The only requirements on junction boxes is that they be accessible and have a
removable cover. Be careful you don't add too many cable and wires so it
exceeds it capacity.
Ron
----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Howell
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2009 6:20 AM
Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Bathroom Switch Relocation Complete
Well my friends, this project was not nearly as bad as it seemed and
only with two ugly problems and yet I have just one question.
First the ugly issues cause we all like those. I damn near drilled a
hole where one was not needed, but attention in this case paid off
without a doubt. First I cut the hole for the box and let me tell you
it was tight, but it fit and I did not have to do anything more than
cut the hole for the box. The duct that was on one side and the stud
on the other provided just enough space to get the box installed, but
it did take a little force to get things moving, but hey it worked.
The ugly issue was after cutting the hole I ran my fish tape up to try
and determine if there was an opening at the top of the wall or what.
Did not seem to be the since the tape just seem to stop. So, I figured
it would require a little drilling and when I started it just didn't
feel right. Glad I stopped because I think in fact if there had not
been tile in the bathroom above where I was, I may have come through
the floor. grin What I subsequently discovered with the help of my
good friend, is two things. First after I stopped attempting to drill
a hole, I ran the tape back in there and suddenly it must have just
flipped at the right point because I could hear it bouncing around in
the ceiling, above the door. Okay, but my sighted buddy couldn't see
the tape. However, I could feel it from the utility room side. THere
is a space between the ceiling and underside of the floor which is
open do to the duct. So the tape was hiding down along side the duct
and I was able to grab it and pull it through the opening where the
duct left the utility room and went into the hall. I'll not bore you
with the details of the opening, but it is sort of interesting. In any
event, I was able to drag the wires for the fan, light, and power to
the new location. So, here are a couple of questions.
1. Does a junction box have to face into the room in which the
switches are located? In other words, currently the junction box is
behind the door in the bathroom. What I did is tied a feed off the
main power coming into the box, ran that over and down to the switch
which is okay since it is in the junction box. What I wanted to do
initially is take the box out, flip it around, and reinstall so the
cover faced into the utility room. This would make it easier to work
on and if the power is off and someone needed to see the wires, the
lights in the utility room are on a separate circuit.
2. Is it acceptable to extend a line provided it is again, in a
junction box? What I ended up doing was instead of running an entire
new line from the light fixture to the switch, I took the line that
had originally been in the junction box, tied an additional piece on,
and extended that to the switch. I can easily go back and correct this
if it is not appropriate, but I was running out of time and needed to
put the bathroom back in service until I was ready to go back and
finish off the other remaining items, such as patching and the like.
Oh, that reminds me, I did have one other ugly problem that required
an opening be made above the door. Seems at one point while pulling
the first set of wires through, the tape became stuck and nothing I
did could work it loose. I ended up cutting a hole above the door so I
could get my hand in there and found the tape had become trapped
between the stud and a cross member. I had to wedge a screwdriver down
in there and sort of pry things just enough to get the tape loose.
Luckily for me it worked out. That hole came in handy for the third
wire run since that tape seem to constantly want to get stuck at the
same point and there was no working around that snag.
Well thanks all for reading my ramblings and for your suggestions.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
