# covered junction boxes



## wirenut71 (Dec 5, 2010)

I was talking to a contractor friend today. He told me that when a customer deletes a receptacle during the rough-in our residential guys leave the box where it is. Then after their rough-in inspection they go back and slap a blank cover on it and later it gets covered up by drywall. My friend asked the electrician why do this and the electrician told him its was easier than tearing out wire and running new wire to nearest box. He said, "we do it all the time." My contractor friend said they cover these boxes like this also when a customer wants to relocate a receptacle somewhere else.

I hear many stories like this about our residential guys doing work like this all the time. Some are worse.

I don't know what to think about all this. What do you guys think?:huh:


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

There's someone here who does the very same thing, only it's dirt on top of his boxes. :yes:


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## wirenut71 (Dec 5, 2010)

I remember that one! Where's the map?


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

wirenut71 said:


> ................I don't know what to think about all this. What do you guys think?:huh:


I think it's total hackness and doing so as a matter of course should cause them to have their license invalidated.


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## 220/221 (Sep 25, 2007)

I don't care if someone buries a box *as long as there are no splices* in it.


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

220/221 said:


> I don't care if someone buries a box *as long as there are no splices* in it.



So......... remove the box and then bury the splices?


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

Seen that BS. Wired a bathroom remodel in an ancient house with a ton of buried splices. I managed to clean up everything except for two boxes with blank face plates. One in the corner behind the door, and in a corner up near the ceiling.

Came back a year later to replace a fixture and I noticed that there was nothing in either of those places but smooth sheetrock. The guy had stuffed the boxes with newspaper and plastered over them. :thumbdown: :furious:

-John


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

Peter D said:


> There's someone here who does the very same thing, only it's dirt on top of his boxes. :yes:


And you would be wrong again because there is gray sticking through the brown dirt when I leave the job.. :thumbsup:


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## Ninety (Jan 7, 2011)

I've been told that I "would be surprised what you can bury under a piece of sheetrock".:icon_eek:


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

B4T said:


> And you would be wrong again because there is gray sticking through the brown dirt when I leave the job.. :thumbsup:



Uh-uh! All those boxes looked just fine nailed to the studs when i left the job. Damned drywallers just covered 'em up. Oh well, not my fault, even when I know they're gonna get covered up.


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

480sparky said:


> Uh-uh! All those boxes looked just fine nailed to the studs when i left the job. Damned drywallers just covered 'em up. Oh well, not my fault, even when I know they're gonna get covered up.


Different set of circumstances.. don't be such a_ TOOL_.. :no:


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

B4T said:


> Different set of circumstances.. don't be such a_ TOOL_.. :no:



Not really. I know there's a buried box behind the drywall, with splices in it, and where it is. Am I just supposed to leave it be?


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

B4T said:


> Different set of circumstances.. don't be such a_ TOOL_.. :no:


Uh oh, you have now entered the B4T-Zone. A place where logic, reason, and rational thought go completely out the window. :yes:


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

480sparky said:


> Not really. I know there's a buried box behind the drywall, with splices in it, and where it is. Am I just supposed to leave it be?


We all know you are not suppose to leave buried splices behind drywall..

Lets not derail the OP thread with outside wiring techniques and confine all post to the original topic.. indoor wiring techniques..


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

B4T said:


> Lets not derail the OP thread with outside wiring techniques and confine all post to the original topic.. indoor wiring techniques..


Actually, your buried boxes fit in perfectly with what the OP is asking about.


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

B4T said:


> We all know you are not suppose to leave buried splices behind drywall.............



You're right, it is different. I know my boxes should NOT be buried. You know perfectly well yours WILL .


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## rnichols (Apr 19, 2011)

We had a job last week that someone had moved the main panel from an inside bedroom to the garage, they buried all the junction boxes behind the drywall. they didnt even have covers on the boxes, nor did they use any heat shrink or tape over the metal splices they used for the main feed. They put each feed in its own box tho.

I had to look at it twice when the GC asked me what I thought of this mess when they opened up the wall in the closet, I wish I would have gotten a picture of it, but didnt have my phone with me that day.. the was a wall full of boxes, lol.:blink:


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

In my first house, I found a doorbell transformer, hardwired, and buried inside the wall !


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

480sparky said:


> You're right, it is different. I know my boxes should NOT be buried. You know perfectly well yours WILL .


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

B4T said:


>


And this means, what? You now mark your buried boxes with a horse carcass?


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## 220/221 (Sep 25, 2007)

480sparky said:


> So......... remove the box and then bury the splices?


 
No......remove the splices and bury the box.


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## CraigV (May 12, 2011)

B4T said:


>


 
The best way to deal with a problem is to admit you have one.





<ducks flying can of Scotchkote>


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