Joined
·
17 Posts
Unusual situation. Oh, and my electrical knowledge is bare minimum.
I bought this old house recently and it is a small 2 br 1 bath, not a fixer upper, it has been remodeled and is fairly good shape, but has a lot of noticeable traces of poor DIY, hence the negotiable price I managed to get.
While installing cable around the outside of my home, I noticed pieces of old wire here and there, with staples in the middle, and just unsightly scrap wire that I began to remove.
When I got to the outside breaker box, I noticed coming out of the back bedroom ceiling, just under the eaves is an old, thick ( 240?) wire sticking out of the wall about a foot, so I figured while I was there on my ladder, I would remove it too. Wrong. I cut it with my metal shears, and boom, it was so hot
it melted a 1/4" hole in my shears where it hit. So, I go to check all my breakers, thinking I may have knocked out all the power to my house, and all the breakers are still on, nothing was knocked out.
There is in the living room an old 220 plug for what was probably a large ac,
but other than that, I have no idea what this wire is, or how to go about safely removing it or disabling it, since it does not seem to be on any of my breakers. Which is likely why the DIYer who knew about it, decided to just tape off the end and leave it hanging out of the wall.
I guess my first thought is to get a tester, and turn everything off, test the hot wire again to see if it is still hot, and go from there. I don't even know what sore of tester you use to check the liveness of a 240v wire, so this is where I ask for help, before I call an electrician.
My biggest concern is, now I have a bare spot on this live wire where I tried to cut it, which I suppose I could wrap some duct tape around it for now.
Definitely a fire hazard, any help would be greatly appreciated.
G
I bought this old house recently and it is a small 2 br 1 bath, not a fixer upper, it has been remodeled and is fairly good shape, but has a lot of noticeable traces of poor DIY, hence the negotiable price I managed to get.
While installing cable around the outside of my home, I noticed pieces of old wire here and there, with staples in the middle, and just unsightly scrap wire that I began to remove.
When I got to the outside breaker box, I noticed coming out of the back bedroom ceiling, just under the eaves is an old, thick ( 240?) wire sticking out of the wall about a foot, so I figured while I was there on my ladder, I would remove it too. Wrong. I cut it with my metal shears, and boom, it was so hot
it melted a 1/4" hole in my shears where it hit. So, I go to check all my breakers, thinking I may have knocked out all the power to my house, and all the breakers are still on, nothing was knocked out.
There is in the living room an old 220 plug for what was probably a large ac,
but other than that, I have no idea what this wire is, or how to go about safely removing it or disabling it, since it does not seem to be on any of my breakers. Which is likely why the DIYer who knew about it, decided to just tape off the end and leave it hanging out of the wall.
I guess my first thought is to get a tester, and turn everything off, test the hot wire again to see if it is still hot, and go from there. I don't even know what sore of tester you use to check the liveness of a 240v wire, so this is where I ask for help, before I call an electrician.
My biggest concern is, now I have a bare spot on this live wire where I tried to cut it, which I suppose I could wrap some duct tape around it for now.
Definitely a fire hazard, any help would be greatly appreciated.
G