After we tore down the walls in the bedroom I found that most of the wiring was frayed, not grounded and more importantly just did not look safe. I decided to replace all the outlets and put them all on there own separate breaker. First I had to drill new holes through all the studs for the wiring because the old wires were wired not only through there own holes to the basement but the holes were more in the floor and not in the studs.
After drilling both new holes in the studs horizontally and the new holes to the basement I ran enough wire to reach the breaker box and stapled the wire in the basement to the beams. I then nailed in the new boxes for the outlets in the room and ran wire from each box to the next.
After the wires were run to the boxes I was able to connect the outlets, many people may be cautious when it comes to wiring outlets but as long as you follow some basic guides and always work with the power off it is not that difficult. After you strip the wires you see three, black, white, and bare or copper. The black goes on the brass screw on the outlet which also looks gold. the top or bottom does not matter. Next the white goes on the silver screw, again top or bottom does not matter. So, there will be two black wires (one wire comes from the power and the other goes to the next outlet) and two white wires connecting to two brass and two silver screws.
There is one last screw the green or ground, this is where the bare or copper wire goes. This one is a little more tricky because there is only one ground screw on the outlet and both copper wires have to connect to it. To get around this what you have to do is cut a small piece of wire about three inches long and connect it to the green screw on the outlet, next you need to get a wire nut and connect all three bare wires together (one from the power one going to the next outlet and the short one connecting to the screw on the outlet).
All the outlets on the circuit will be done this way except for the last one. The last outlet in the room only has one wire coming into the box from the power, but this does not change anything to do with the wiring except for the copper because there is only one and not three so it can be connected directly to the green screw.
After connecting the wires and screwing them in securely I had to push them into the box, forcing the excess wire into the box. For some of the boxes it is not easy, especially I had left too much excess but I was thinking its better to have some extra then short myself and have to re-run a long wire.
When I connected the wire in the breaker box I already had a free breaker and made sure it was off. I then connected the black into the breaker switch and screwed it in tightly. Next I connected the white and copper wires to there own connection on the box. I am intentionally leaving this vague because I had to talk to an electrician on where to connect them, it depends on how the box is and I don’t want anyone to use this as an exact guide and go screw something up.
So this is the basic setup for my bedroom outlets and the template for the rest of the house’s outlets with some variations. And it mostly depends on how you want your breakers setup, for example what you want on what breaker. I am trying to isolate sections of the house to there own breaker because right now one breaker shuts off the overhead light in the bedroom, the kitchen light, fridge, porch light, and half of the living room outlets. I intend to correct this and make it more logical in terms of location and load on the breaker.
I hope this was at the very least interesting to read, any feedback is always appreciated.
