Electrical – How to add two bathroom receptacles behind and above a vanity

electricalreceptacleremodeling

Background

I'm in the middle of a bathroom remodel, and had to take off some drywall to get the tub in, then thought I may as well take all the drywall on that side off to give me an easier taping job. Also I wanted to replace another section of the polybutylene pipe while I had the chance.

The Goal

Then I thought now would be a good opportunity to add a few extra receptacles around our (new) vanity. We bought a 36" vanity, and would like to put one receptacle above the left side of the vanity, and another lower down for charging devices in the vanity (there's no back to the vanity).

The Details

I'd like to tap off the receptacle shown in the upper right. This receptacle is on the same circuit as three others in each of the three other bathrooms in the house, all four protected by one GFCI receptacle in the adjacent bathroom. I'd like to avoid cutting out the drywall around the receptacle itself, and instead cut out a section towards the bottom and tap off there so I don't have to be as concerned about doing a fantastic taping job since it will be hidden by the vanity (the strong glancing light from the vanity light would make the receptacle tape job very difficult I think).

If I tee off the wire towards the bottom of the floor, I believe I'd have to put a box in with a blank plate to make the connection accessible. Since the vanity would be covering it, would this not be acceptable? In that case I could put a plate on the other side of the wall in our bedroom.

Is there anything wrong with my plan?

Wall behind vanity

Best Answer

I see a couple of issues. The first is that your three bathrooms are not wired properly, and you should take this opportunity to fix them! You should not have outlets in three different bathrooms all on one circuit. Each bathroom should have its own 20 amp circuit. The reason for this is that hair dryers, curling irons, etc. use a lot of juice.

Your second issue is going to be the ability to "T" off of an existing cable at some point below the existing outlet. Assuming that the cable actually does run down the wall below that outlet, I would imagine it runs in a fairly straight line without a bunch of slack, right? Unfortunately, in order to "T" off of it, you would have to cut that cable and then have enough slack to pull 6 inches or so from each side of the cut into a new box, where you would join those two ends with your new cable. It's highly unlikely that your wire has a foot of slack in it that you could use for this purpose. If it did have a foot of slack, then you would be better off just pulling it through the actual hole for the new outlet and connecting the two ends (from the top and bottom of the cut) to the screws on your new outlet - no need for a new cable or a secondary hole anywhere.

All that said, here's how I would go about accomplishing what you want to do without cutting any unnecessary drywall:

  • Turn off the power and remove that outlet in the picture from the box.
  • Put a crowbar or something against the inside of the box, and hit it with a hammer a couple of times - just enough to make the box start to lean away from the stud it's attached to so you can see the sides of the nails.
  • Slide in the blade of a reciprocating saw and cut off the nails.
  • Trace the old cable from the outlet back to the outlet that was feeding it power.
  • Disconnect the cable from there and pull it out of the wall if possible. If it's fastened inside the wall, just cut it off and leave it in place.
  • Run a new 12-2 cable from your breaker box to the new hole you cut in your drywall for the outlet under your vanity. Run another 12-2 cable from that location to the hole your old outlet box came out of.
  • Get a pair of "old work" single gang boxes. These are designed to slide into the small rectangular hole in your drywall and clamp onto it from the back with no need to cut giant holes that will require taping and repair.
  • Pull the cables into those boxes and fasten the boxes to the wall.
  • Install a new GFCI outlet under the sink using the directions in the package.
  • Install a new 15 amp outlet where the old one was located above the sink.
Related Topic