Damage to electrical wires is a pretty common occurrence in household circuitry. In such a case, you must know how to fix a cut electrical wire in a wall.
The first step to fixing a cur wire is to properly detect where the issue has occurred. To do so, you will need a few sets of special tools. After detecting the exact location of the fault, you can move to fix the issue within the wall.
This article will detail the entire process of fixing a cut wire inside a wall so that if you are ever in such a pinch, you can attempt to fix the issue yourself.
How to Fix a Cut Wire Inside a Wall?
The steps to fixing a cut electrical wire inside of a wall are provided below in a step-by-step manner for your convenience.
Gathering Necessary Equipment
In order to fix a cut wire within a wall, there are a few special tools needed along with the common ones. The list of the needed equipment is provided below.
List of needed equipment:
- Tone Generator and Probe
- Drywall Saw
- Fish Tape
- Non-Contact Voltage Tester
- Electrical Connectors/Tape
- Electrical Boxes
- Wire Cutters
- Rubber Gloves and Boots
Locate and Fix the Cut Wire
Before we can move on to fixing the damaged segment of the wire we must locate it. We can locate it using a tone generator. The step-by-step process is provided below.
Steps to locate the cut wire segment
- The black wire of the tone generator has to be clipped on either the black or red wire of the damaged circuit.
- Make sure to put it in the “Tone” (Fig 2) mode before proceeding further.
- Push the button on the probe to turn it on.
- Keep moving it along the wall until you stop getting a signal. This is an indication that it is where the damage is located.
- Mark the location.
- However, if you do not find the stopping point of the signal, connect the black clip of the tone generator to the other wire and try again.
How do you fix a cut that has been wired? While difficult, it is not impossible.
Steps to fixing the cut wire
- Once you have marked the location of the damage, mark out two other locations approximately a foot apart along the path of the damaged electrical wire.
- Make two holes here in the size of electrical boxes using a drywall saw, or power tools of your preference.
- Cut the wire through both of these holes, and make sure to not lose the ends.
- Attach the electrical boxes and put both wires through them.
- Remove the middle piece. You will see signs of damage on it. This is the damaged segment of your wire.
- Acquire a new piece of wire, longer than the piece you removed.
- Use the wire cutters/strippers to strip a portion of the wire to make it easier to connect.
- The next step is to connect them. Can you splice electrical wire in a wall? No, they need to be in an electrical box with a cover plate to provide future access to the splice point.
- Connect one end of the new wire to one end of the previous wire. Can electrical tape fix a cut wire? You may use them, but make sure to make the connection secure.
- Using the fish tape, pull the other end of the new wire through the other hole.
- Connect the other end of the new wire to the other side of the wire.
- Make sure the connections are secure.
- Use the tone selector again on both the black and red wire to make sure that a signal can be detected all the way through.
Now you know how to fix a cut electrical wire in a wall.
How Can I Protect Electrical Wires Inside of a Wall?
Protecting your wires is the most important step in trying to manage indoor electrical wiring. If left unchecked, your wires can end up frayed and exposed, leading to ruined appliances and devices.
I will list a few precautionary steps below so that you may protect your electrical wires within your household walls.
Precautionary Steps to Protect Electrical Wires inside of Walls
- Reinforced Plastic Bindings: These are used to group cables so they don’t entangle with one another and are a good start at protecting them from light damage.
- Braided Sleeves: These sleeves are made to be flexible from polyamide fibers and are excellent and dealing with heat and abrasion damage in your electrical wires.
- Cable Ducts: Ducts for your cables can be made of anything from plastic to metal to concrete and act as a way to protect your cables from mechanical and environmental damage.
- Plastic Conduits: Plastic conduits are designed for lighter mechanical and chemical protection in your cable. You can get these to be flexible or reinforced with a metal sleeve, depending on the type of wire you are trying to protect.
If you follow these steps, you can ensure a degree of protection for the electrical wires that are within your walls.
If you wanted to know how to fix a cut electrical wire in a wall, this article should have provided you with the necessary instructions to do so. However, this is an extremely difficult process and might require the help of several power tools.
If you have no prior experience working with such equipment, it is advised to leave the task up to professional electricians. It can help to know how much they charge for the task.