I was putting up a new shelf and almost drilled into a live wire

I was marking a spot for a shelf in my bedroom last week, about 6 inches above an outlet. My stud finder beeped, so I started to drill. My wife walked in and said, 'Wait, isn't that where the cable line comes in?' I stopped and used a voltage tester, and it lit up like crazy. I was about to hit the main power line feeding that whole wall. Has anyone else had a close call like this with hidden wiring?

3 comments

3 Comments

jadeg991mo ago

Oh man, that reminds me of my old apartment. I was just trying to hang a simple picture frame, right? Nailed straight into the wall and the whole hallway light went dark. Turns out the wiring in that place was a total mystery, like they just threw cables anywhere. I had to call the super and he just shook his head. Never trusted that wall again.

evan2951mo ago

That exact thing happened to me with a bookshelf! Hit something behind the plaster and the kitchen outlet died. The electrician found a wire just running sideways through the studs for no clear reason. Some of these old buildings are wired by ghosts, I swear. I still use a stud finder with a wire sensor for every single nail now.

henry4921mo ago

Yikes, that's a real wake-up call. So your stud finder actually beeped on the wire? That's wild, I thought those things were supposed to tell the difference. Makes me wonder if the wire was just running right up the middle of the stud space. Did you check if your finder has a specific setting for wires, or was it just in basic mode?