# What do you mean there are wires behind walls?



## USCJeff (Apr 6, 2007)

As the topic title eludes, oops. I was hanging my newly constructed lumber rack in the shop and was very satisfied when done. I used 5" lag bolts After swinging on it a bit and loading it up, I decided to call it a night as it was about 2AM. To wind down from the work, I decided to jump on the net and play some freebie Hold'Em on MSN. Hmm, what happened to my DSL? That's strange the phone's are dead too. I knew the answer but refused to believe it. I went outside to get a guess at where the phone cord entered the wall and it aligned with one of the studs. I cut away some drywall and found a lag bolt exited the side of the stud and took out two of three phone wires. They stapled them pretty tight as they didn't give while being drilled. Of course, I was out of wire that is suitable and will have to mend it another day. At least we got one that is working. Luckily, my alarm company (ADT) decided to call my cell before sending the police thinking the wires were cut intentionally.


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## mot (May 8, 2007)

Whoops. I mean, really though? Put it all back in place and see if you can hit em again! I bet you can't.


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## Chipncut (Aug 18, 2006)

It can happen to the best of us.

This would make a good subject for Martin's new homejocks website.


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## Dadoo (Jun 23, 2007)

I wired my entire garage for power as well as sound, and have years of electrical and electronics installation experience, and guess what? While cutting a hole for a ceiling speaker I hit the power line that ran the jigsaw I was running and it stopped (cuz I killed it), and it was stuck (and wouldn't pull free), and I couldn't get the power back on (cuz the sawblade had shorted the wires). I had to crawl up in that hot attic, on my fat belly, in a real tight confining space, with a gazillion pointy roofing nails taking turns pokeing me in the head, sweatin' bullets, just to cut the blade free. It had not only loaded up with insulation and power wiring, it had also clipped the telephone line too.

It was a bad day in the Lab.


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## Bob42 (Jan 9, 2008)

We've all done that, and will probably will do it again.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

that's a really good point Tom.. bet you couldn't do it again! oh the joys of "Murphy's Law"


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Sounds like a local problem that happens in a lot of localities.

But when I was working in the line crew at the phone company. I heard the story of an installer that was installing a new phone wire for the kitchen.

He was outside using a 12" bit to go through the wall. Went inside and couldn't see it so he went back out and pulled out the drill bit. There was something yellow on it. He tasted it and it was butter. He went straight into the back of the refrigerator.


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## GaryK (Jun 25, 2007)

That's why when I built my shop I took plenty of pictures of exactly where the wires were in the walls.


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## BigTim (Jan 17, 2008)

I've nicked a wire or two in all the home remodeling & building I've done over the years, but I think the worst thing I ever messed up was when I put a 3" holesaw right thru a 2" copper pipe in my hot water heating system. The homeowner before me built a double wall cabinet in the basement (totaling hideing the heating pipe) that I needed to run a drain thru for the kitchen remodel I was doing above it. Try standing on a metal ladder, holding a 30 year old 1/2" drill (metal casing) while several hundred gallons of rusty water smack you in the face!! Luckily I only got a little tingle before I jumped back & yanked the elect. cord out of the wall.


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## mrtrim (Oct 11, 2007)

i have a stud finder that not only helps locate the stud but also sounds an alarm if there are electrical wires near it . i think it was about 20.oo


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## Partridge (Jul 27, 2007)

Gary pic are worth taking. it is good to know witch side of the stud the wires run down


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## matter (Jan 30, 2008)

If it's in a wall or floor, I have hit it. Probably twice.

When we wired my brother-in-laws shop for 220v, we had a unique experience. The receptacle was arcing to the box. Assuming the worst, we ripped open the wall, and found that the screw had not pierced the wire, but a vine that had crept through the corrugated aluminum.

For once it wasn't my fault.

A vine creeping through aluminum, plus fibreglas insulation makes the moisture in the vine become an electrolyte.


