After 16 months, my home renovation is nearing a happy milestone: I’ll be painting the walls soon. Before brush hits bucket, though, I need to fix the electrical outlets. Nearly every one of them is a mess: Either the socket is loose, so that it sinks into the wall when I plug anything in, or the whole outlet has come unmoored, so that it threatens to leap out of the wall when I pull out a plug. And almost all the cover plates are too small, leaving jagged plaster exposed. Paint won’t hide that.
If you live in an older home, you probably have a few wonky outlets too. It’s the kind of nuisance we often let fester — not important enough for an emergency call to an electrician, but not something that feels entirely safe to fix by ourselves.
Well, you can fix it yourself. And it won’t hurt a bit. In this month’s D.I.Y. column, we’ll learn how.
(A word to the wise: If this still feels outside your comfort zone, call that electrician.)
Even if all your outlets are structurally sound, you may have a few that could use updating. It’s a good idea, for example, to replace any older outlet near a sink or tub a with modern GFCI, or ground-fault circuit interrupter, outlet. They cut the power in milliseconds if an electrical device gets wet, lessening the risk of electrocution. If you have an outlet that doesn’t want to hold a plug securely, it merits replacing, too. (There’s a spring mechanism inside that grips the plug prongs, and over time the spring wears out.) These simple jobs are covered below, as part of the more involved repairs.
Outlets consist of three main components. Knowing how they work together is useful, and will help you visualize any repair you take on.
Inside the wall, behind the plug socket, is an outlet box, which is typically made of plastic. The box is nailed or screwed to a wall stud and provides a sturdy protective shell for the second component, the outlet itself, to nestle in. The outlet is ultimately there to act as an electrical conduit, of course, but it also plays a structural role: Metal tabs on its top and bottom are designed to catch on the wall’s outer surface as you screw it to the box inside, preventing the outlet from sinking into the wall. Finally, the wall plate screws onto the outlet, putting the electrical wires safely out of reach and contributing slightly to the rigidity of the whole assembly.
The post You Can Fix Those Annoying Plug Outlets appeared first on New York Times.
