One of the "Bosses" Christmas presents was, yours truly, to install LED recessed lights in
the TV room. Currently there is a floor lamp and a ceiling fan with bulb.
Luckily there is a large crawl space above the room so I can fit my "large frame" above the ceiling
and do the wiring with ease. The only issue was adding a switch with dimmer.
On the wall there is an existing 3-way switch and a single pole for the fan on-off.
I was hoping to add a switch next to those and easy-peasy, all done.
As with any project, the Gods of crappy construction framing were out to get me.
For the love of me I couldn't get the snake to go from either direction.
Tried from the wall switch opening up to the attic, nope.
Went up in the attic, into the crawl space and tried feeding down, nope.
So I had to dismantle the original switches and open the hole to see wtf was going on.
This picture below is what I had after an hour of notes and pictures and wiring diagrams.
I double checked every wire multiple times before I loosened any screws.
2ea 12-3 wires and 2ea 12-2 wires coming into the box. I had to dismantle the switches and
rip out the old box so I could get a look up the wall to see what I was up against.
There was blocking and strapping in the way so I had to do some oscillator saw and chisel work with
out making a huge mess. I finally got the snake to go from the attic down to the opening.
After pulling the wire, I replaced the two original switches with new ones and a new 2 Gang box.
Wired it up, stood by as the "Boss" switched on the breaker, and , voila! It all worked.
I mounted the new switch next to the original one and completed the connections in the crawl space.
Again, the "Boss" turned on the breaker and they worked. Mission Accomplished.
Working on it as time allowed I bet I had 8-10 hours. Longer than I thought it would take.
Plus some Home Depot runs in between everything else.
The "Boss" is happy so all is good. 😊
Why would you mess with electrons don’t we have professionals who rig them in the month of November ?
ReplyDelete.
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Puts eyeballs on, oh wait, elections, you fix those as well? We may need you in 10 months or so.
He, uh..."Knows a guy".
DeleteGlad the boss is happy. When my cheap ass snuck in LED dimmable bulbs the quality and range was not as good. My boss complained but never knew why it changed. Me, “ I don’t know honey”.
ReplyDeleteDammmnnnn, NICE WORK!!
ReplyDeleteLooks good!
ReplyDeleteWay to persevere, Irish — a fine job, well done. I always figure at least three times as long as it “should” take when I DIY a job with unknown elements, sometimes I’m even pleasantly surprised!
ReplyDeleteLooks nice.
ReplyDeleteOne of these days I'm going to do the dimmer switch so I don't need the pull chains.
For those keeping score: one of these days has been 22 years at this point.
You're a saint! This is how real men do it. The girls do notice.
ReplyDeleteGood job, Boss.
ReplyDeleteBe glad it wasn't tarred-cloth insulation and lath & plaster.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
The memories make me shudder.
DeleteI'll see your lath and plaster and raise you knob and tube wiring.
DeleteMy house has all of the above. That's why I paid for an actual electrical contractor to do the rewire. I didn't figure I could or should go in the attic alone in Florida.
DeleteVery nice
ReplyDelete-generic
Happy wife, happy life!
ReplyDeleteGoing behind a contractor is a never-ending series of WTF, and "Who thought that was a good idea?" moments.
ReplyDeleteDimmable LED lighting is a good thing, but only if you use the right mix of controller and LED.
Nice work!
Don’t forget to take photos at the beginning, middle and end. Helps to keep track. A great use for cell phones.
ReplyDeleteThose immortal words from Red Green: “If the woman don’t find you handsome, they at least they should find you handy.” Well done, never easy figuring out what those who came before had done when the drywall wasn’t up.
ReplyDeleteIf there is one DIY job I despise more than others…. It’s fixing the last elechickens work. Well done sir
ReplyDeleteThose fireblocks can be murder. I have a 30" long 1" spade bit for that stuff. The motherfuckers that wired our house should be arrested. They were masters at daisychains and everyone after them can kiss their asses.
ReplyDeleteI hope you were able to pull extraneous useless wiring and simplify that spaghetti mess.
ReplyDeletePresident Elect B Woodman
Our house had some spaghetti wiring in the attic, complete with uncovered junction boxes. The bathroom switch wiring was … unconventional. We had a contractor renovate all our bathrooms. One of the requirements was to clean up the wiring and ensure it was all code.
ReplyDeleteLove to woodwork on the ceiling
ReplyDelete“And VOILA ! It all worked.” This is the preferred initial outcome. The other alternatives tend to result in frustration and /or property damage. Well done! Getting an ATTABOY ! from the Boss is always nice. Especially this time of year.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas friend…
VC
Went for the colonoscopy. I awoke with an awful taste....
ReplyDeleteFor the love of me I couldn't get the snake to go from either direction.
Is what the doctor said.
Th
just rewired our main office, after removing some drywall for additional plumbing work found a shit load of old beer cans....figures.....
ReplyDeleteI too, like to live dangerously. Chateau Casa de Engineering South here in Palm Beach County is about 40 years old. Previous owners had an addition put on. Best I can figure is the electricians were non-licensed Juans and Pedros. One room has one circuit of ceiling lights on 4 switches, basically one switch at each corner of the room (don't ask me why). If one of the four switches is "off", none of the others will turn the lights on. One would think that this particular switch was an "on/off" feed for all the lights but it is a 4 way switch, like all the others. This is a troubleshooting opportunity for another day.
ReplyDeleteA lightning strike in August blasted some outdoor equipment and the swimming pool controller (basically a non-mechanical timer that had previously also run some now-disconnected solar water heating stuff) finally kicked the can. Literally, as another item that suffered from the strike was the start capacitor on the pump, which basically exploded. ANYWAY - in troubleshooting this, I discovered that none of the pool equipment was grounded to NEC requirements. None of it. There was evidence that the original installation had been done correctly, but whoever replaced the first pump and installed this stupid rooftop solar heating system with flexible rubber heating tubes didn't care about ground currents.
I built spec houses back in the 90/2000's and wired them myself. Here is what I have learned now that I have lived in the same house for 20 + years: First thing is 12 gauge wiring is overkill for lighting. 14 gauge bends better/easier to work with. Next up what I would have done if I was you - Lutron wireless. I have it all over the house now. Run the new lights to a power box and install a Lutron switch. With that you can then use the Pico remotes and put switches wherever your heart desires. The cool thing is you can use your phone to control everything. I have my window shades on the system also. Integrates with Google Home / Alexa / Etc. Best of DIYing to to you!
ReplyDeleteI owe you one for that tip!
DeleteFrank Zappa - Inca Roads.
ReplyDeleteYoutube with live concert audio here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6YKJX-dXIM
lyrics here . https://genius.com/Frank-zappa-inca-roads-lyrics
Zappa basically riffed on the whole "In Search of Ancient Aliens" thing. It's great stuff.