What to do with open circuit

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gottodo1

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Hi Guys,
So I just ran two new circuits for a bathroom downstairs. I'm now left with a live wire that's connected to all the lighting in the basement. The wire sticks out of a hole through a beam by about 4 inches. To just leave it in place and terminate it I could just put it in an electrical box with a cover, right?
 
Better would be to go find the other end at the lights or switch in the basement and diconnect it there. Then twist the white and black together in your terminator box so if someone hooks it back up it will blow the breaker.
 
If it’s unused go find the other end and disconnect it there and pull it out. If you can’t pull it out it will just be a dead wire and you can cut it off and not worry about it. If you put it in a box the box has to come out to the wall and you have to be able to access it thru a cover plate. Can you get those short wires out to a box like that? Do you need an outlet where it’s at?
 
If you graph the time vs. money and
the time vs. hours
of

10/1/11: Bought the perfect house
11/1/12: 10k & 200 hours into the perfect house; Floors are done and cutting up the cement for the new bathroom that wasn't actually plumbed like the seller said it was
8/1/13: 30k & 400 hours into the perfect house that only needed new carpet and a coat of paint...
12/1/13: 35k & 500 hours I hope it ends soon

the money just takes off like a linear ramp at about 23K per year and, even worse, the hours are increasing slightly exponentially at about 270 hrs/yr.
There is no sign of leveling off. :(

Don't get pulled into
[ame]http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=sunk+cost+trap&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8[/ame]

There's nothing like other people's problems to make me forget my own. :D
 
I had a very similar problem ... somebody had run a light fixture by drilling through an exposed ceiling beam from above during a past remodel. Then they pulled their ROMEX down through the hole.

Owners wanted to hole to go away, especially the wire.

Fortunately, there was additional wiring work adjacent to this mess ... and I located the wire which had powered the thru-the-beam-light. Re-routed the power to a new light, leaving the old one dead.

Trimmed the wire flat to the beam, then pounded it back up as far as possible. Used a plug cutter to cut an exact 3/4" plug and a Forstner bit to drill up into the beam. Glued the plug into the hole, sanded it off, stained to match.

Done. Now you know what YOU need to do! :D
 
Wuzz, I updated my signature to reflect Feb 1st's total. Notice the slope decreased significantly. I think I've actually got everything I need to finish everything except texturing the walls in the bathroom... but I'm going to hire someone to do that because no matter how many times I try, I' refuse to buy a machine to put the popcorn/texturing on and the cans/rollers just don't match the rest of the house.
 
All, How do I determine how the crazy previous owner ran this wire? I've opened up all adjacent rooms light switches & light covers and disconnected all but the main branch and it's still energized. The wire looks like it could run to the laundry room which I disconnected both from the light switch and the light box. I'm beginning to think he spliced it into the main branch somewhere I won't be able to access it.
 
Well ... it is a light so it is probably on a 15A breaker. Attach a light tester to the wire and find the breaker by systematically turning them off one at a time.

Now, find out what else has been shut off. You only need to open those boxes. My suspicion is that there is a concealed junction box in the ceiling.

Idea: Since you are going to hire someone to do your bathroom ceiling (you aren't spraying popcorn, are you?? Bad) why not carve into the basement ceiling to see where your mystery circuit goes? Hell, its only drywall!

Not being flippant here ... "sometimes you have to make a bit of a mess to fix the larger mess." -- Villa's 1st Rule of DIY :D

HOLES.jpg
 
CMV,
I'll consider it, I figured that was about what you'd say for cutting holes but I was hoping for something different. I've already isolated the circuit and checked all the nearby locations it could have been fed in so it'll probably be alot of a mess. I just really hate texturing things to match because it never QUITE looks right if I do it myself.

The guy I want to hire will probably spray popcorn on as that is what the rest of the basement has. Also here they use "orange peel" on the walls... I miss my AZ house with stucco and real texturing but it is what it is.
 

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