HiI want to cover a large section of a wall at home with wire. There is a plug socket (electrical outlet) in the wall. How can I ensure that I do not drill into electrical wiring within the wall? Is there some way to scan a wall to locate the wires?Thanks.
You want to cover a wall with wire? Just kidding, i figured out what you were trying to say. There are good answers here already. Just be sure you are putting screws into the studs only and you will be fine. What are you covering with? Sheetrock? Wood? The glue idea sounds good too, depending on what you are putting on the wall. Again...i dont know how to cover a wall with wire. I guess if you are an artist. LOL Good luck
The best way to trace where the wires in your wall are would be to use a toner. It consists of 2 pieces... a tone generator, and a small hand held amplifier. YOU NEED TO TURN THE CIRCUIT OFF BEFORE DOING THIS. That being said, you would shut off the breaker or remove fuse for that circuit, open the wall outlet box, pull out receptacle and attach leads from tone generator (they have alligator clips on them) to the white and black. Then you simply turn on the hand held amplifier and place it on the wall starting from the outlet and just keep going in the direction that provides the loudest sound.
Most wire is run in the middle of the 2X4 stud, that places it about 1 ?” from the finished surface, so use screws or nails that are less than 1 ?” long. I’m not sure what you are trying to achieve. There are some really good adhesives out there, so you might want to consider gluing your wires to the wall and avoid any risk of hitting wires. There are detectors available to find wires in walls. Some stud sensor makes that claim, but my experience is that they are not reliable for wires. Wire tracers that locate wires in the wall are very expensive and difficult to find. A specialty shop that carries equipment for telephone technicians would have them, not most home centres.
If the house is newer construction, it should have nail guards over the wire to prevent you from nailing into the wires. But that's should have guards. There are devices that you can use to sniff out wires inside the wall. Prices vary. Depending on how long the nails/ staples are that you are using, you should be ok just putting them in where ever, most of the wiring is pulled through the center of the studs, that gives you a nearly an inch on either side of where the wire is pulled through, if its in a 2X4 wall.
