I've been remodeling my 1924 house, and have been slowly re-wiring, and splitting up an old "mega circuit" where half the house is all wired into one circuit. In the process of doing so I discovered many hidden boxes buried in the basement ceiling. Judging by the type of wiring (cloth wire in bx) I'm guessing this dates to sometime from the 30s to the 50s.
I know this isn't right, and my goal is to remove all this old wiring, and de-energize this mess. The wiring connections inside these hidden boxes seem fine and not loose, though the wiring scheme itself seems to have been done by a madman channeling Rube Goldberg (which is much of the reason I'm re-doing it).
I'm curious about the larger picture here. What are the inherent dangers of a hidden box if the wiring connections are solid, but just foolishly covered up? It makes maintenance impossible without destroying things, but is that the extent of the problem? (And yes, I'm thinking about what old circuits I want to put AFCI breakers on)
Best Answer
I have heard and even participated in lengthy debates on this subject. The code is very clear, and the difficulty in maintenance and troubleshooting is of course easy to see.
Many of the arguments go down the path of, "Aren't there other things permitted in the code that are just as likely or more likely to create a hazard?" But that's not the question here. The question is, what is the actual hazard created?
The same box and the same splices with the same connections in the same wall with an accessible cover plate is compliant; a layer of drywall over that cover plate and it's no longer compliant. How does the layer of drywall over the box make it more hazardous?
In fact, you can put a box in between the joists above a recessed light where you can get to it by removing the light. That's considered accessible. How is that more hazardous than the same box between two studs?
The answer is, it is not inherently more hazardous.
Don't do it; it's still against code, and still a bad practice; but it's not inherently dangerous.