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

Jeff

You have my sympathies. I saw your drill press post last night and it was 3 hours after mine. Since I was posting around 11 simple math put your post at 2 in the morning. I thought that you must have been really pumped about something to still be on-line at that time. Now I see what it was.

Most of us have done the same thing or have had near misses. As a note of consolation just be glad it wasn't a water line.

Hope you have gotten everything fixed.


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## Greg3G (Mar 20, 2007)

Never hit a wire…but I have driven my fair share of screws into water lines. Those fancy stud finders with the electical sensers don't work on PVC plumbing, been there, done that.


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## USCJeff (Apr 6, 2007)

Gary, We had our home built and I have wished many times that I had taken pivs or video. Would've been handy.


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## Hawgnutz (Mar 29, 2007)

Jeff, I am just thankfull that you did not hit a live hot wire, especially with a lag screw! God had His angels watching over you that time!

God Bless,
Hawg


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## USCJeff (Apr 6, 2007)

Thanks Hawg, Another scary incident that turned out well was my drilling a lattice screen to the side of their garage. He drilled str8 into the back of the fuse box. He hit the back of the main fuse and tripped the entire box. Don't want to think about how bad that could've been. It was a little ironic as his formal education is in Electrical Engineering.


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## Sawdust2 (Mar 18, 2007)

In my last house the pantry started getting moldy after we had lived there about 6 years. My wife would scrub it down but the mold came back.

Turns out the builder had fastened the shelves with screws through the PVC coming down from the toilet. So that's how long it took for the screws to rust.

We didn't have a lot of respect for that builder, anyway.


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## saddlesore (Oct 17, 2007)

Been there, done that!


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

Lag bolts + 110v or 220v = [email protected] room temp. Glad you're still with us!


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## tpastore (Dec 14, 2007)

I had one time when I was putting in track lighting in my buddy's garage. Cut the hole in the ceiling, ran the wire from the fixture 6' away, all ready to button everything up and noticed that the insulation was damp in the ceiling. Started feeling around and found that the guys that installed the floor in the great room above the garage had put a nail into the water pipe running along the bottom of the floor. In this 5000 sq ft house I happened to open the ceiling under this one spot. Had to kill the water, put in all kinds of heat shielding and solder the pipe through a 4" dia hole. Talk about a project becoming larger than you want!!


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## CaptnA (Dec 17, 2007)

Good shot! Good shot??? not sure which way to put it. Least you HIT the stud ~
Yesterday we responded to an apartment flooding. We got there to find the homeowner looking like the little boy with his finger in the dike. He was hanging a shelf ( and doing an admirable job) and drilled into a 1" PEX water line. It wasn't just a water line, it was the main feed for his apartment and the two apartments above him. Odd routing to say the least. Can't imagine what he must have thought. 
Ya know when we got there he was standing on the ladder, had one finger in the hole, was looking like he was in a sideways shower, his wife was running around with the cordless phone, his mother in law was running benind the wife - alternating between laughing and praying… oh his other hand ? It was still holding the DeWalt drill - yep still plugged into the outlet. 
Lots of folks just don't know what's in those walls and where. I didn't build my house and I've found several 'surprises" in the walls. When I've done removations - I've gotten the camera and the camcorder out and made 'proofs in the picture' reminders. 
If you've never worked with PEX water line - the plumber had the repair completed and the water back on in less than 10 minutes! Now if someone comes up with a drywall fix that goes that quick they'll make a fortune!!


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## roman (Sep 28, 2007)

one reason why I used conduit on the walls instead of behind the walls

we live and sooner or later we learn <g>


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## Lalaland (Jul 5, 2007)

Just found this thread and it reminded me of an embarrassing day at work. I do residential electrical, and have done so for 18 years. As it turns out we were sent to a remodel job where we had to add new circuits for a microwave in the kitchen and some other outlets above the kitchen counter. We looked around, house had a crawl space, great. Panel was close and accessible and had plenty of space available. Great. So my job was to go into the crawl space and find the kitchen wall and drill up through the wall and fish the wires up to the holes we cut in the kitchen above the counter. Had done this thousands of times.

