I have used an in wall splice with Romex 14/2 that has 3 ports (hot, neutral, ground) but i would now like to use the same method to splice a 12/3 cable. I'm unable to find a splice with 4 ports. Can I just use two regular 3 port splices and divide it 2-2 or 3-1?
Electrical – In wall splice for 4 wire cable
electricaljunctionsplicing
Related Solutions
Tyco makes NM splices which are concealable and acceptable under NEC for use for rewiring in an existing building.
NEC 2008
334.40 Boxes and Fittings.
(B) Devices of Insulating Material. Switch, outlet, and tap devices of insulating material shall be permitted to be used without boxes in exposed cable wiring and for rewiring in existing buildings where the cable is concealed and fished. Openings in such devices shall form a close fit around the outer covering of the cable, and the device shall fully enclose the part of the cable from which any part of the covering has been removed. Where connections to conductors are by binding-screw terminals, there shall be available as many terminals as conductors.
This is a very suspicious situation.
Adding a proper ground to every receptacle in the house is no small feat, it's weird that the handyman just casually mentioned that he did it. I believe the only correct way to do it would be to run a new ground wire of the proper size back to the service panel where it can be connected to the grounding rods.
Perhaps the handy man just used pigtails to ground to the box, as @SpeedyPetey says. Or maybe he connected the ground to the neutral, which would be good enough to fool an outlet tester. Or maybe he accidentally connected the ground to the hot side, which might explain your sparks. (Many appliances have their metal housing connected to ground. If the exterior of one of your appliances was actually electrified that would explain the sparks.)
If you have a simple outlet tester you could start with that, but it will not detect all faulty conditions like a ground / neutral swap or connection. You could also shut the power off and pull one of the receptacles off the wall, to see if you can tell what kind of grounding, if any, is actually there.
I suspect you will want to get an electrician and your real estate agent involved.
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Best Answer
You can't, but no need.
If you're referring to the Tyco Electronics Romex splice kits, yes, they make those for 3-wire w/ground as well as 2-wire w/ ground.
If you mean some other splice method, you have to read its instructions for whether it is suitable in-wall. As far as I know the Tyco is the only one that is UL-listed for buried in-wall splicing.
Further, use of in-wall splice blocks is restricted. It can only be done for repair, not extension for instance; and even then, only as a last resort when nothing else is possible. If it is at all feasible for you to re-run the entire cable run, or a run to an accessible point (somewhere you want a receptacle, for instance), you must do that instead.