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Pro tip: always check the existing wiring before you cut into a wall
I was putting a new motion sensor in a house built in the 1970s last week. I cut a small hole for the wire and hit a live 12-gauge wire that wasn't on any of the old plans. The whole circuit for the kitchen went out. I had to patch the drywall, find the right breaker, and run a whole new line for the sensor, which added about 2 hours to the job. It was a real pain and taught me to scan the area with a stud finder that also checks for wires every single time now. Has anyone else had a close call like that in an older home?
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juliahall27d ago
Jump in with a good voltage detector before you even touch that drywall. I've had the same thing happen in a house from the '60s where someone tied a random light fixture wire into a live outlet circuit with no junction box. @foster.patricia, you're right that older houses are full of surprises, but the real kicker is that many of those wires were never meant to be live. They're often abandoned and just left energized. That's why I always use a non-contact voltage tester and a deep scan stud finder with wire detection before I cut anything. It adds 5 minutes but saves you a headache like yours. And if you find a mystery wire, trace it back to the panel if you can, or just cap it off safely.
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hall.nora2mo ago
Oh man, that sounds like the worst kind of surprise. Older houses are full of those "what is this even for" wires that someone just left live. I fried a doorbell transformer once doing something similar, scared me half to death. That extra two hours of work is the exact kind of lesson that makes you never skip the scanner again.
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