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Many of us in the electrical contracting business have come across the following issue at least once. We have an electrical rough in installation where several of the devices in a circuit are operating but there are a few that don’t. In today’s episode of electrician U, Dustin covers one of the trade terms none of us wants to hear- a buried receptacle!

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When it comes to finding a buried receptacle, there are several ways to go about it. However, there are a few ways that should NOT be used. For instance, do NOT take a hammer or the handle of your ¾” bender and go to beating on the new drywall until you find it! This not only infuriates the GC and the drywall sub but will definitely land you with a large back charge to fix the damage. Along the same lines is cutting several holes in the drywall where you THINK it is. This would be for the same back charge reason or leave you with having to patch/paint the drywall yourself (and most of us electricians are not very good at fixing the damage, just creating it!).
The first thing that should be done is to do your detective work. Find out which receptacles/devices in the string ARE working and which are NOT working. This should narrow down your search and leave you with the last receptacle, the wire left before being buried and the next in line- so now you know where you should be searching roughly. If you have access to drawings, this will also help narrow things down a bit, so you aren’t looking everywhere. A low voltage toner can be used, but only if it’s a single layer of drywall. More than that and it won’t be able to sense through it. A toner works by hooking a tone generator to one end of the wire and using the receiver to find the other end. A borescope is also handy in this situation as it has a camera/light on a flexible lead that you can insert into the wall and actually SEE what is obstructing the installation. The only limit here is the length of the flexible end and the fact that you cannot traverse into the next stud bay.
So, once you narrow down where you THINK the box/wire is at (from the detective portion), the next step is to poke through the drywall with something super small to find the actual box. Take a piece of bare #12 solid wire (or strip the insulation off an insulated piece) and cut a sharp angle on one end. Poke through the drywall. If it goes in easily and about 3” deep, you know you have missed. Move horizontally about an inch and a half either left or right and try again. You are looking for it to have a little resistance but be a bit spongy. You can also listen for either a plastic sound (for residential installations) or a metallic clink (for commercial installations with metal boxes). Something to keep in mind is that boxes are generally mounted right next to the stud. This may help in locating the box.
Once you have found the box, insert your drywall saw into the drywall and make a small hole to peer in or place your finger in to feel the wires. When you are confident you have found it, cut horizontally until you reach both sides of the box. Repeat for the vertical portion of the cuts. You may have to use your drywall knife to trim the drywall a bit for your plaster ring if using metal boxes. Now, install your receptacle as normal!
We hope this has been helpful in understanding how you can find a buried receptacle and correct it. Is there a topic you would like to see discussed on Electrician U? Leave us a comment in the comments section and let us know. Please continue to follow Dustin Stelzer and Electrician U as we are constantly updating our content to assist our followers in becoming the best electricians that they can be.


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