Fixing new work drywall overcut?

[madosta]

So I put in a new work box in my utility room with some 3/4 plastic conduit out the wall to an LB to get my coax in to the house nicely and since the old work is like 2 feet behind my furnace return, it was a major PITA to work on!

I ended up over cutting the drywall so the tiny ears on the new work box barely hold. I bought a double gang to fit better by making the hole wider, but shorter. I haven't installed it yet and was wondering if there's something out there to fix this like an "oops ring" or something.

I've heard of "madison clips" or "box straps" but I don't know what they are or what they are called or where to get them, nor do I know how to use them! (This is where you guys come in!)

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Hmm...is it too late to use a Smart Box?

When it comes to old work, those are the only ones I like using. For the garage I think I'm gonna see if I can get some locally and use em for all the new work too.

I've made a few mistakes cutting drywall myself...Smart Box makes for a solid box no matter what, and I just make up the difference with Drywall Mud...little paint or if its not too close to other outlets, a larger faceplate and voila, cant even tell.

 

[madosta]

Hmm...is it too late to use a Smart Box?

When it comes to old work, those are the only ones I like using. For the garage I think I'm gonna see if I can get some locally and use em for all the new work too.

Unfortunately it's in an area that I can barely fit my hand. So smart boxes are out of the question right now. I don't know why they built the house and didn't run a conduit in for the coax, telco, etc. Oh well. Used to commercial telco closest I guess.

 

[Norcal]

Unfortunately it's in an area that I can barely fit my hand. So smart boxes are out of the question right now. I don't know why they built the house and didn't run a conduit in for the coax, telco, etc. Oh well. Used to commercial telco closest I guess.

If you live in a tract home the contractors chosen are the lowest bid, they will be wired as cheap as they can get away with.

 

[madosta]

I should mention it is for low voltage only and ever.

I guess there's a lot of options. Anyone want to come help? Haha.

Not sure if this would work or something like it. Hmmm...

 

[hammlm]

I should mention it is for low voltage only and ever.

I guess there's a lot of options. Anyone want to come help? Haha.

Not sure if this would work or something like it. Hmmm...

Those Caddy MPLS-1's are fine. I used them in the mid 90's exclusively -- when they came out, a huge improvement over the Caddy MP-1's. I stopped stocking the other MP1s. It's been a long time since I've been in that line of work, never seen or used the smart box, although it looks cool.


I'd give the MPLS-1 a try. I've hung six-packs (ethernet, coax, fiber, phone, etc) on single gang MPLS-1's and they stayed in place.

Good luck. Let us know how you make out.

 

[pop pop]

Use some wood striips (8" x 1/4" x 1 1/2") behind the drywall and just screw them in place from the front. Finish over.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Unfortunately it's in an area that I can barely fit my hand. So smart boxes are out of the question right now. I don't know why they built the house and didn't run a conduit in for the coax, telco, etc. Oh well. Used to commercial telco closest I guess.

I've done a lot of low voltage in addition to electrical for the companies I've worked for. I've rarely seen conduit used for low voltage in residential. The few times I have seen it used, it was because the homeowner or builder requested it.

As far as the low voltage Caddy mud rings go, I've used thousands of those and they work GREAT! Much quicker than trying to fumble around with a plastic junction box! And that particular model is better than some others out there as they have the fingers that a drywall screw grabs on to from the front making it a nice secure fit in the wall even if the cut in the drywall is a little oversized!

 

[Alchymist]

Perhaps these will work?
http://www.quinbyhardware.com/Products/SKU/6036834/SUPPORT-LOCK/ELECTRICAL/ELECTRICAL-BOXES/RACO

 

[madosta]

Perhaps these will work?
http://www.quinbyhardware.com/Products/SKU/6036834/SUPPORT-LOCK/ELECTRICAL/ELECTRICAL-BOXES/RACO

I get the concept behind the caddys, insert, bend, screw. These on the other hand, I have no idea... you break them apart and bend behind wall board?

 

[madosta]

I've done a lot of low voltage in addition to electrical for the companies I've worked for. I've rarely seen conduit used for low voltage in residential. The few times I have seen it used, it was because the homeowner or builder requested it.

As far as the low voltage Caddy mud rings go, I've used thousands of those and they work GREAT! Much quicker than trying to fumble around with a plastic junction box! And that particular model is better than some others out there as they have the fingers that a drywall screw grabs on to from the front making it a nice secure fit in the wall even if the cut in the drywall is a little oversized!

***** that more houses aren't on the grid by default. I live for a day when we all have fiber to our homes and it's fast, cheap, reliable, etc.

I think I'm going to give these a shot, then double gang will be my next attempt.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Perhaps these will work?
http://www.quinbyhardware.com/Products/SKU/6036834/SUPPORT-LOCK/ELECTRICAL/ELECTRICAL-BOXES/RACO

I have no idea what the heck those are! Never seen one of those before. Looks more like a girder hanger than a mud ring!

***** that more houses aren't on the grid by default. I live for a day when we all have fiber to our homes and it's fast, cheap, reliable, etc.

What does that have to do with using conduit to run low voltage communication wire into a home? Conduit costs $ and since low voltage wire is allowed to be run in the walls without conduit, why bother?

What do u mean "aren't on the grid"? With DSL or CHSI(cable high speed internet) available in most cities nowadays, many houses have high speed access to the 'cloud' available to them!

Why do u think fiber is SO great for home use? Gigabit is a viable and economical alternative which will become cheaper faster than fiber will! The reason fiber will probably never be cheap enough is because the actual cable, hardware and tools are so expensive! You know home much a fiber connector costs? Or a fiber tester? Much less a dual mode fiber/RJ45 switch or router?

