Not the right way

My wife and I bought a new home 6 years ago and after 6 months of construction we were ready to move in. The home is your cookie cutter tract home in a nice area of town. It is not the Taj Majal nor is it a single wide trailer with polyester curtains and the redwood deck either.

We decided that we would have the home built with contractor grade ccabinets, carpet, tile etc and live with that for a few years while the kids were young and the dogs were small. Well, the kids have grown up and left the nest and it is now time to remove some of the builder grade amenities.

The first of the upgrades is the flooring. The chocolate brown carpet is gone in favor of travertine and hardwood. After talking it over with the LOML we choose to replace the vanity and sink in the second bathroom. I removed the vanity, sink, tile and mirror. The mirror was glued and with a little persuasion and luck it came off but did damage the drywall in the process. Next I turned my attention to the crappy light fixture above the mirror. I removed the outer cover on the light bar and noticed the wiring looked funny. I did not see an electrical box in the wall behind the fixture. I figured the drywall crew covered it. The electrician mounted the bar by screwing through the light base plate into the wall studs, one thing for sure the light was not going to fall off the wall. I cut the power, removed the wire nuts and 4 drywall screws tha held the light in place. To my surprise this is what I found.

I about fell off the step stool!! The electrician did not install a box at all and during the rough in ran the wiring in the same stud bay with the water lines for the vanity!! Are you serious!! To make matters worse the wiring was run over the top of the stud to the light. They did not drill a hole in the stud for the wiring and to make problems worse when the light was installed a mounting screw pierced the romex. What a *&^#$ moron!!

While contemplating how I was going to handle this repair I took a short break and considered calling the city and builder to voice my displeasure. I thought it was better to leave well enough alone and just fix it. Fixing would require a larger hole so I set about cutting the drywall. At about half way through the cut between the studs I fit some resistance, so I stopped. Its the vent pipe for the sink, right in the middle of the bay! I finished cutting and removed the drywall and I now know why it was wired like it was. The plummer did his rough in before the electrician and ran the vent for the sink right smack in the middle of the studs. There is not enough room to mount a box. My next course of action is to move the vent and gain some room for a box. Off to the bog box store, again!!

I cut the vent and installed a new electrical box, drilled a hole through the stud and mounted a nail plate over the stud to protect the wiring. With a few short pieces of ABS and some 45’s moved the vent out of the way.

Seeing crappy work like this makes me wonder how the rest of my house is wired? I am just glad we didnt have a fire.

-- My job is to give my kids topics to discuss with their therapist