I'll show photos of "after" when I'm done painting.
I'll show photos of "after" when I'm done painting.
Looks like you got some good advice on how to proceed. They make some nice covers that will just snap in the old box leaving no screws to show. Since the top screw hole is broken out a bit of caulk on the broken part may be needed to hold it tight to the wall.
Just to give some FYI on what you have there and has nothing to do with what you are doing - first by the national electric code you can not permanently hide an electrical junction box, you can cover it with a picture, a shelf, or even a cabinet but not hide it inside a wall.
2nd, the box that is installed is not code and would fail inspection for a wall sconce or lamp (an outlet would be ok) the box has to be 18" from the ceiling and be a 4" octagon, the lamp fixture back does not completely cover the opening to the wall and is a fire hazard from over sized light bulbs and any electrical sparks that may come later after wiring has loosen.
3rd, the extension wire from the box to the lamp looks like zip cord and is not temperature rated like thhn or xhhn that would normally have been used.
Lastly the lazy person who put the nut on the white wire connection left some bare copper exposed and though it is the neutral and should be at ground potential a simple wiring mistake elsewhere in the circuit could make that a hot wire and if the bare ground ever touched it there would be a short circuit or electrical arcing.
Now all these things may seem small or trivial but it is those reasons that keep our fire departments busy. This is not a scare post but rather a heads up that most people don't know why certain codes are required. There are way too many forums on the web where people will chastise a person to even attempt a simple fix like this but rather to pay an electrician $100 to do a 10 minute job.
Just to give some FYI on what you have there and has nothing to do with what you are doing - first by the national electric code you can not permanently hide an electrical junction box, you can cover it with a picture, a shelf, or even a cabinet but not hide it inside a wall.
2nd, the box that is installed is not code and would fail inspection for a wall sconce or lamp (an outlet would be ok) the box has to be 18" from the ceiling and be a 4" octagon, the lamp fixture back does not completely cover the opening to the wall and is a fire hazard from over sized light bulbs and any electrical sparks that may come later after wiring has loosen.
3rd, the extension wire from the box to the lamp looks like zip cord and is not temperature rated like thhn or xhhn that would normally have been used.
Lastly the lazy person who put the nut on the white wire connection left some bare copper exposed and though it is the neutral and should be at ground potential a simple wiring mistake elsewhere in the circuit could make that a hot wire and if the bare ground ever touched it there would be a short circuit or electrical arcing.
Now all these things may seem small or trivial but it is those reasons that keep our fire departments busy. This is not a scare post but rather a heads up that most people don't know why certain codes are required. There are way too many forums on the web where people will chastise a person to even attempt a simple fix like this but rather to pay an electrician $100 to do a 10 minute job.
- Thread starter
- #36
big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
Oh boy. Not small or trivial xpc, very glad for your input actually!Ok, I want it covered with the correct face plate, I won't hide it in the wall behind dry wall etc.
Looks like you got some good advice on how to proceed. They make some nice covers that will just snap in the old box leaving no screws to show. Since the top screw hole is broken out a bit of caulk on the broken part may be needed to hold it tight to the wall.
-Good I'm heading to Lowes right now.
Thanks for your advice. I have a good friend whose husband is actually a home inspector, so I will ask him if I did it right before I close the thing up. He will be happy to help me especially if I throw in a six pack of his favorite refreshing beverage.
Did anyone see the movie "Money Pit"? Yeah, this house is hiding many dumb "do it yourself-er's" projects. (I knew that lamp was hung in a dumb spot!) You are right about the extension wire from the box to the lamp, it was "zip cord"...if that is what you call it, it looks like the sort of cord you use to plug a lamp into an outlet, not the kind that gets wired into a wall.
Now for the exposed, bare copper, should I cover it in electrical tape?
(I've patched and painted the rest of the wall and it looks great!)
- Thread starter
- #39
big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
You mean worse than what you said earlier? :/xpc said:
Should I just call an electrician?
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