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House wiring

A

arkamw

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 5, 2004
Messages
1,391
I don't see an electrician's forum (home theater), so hopefully this is the right place as I need help from someone who knows more about electrical code that I do (almost none).

A friend of mine and I are remodeling a room and we had the occasion to remove a wall and found behind it four separate wires tied together with wire nuts. All these wires seem to go to the three outlets in the room. It looks like power is coming in on a yellow 12ga wire and then is distributed to the outlets on the other three 14ga wires. The room's breaker is a 15-amp.

Here's the question. These wires are "floating" in the wall, not in a junction box. Does this meet code? I have looked around a little online and in a book or two at the bookstore and I can't find anything immediately apparent that says that you can't do this (splice wire together not in a junction box), but I also don't find any place that says that you can. Is this even a safe way to do things? Everything works ok in the room, but I am wanting to make sure that everything is correct.

Thanks for the help.
 
I'm not an electrician, but I am quite sure that here (Canada) it is required for a junction box to be used. I assume the regulations are similar elsewhere. I personally would do it just for peice of mind and insurance reasons.
 
It technically works but it's kind of inviting disaster if there are any problems with the lines. It probably doesn't meet code either but if it works and you're ok with it nobody will ever know it's there. As long as the wiring job looks relatively clean it should be ok. Why exactly they used different guage wire to begin with I don't know.
 
All wires have to be run through junction boxes and/or conduits. They should never be placed inside a wall or other structure unprotected.

Patching wires together can be done everywhere as far as I'm aware, but for the sake of maintenance it is a good idea to have such parts of the wiring in a place where they can easily be accessed should this be necessary.
 
Get yourself a junction box for cheap:

Boxes

Covers

It's actually pretty easy to do. You'll need a box and a cover, a grounding screw (they sell a box of 20 or so, little green buggers), some cable fittings (this is the fitting that protects the cables from the sharp edges of the metal box), a couple sheetrock screws maybe 1 inch long or so (NOT the self-tapping kind), some wire nuts (check the back of the box to see what color you need - the colors determine how many of what size wire you can join with a nut), a needle-nose pliers, a phillips screwdriver, and a drill to drive those two sheetrock screws to mount the box to a wall stud.

It's pretty self-explanatory, so I'm just gonna mention a couple pointers:
- kill the breaker before futzing with the cables. Double check that power is off by plugging in a known-good lamp.
- on the cable fittings, you want to avoid going so tight that you deform the plastic cable sleeve. Just make it tight enough that you can't pull the cable out with moderate effort - remember, the box isn't going anywhere once you close up the wall.
- you need to ground the box (if metal), hence the little green grounding screw. Join the ground conductors together and include a "pigtail". The pigtail is a spare length of copper wire that you use to go from the group of ground wires (all nutted together) to the grounding screw. Use the needle nose to loop the other end of the pigtail around the ground screw and attach it to the box. The box will have at least one hole already tapped at the appropriate size for the screw.
- after tightening the wire nuts, pull on each wire to make certain that it is securely held by the nut. You really do not want to discover a loose connection after you put up your sheetrock.

If the cables are just drooping around loosely, you may want to pick up some wire staples (white plastic piece with a couple small nails on the sides) to clean up the mess inside the wall. Any bends that you make in the cables need to be gradual, not sharp bends. My rule of thumb is to make the bend roughly follow the contour of a beer can.
 
Originally posted by Elledan
All wires have to be run through junction boxes and/or conduits. They should never be placed inside a wall or other structure unprotected.

Patching wires together can be done everywhere as far as I'm aware, but for the sake of maintenance it is a good idea to have such parts of the wiring in a place where they can easily be accessed should this be necessary.
Click to expand...

That's not true. Wires don't have to be run in condiuits, at least in Oregon.
 
Codes will be differant depending on the local. Call your local utility provider.
 
Im a self-employed contractor in NY. I do my own wiring when i build additions and houses or remodeling. I know here locally you can not have spliced wires inside a wall. They have to be in a junction box that is accessible. To make it accessible you can splice the wires into another outlet for use in that location. Otherwise they sell covers for junction boxes with outlets built in. I've seen many people simply place the wires in a closed junction box and seal it back in the wall. If its not getting inspected then you could do that.
The problem arrises when the splice comes apart from the wires being yanked on at another location. So make sure you also use romex connectors (clamps) on the box.
 
Code states it has to be in a box and accessable EX: not burrired in a wall
 
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