Fiber to the curb, IMO, is overrated and will never be needed or fully utilized by the average or slightly above average house! I have CHSI @ 16mbps from Concraptic(aka. Comcast) and rarely max it out simply because most servers don't have enough bandwidth available to max out a connection like mine. And regardless, there's always bottlenecks in the internet that would limit the throughput! Plus, even the servers that would have the bandwidth necessary to max out my connection, have their bandwidth scaled and throttled so that a few clients don't hog it all. Comcast, as it is, has up to 150mbps available in some areas, IF you really need it!

I've ran fiber in some custom homes and to this day, the fiber in those houses still sits there unused! The one house I've seen fiber utilized in was in Palo Alto, CA (Silicon Valley). The house was owned by an HP engineer who liked to work from home. He had a huge rack of servers in his house and he had a direct VPN connection through his fiber line to HP's backbone!

I think I'm going to give these a shot, then double gang will be my next attempt.

Caddy makes double gang mud rings also! They're just the same as the single gang ones with the fingers!

 

[madosta]

What does that have to do with using conduit to run low voltage communication wire into a home? Conduit costs $ and since low voltage wire is allowed to be run in the walls without conduit, why bother?

What do u mean "aren't on the grid"? With DSL or CHSI(cable high speed internet) available in most cities nowadays, many houses have high speed access to the 'cloud' available to them!

Why do u think fiber is SO great for home use? Gigabit is a viable and economical alternative which will become cheaper faster than fiber will! The reason fiber will probably never be cheap enough is because the actual cable, hardware and tools are so expensive! You know home much a fiber connector costs? Or a fiber tester? Much less a dual mode fiber/RJ45 switch or router?

Fiber to the curb, IMO, is overrated and will never be needed or fully utilized by the average or slightly above average house! I have CHSI @ 16mbps from Concraptic(aka. Comcast) and rarely max it out simply because most servers don't have enough bandwidth available to max out a connection like mine. And regardless, there's always bottlenecks in the internet that would limit the throughput! Plus, even the servers that would have the bandwidth necessary to max out my connection, have their bandwidth scaled and throttled so that a few clients don't hog it all. Comcast, as it is, has up to 150mbps available in some areas, IF you really need it!

I've ran fiber in some custom homes and to this day, the fiber in those houses still sits there unused! The one house I've seen fiber utilized in was in Palo Alto, CA (Silicon Valley). The house was owned by an HP engineer who liked to work from home. He had a huge rack of servers in his house and he had a direct VPN connection through his fiber line to HP's backbone!

Fiber is the future. America is behind. Municipal fiber is gaining and projects like Google fiber make me smile. I HATE Comcast and you don't seem to be overly thrilled with them either. All I would like is a carrier neutral medium that anything digital can come across, spurring competition, that's all - and to relate it to this post, if new homes were actually being built, I would hope that they were built with easy raceways or conduit to get fiber into the house easily, in the future.

Just my $.02

 

[Alchymist]

I have no idea what the heck those are! Never seen one of those before. Looks more like a girder hanger than a mud ring!

Used to mount box in drywall when the box has the "plaster ears". There's also this:
http://www.hubbell-raco.com/feat_item.aspx?feature=975

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Fiber is the future. America is behind. Municipal fiber is gaining and projects like Google fiber make me smile. I HATE Comcast and you don't seem to be overly thrilled with them either. All I would like is a carrier neutral medium that anything digital can come across, spurring competition, that's all - and to relate it to this post, if new homes were actually being built, I would hope that they were built with easy raceways or conduit to get fiber into the house easily, in the future.

Just my $.02

America DOES have fiber, just not into MOST homes. The average person will NEVER utilize even a small% of fiber's almost infinite bandwidth! So, I'm still curious why u think fiber is needed inside a home. Yes, it is the future but how many people do U know that could actually justify the cost of fiber because they use a good % of the bandwidth available? Gigabit is more economical than fiber and 10x faster than hundred megabit. I doubt most people who have gigabit even fully utilize it! Are u telling me that you're someone that can actually utilize a good percentage of the bandwidth available over fiber? I doubt it. What bandwidth intensive computing do u do that could otherwise be accomplished over say gigabit?

Yes, I HATE Concraptic too! But I'm not willing to fork over a $500 deposit for ATT Uverse, which is the only other carrier available here! Concraptic used to provide a lot better customer service but I think the GE and NBC mergers have gone to their head! And now they're outsourcing their tech support and customer service to Mexico and the Philippines. Those people either don't know what they're doing, are poorly trained or both!

I've had issues with my modem getting kicked off line since last year. They kept blaming it on my modem when they couldn't get my modem to respond or communicate! Then, when I tried a rented modem, they blamed it on my wiring. Just to give them the benefit of the doubt, I had a tech come out to check MY wiring that I did. And much to their surprise it was a good job and I had good levels(of course; I do com. wiring)! The problem continued and then one day it dawned on me- I think their system keeps deleting my MAC address! Sure enough, the next time it happened, I called and just said my modem was disconnected. The lady said it was my modem cause they couldn't get it to respond! So I hung up and called right back and asked if my modem's MAC address was registered and they said no. I've done a search online and found many thousands of other customers who have this same recurring problem, including customers posting this same exact issue on Comcast's forums! You would think Comcast would get a clue, but I guess not! *RANT AND THREAD HIGH-JACK OVER* SORRY! :/

Anyways, back to the thread! Don't get me wrong! I'm all for having conduit in houses to pull com. cable through! That would have saved me a lot of headaches over the years having to drill holes! The point I was making was about the cost! On the custom homes I've worked on, I always suggested to the builder or homeowner to put in conduit and centralize(star topology) the wiring inside, like under a staircase! I've installed quite a few Leviton structured wiring panels. Having conduit piped to those was way easier than running the wire loose!