outlet blunder

couchguy

Not sure if this is the right spot but here we go. I am in the middle of redoing a room in my house. I installed new sheetrock and put in slate tile floors. I have the old wire system in my house (2 wires with flex conduit for ground). I installed new three prong outlets with metal box so I would have a ground. all checked out good. But now my problem is that I forgot to adjust for the additional height of floor and know my outlets seem to be low, I wanted to install a wider baseboard but with outlets being a little low the bottom of the cover plate will be very close to the baseboard. Is there an easy way to fix this I am not thinking about. I thought about just installing those plastic outlet boxes with the wings and patching the old outlet hole but I think I will lose my ground. Pls help

couchguy

I think I have an idea. Can I use the steel box as a like a junction box, cover with steel plate then run wire form there to the new outlet box for finished construction (the box with wings). I have only two to do.

darren

Hey there

Your idea will work but you have to leave the old box accesible since you will have joints in there. So a blank cover that can be removed in the future.

Is it the fact that you don't like how it looks so close to baseboard because there is no rule concerning the height of the plugs.

Darren

couchguy

when you mean access I can not put a drywall patch over it. I would have to put a blank outlet cover over it so it will be seen?

darren

That is right, any boxes that have joints in them have to be accesiable and cutting drywall does not count as accesible so you would have to put a blank on there, unless you could take the wires right oout of the old box and put them in the new one.

couchguy

the problem with that is that the new box would have to be steel for grounding, I have to use a plastic box ( i have not seen a steel box that can be used for excisting construction)unless there is another way to ground it to the steel flex conduit.

dmaceld

There are steel straps available that are kind of like a double t shape to hold steel boxes up tight against sheetrock. Two legs of the strap go against the back side of the rock and two tabs bend over the sides of the box. The adjustable tabs on the top and bottom of the box bear against the outside of the rock. You should be able to find them at HD, Lowes, or any decent sized electrical supplier.

HouseHelper

There are also steel boxes available for "old work". They have collapsible brackets on the side that tighten by screws.

couchguy

Thanks for all your help, I am going to get a sample of the trim to see how it would look and look for those boxes. Thanks again

jogr

Your going to have to do drywall work to patch the old box holes anyway so just cut out a reasonably small area of drywall between the studs (from old height to new height), move the nail-on box up (hope you have enough cable there) and put in a drwall patch. You only have 2 to do.

couchguy

its going to be fine I am not going to change the boxes meet wifes aproval so all is well. Thanks for all your help and sugestions.