Crawled under, wow it was low. Had to come back out and use a long flex bit. Drill up, just enough to go through ( I thought) and pushed the wire up. Went upstairs, could not find it. Puzzled, I went back down and straightened the wire and shoved it up again. Nothing. Went back underneath and drilled another hole. Shoved the wire up. Nothing again. Fiddled with this for an hour, up and down up and down. Finally exhausted, I told the homeowner I was going to the truck for some tools. Very pleasant people.

Came back, went back underneath and drilled yet a third hole and shoved the wire up the wall. Still couldn't find it. I thought, hey I'm pretty good at this, but I've not found this yet. As it happens, in my looking around, I went into the room behind the wall of the kitchen. It was a bathroom. Pulled the shower curtain back and lo and behold there's my wire, laying in one of three holes I drilled in the fiberglass tub. EEEEEEKKKS.

As it happens, I know others in other trades so I made some calls and hired a guy whose specialty is repairing fiberglass to come out the next morning. Took him less than an hour and charged $100. Then after the homeowner got a good laugh (no they weren't mad) and saw the repair, everything was fine. But not for me, Now, I am hesitant to drill any holes anywhere.


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## USCJeff (Apr 6, 2007)

Ouch Lala. That had to cut into the profits a bit. I really wished I had taken more pictures of my house being built. I've have a couple that show the entire house, but nothing really indicative of wear things really are. Wished I'd have gotten in the hobby 3 years ago as I would've done a few things different for the garage/shop. Would've made adding 220 much easier!


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## Pretzel (Feb 23, 2008)

Just completed a remodel, do that in the winter, closet shelving was nailed to vent pipe & drain line in bathroom. However installed shelving, used a stud finder, didn't help. Every time they used the upstairs sink water would shoot out of the nail holes, took 8yrs for the nails to rust out. Customer and numerous plumbers could not figure where the water stains were coming from,(second floor), after a new roof, owner called me to repair drywall and kitchen cabinets. While repairing closet drywall found the leak.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

lol such funny stories-now.


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## KevinHuber (Jul 25, 2007)

I did a good one (or few) when we moved into our house.

Just got he house and cut a doggy door in for our little puppy. I didn't want her running loose, so I put up three fence panels to make a small, temporary (still all I have after 2.5 years) place for her to go to the bathroom.

Three fence posts. One hit the sprinkler line, the second cut the phone line to my shop and the third cut the phone line to the house. I am just glad I didn't have four posts because the only thing left was the main power. Everything else in the yard I had hit. Of course, this happened around midnight, so none of it was discovered until the next evening and not fixed for a couple days.

Gotta love it, don't ya.


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## jeffthewoodwacker (Dec 26, 2007)

Was jackhammering a concrete floor and went through the main line. Blew off the end of the hammer drill point and I ended up on my back wondering what the heck had happened.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

Kevin, Kevin, Kevin.. 3 for 3.. should have bought a lottery ticket! lol


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## mtnbikecrash (Jan 31, 2008)

Thank goodness, it isn't just me. I need to have my wife read this thread so that she knows it isn't just me. My whole life we always thought that it must have just been the "FORCE" that terrorized all of our projects and that somehow it was a genetic curse from my Dad to me. Now I am rest assured that it happens to everyone from time to time.

Man, this was life changing…


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## Zuki (Mar 28, 2007)

LOL


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## fredf (Mar 29, 2008)

I used to work as an electricians helper, One job we went on was a simple one, think we had to put a swag hook in the ceiling for a light. Norm, the electrician took his awl and pocked a hole in the ceiling, maybe a half inch deep, when he pulled it out a stream of water emerged. Ever hear of radiant hydronic heat?? they run little pipes on the ceiling and plaster over them. oops.


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