[michelel]

Hi,

We tore down our office to the studs to replace insulation and repair damage. We wanted to add a ceiling light, and we have an existing light switch that powers an outlet, so we ran a wire from the ceiling to the switch. New walls are now up and painted. Now, I know this was wrong, and we should've run the wire to the outlet instead. At the switch, there are black hot and white neutral wires coming in, and both are connected to the switch (no ground - 60s house). I understand that we would've needed the neutral to not be connected to the switch so we could pigtail that with the neutral from the new ceiling wire to have both the outlet and new light work.

We don't care about the outlet anymore since there are 2 others and it's a small room, so we have no problem covering it up. Does that make it possible to wire the new wire from the ceiling into the switch with the existing wires from the outlet to make the light work? I would think there's a way to tap into that power, even if it's at the expense of losing the outlet. What would that wiring look like at the outlet box and the switch box?

I'm not sure if I explained this well, so please feel free to ask additional questions.
Thanks so much for your help!

 

[brric]

Without seeing the actual situation, you should be able to rewire the cable from the receptacle leading to the switch location to provide power at the switch location.

 

[joed]

If you don't want the receptacle switched anymore you need to make a change there to switch the white wire to a neutral instead of a hot.
Open the receptacle and should find the switch white connected to a hot black. Remove that connection and connect the white with the other whites in the box.
You will end up with the black connected to the gold screws and the whites connected to the silver screws.
If the receptacle was half switched then you should replace it with one that does not have the tab cut between the gold screws.

At the switch you now have a hot black and a neutral white.
Connect the whites together.
Connect the two blacks to the switch.

 

[Jim Port]

The OP was dealing with a switch loop. The white connected to the switch is not a neutral. It should be the constant hot to the switch. The black should be the switched hot.

Ungrounded circuits should not be extended.

 

[joed]

I missed the no grounded part. However a house from the 60s might have ground wires that you can't see as in Boston back wrapped.

 

[michelel]

It was grounded after all, just not like I'm used to seeing with the other work we've done with the bare copper wire to the green screw.

An electrician friend came over and figured it out.

Thanks!