Junction splices in wall from old panel

RST

J.V.,

The panel in my house was moved at some point, only instead of putting in a large junction box, they buried the splices in the wall (a half dozen circuits or so I think.) I need to open it up for obvious reasons and to rewire some of the circuits. Do they sell junction boxes big enough for this? And by "build a nice cover and frame to go over it" are there restrictions on those?

(It might actually be easier for me to move my panel back to the original location. Or, put in a subpanel where the panel originally was. Honestly, I don't know it was moved in the first place.)

Thanks, RST

Big N8

I would go with your second choice and put a sub panel in.

HIVOLT

They do make larger than normal junction boxes. In the trade we call them pull boxes and they come in various sizes and depth( 6 X 6, 8 X 8, 10 X 10 etc). I have not seen any at Lowes or HD but an electrical supply store would carry this product.

J. V.

First you cannot have a panel in a bathroom, so the sub panel is no.

If you can use the old location will the wires reach it? Buying large enclosures is expensive. Several 4x4 (1900) boxes will work the same. If you get a sheet metal enclosure (cheaper) you will have to punch your own KO's (holes). If you buy one with concentric KO's it will be expensive.

I am not a carpenter much less a finish carpenter. You could just hang a nice picture over the old enclosure if you decide to use it for your junction box (my favorite idea so far). No, as long as you can get into the old box (accessible) it does not matter what you use. It must be able to be removed easily.

You can put this panel anywhere you like that meets the clearance specifications. The original location is fine if it meets the criteria for clearance and location. Will the cables reach the old location?

Lastly and most importantly. Why are you doing all this when you plan to have an electrician do the job?
If you are going to do the job, own up and post some pictures so we can get started.

HooKooDooKu

Could a sub-panel back at the original location be used as... well... a giant splice box?

I'm thinking that if you can find a flush-mount panal the right size that has most of the guts screw mounted, you could easily remove all the guts, make all the splices in the panel, close it up with all the circuit breaker tabs still in place, label the inside of the door "splice panel" and close the door.

Granted, its not exactly what the panel is listed for, but since splices are allowed inside a "real" panel, perhaps an inspector would allow the installing of a "fake" panel.

Thoughts?

RST

Alright, my original question has been bumped to a new thread, so let me clear things up. I attached a diagram to help

My panel was on one of the walls of the original garage. Thirty years ago the garage was turned into a family room. I believe at that time the panel was moved to an interior wall in the utility room. The receptacle circuits in the original house are fed from the crawlspace, so the wires were extended from the old location of the panel into the attic and then down to the new location of the panel. But, the splices were buried in the wall.

None of the circuits in the original house are grounded and there are too few. Plus, I plan to renovate the converted garage/family room in the future, so I may want to remove the wall the panel is on anyway.

I don't know if I will hire an electrician or not. If I end up moving the panel back to the original location, probably yes. Installing a subpanel or large junction box, probably not. I'll probably do the work this summer when I hope to rewire some the old circuits and add some more circuits to the kitchen. There are some other projects that need my attention now. Reading the other thread got me thinking about this one though.

Robert

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