I took down an old floodlight that stopped working. Now that the floodlight is down, I think I see why it is not working. If you look at the image below, it looks to me like the seal on the floodlight had broken and was allowing water behind it. We had a heavy thunderstorm last night and the board behind the flood light is pretty saturated. What concerns me the most is the "burn" marks that appear on the electrical "sheath." See this image – am I safe to use the same electrical chord even tho it appears to have burn marks on it? Or should I call an electrician to run me a new line to this location?
(The reason I suggest running a new line, is I have tried to pull the wire to see if I can cut off the burned section and still have enough wire to work with, but when I pull the wire there is no play in it)
EDIT
This is what I took off. No box included (which confused me, just wires from back of floodlight to wires coming out of wall)
Best Answer
This is EXACTLY WHY connections should be in a fixture or junction box! You may have had a short directly in contact with wood. If it were my house, I'd carefully open up that and after determining where exactly the wire goes (so as not to damage it further), cut an opening for a fixture box. A rotozip would be a good tool to use. Be sure the power is off to the circuit. You might be able to fit an "old work" box like this. This would also expose a bit more of the cable to inspect for damage. The wire might be a bit short to meet code, but that's something you could probably live with. If you're not comfortable doing this, yes, call a pro. Old work box