Painted over a outlet and now whole room doesnt work?
 

So my wife and i rent a house and we decided to paint our bedroom the other evening. Well i accidentally rollered right over a power outlet. (ugh) Well the SECOND i did that an entire side of our bedroom lost power. The other half works ok though. I also noticed that a few lights on the opposite side of the wall where the power was lost do not work either. I am very ignorant with power issues. I have checked the breakers, i have turned off EVERY breaker in the house, even the main breaker. No go. I replaced the outlet i painted over with a brand new one. no go. Any ideas? I need my alarm clock for monday! lol. Thanks!! (first post!)

-Ryan

Was the wires stabed in back of rec or wraped around screw?

Sounds like you shorted out the outlet with the paint. Are you sure you turned the breakers all the way off and back on? Another thing to check, see if you have a GFCI outlet that is tripped. They look like this http://thm-a01.yimg.com/image/ca808a96c57722da You push the red button to reset.

Is there a GFCI receptacle on the circuit, in a bathroom maybe?

http://www.happycontractor.com/share...mages/gfis.jpg

That may have tripped and needs a reset.

Edit: hayewe! You beat me with your faster image-finding abilities! :furious::laughing:

Since you are RENTING the landlord should be taking care of this
Doing any electric work in a rental can leave you fully responsible for any damage caused as a result

If they are renting, I'd bet they weren't supposed to be painting without the landlord's say-so, so it might be a bad plan to bring him in... especially if the fix is resetting GFCI.

I'm more inclined to think that it was a loose back-stab connection in the receptacle than a GFCI tripping. Wouldn't make much sense that only half the room shut off if it was a GFCI.

Shut the circuit breaker off and take the plug out of its box... if the wires are stuffed into a little hole on the back of the receptacle, wiggle and twist them while gently pulling (or just find a little screwdriver and stick it in the release slot) to get them out. Cut the exposed copper off and re-strip the wires. Hopefully you got a new unpainted plug :) I'd recommend wrapping the wires around the screws on the side instead of back-stabbing them.

The OP said "I replaced the outlet " Even using the back stab the chances of repeating the problem seems rather slim and the lights on the other side of the wall that don't work may be in a bath room.

To ge this out of the way, our landlord is an old family friend and doesn't really give a rip what we do here as far as decorating, painting or anything of that sort. Of course if we bred mosquitos, fought dogs, or did DNA splicing then she might care. Anyway, Yes i have tried both methods, Backstabbing and the screw. Neither have worked. The bathroom DOES have a GFCI. I will try to make things more clear as well. This is a two level house. The top level is rented by my wife's parents. The bottom level is splt 60/20. We have a single woman who lives in a studio apartment on one side an dmy wife and i live in a one bedroom one bath apartment on the other. The other thing i may point out is that this lower half of this house was built by thus land lady, not a company, so im not sure how she wired it all. To me, the ignorant one, it would SEEM like she daisy chained all the outlets and this one was in the middle so all that followed died after i painted over it. NOTE: This outlet only had ONE black wire ONE white wire and ONE ground wire. The outlet next to it had 2 of each other than the ONE ground wire.

There could be a GFCI anywhere in your house or on the outside of your house even that you need to reset. Keep looking.

If it only has one wire then it is impossible that other outlets are daisy chained off this outlet (from this box). Your problem is in one of the other outlets. Turn power off if possible, check each outlet. Check each wire for power before going too far

If there are separate breaker panels and/or meters for each apartment, your circuit might be fed from one of the other panels. If so, you could have tripped a breaker in another panel, or tripped a GFCI in one of the other apartments.

Does anyone else notice a loss of power somewhere?

Although not proper, it is not uncommon to find circuits wired this way (by accident or on purpose).

Wow. I feel like a total idiot. I was gone on the weekend backpacking so i couldnt respond to your suggestions but i just flipped the GFCI in the bathroom and POW my outlets work. Im so ignorant when it comes to electricity. I am now determined to learn more. Thanks for ALL you help and time. A great community indeed!! :thumbup: