Moving a bathroom light

The light over the bathroom sink was a problem.  First, the light was centered on the wall - not on the sink.  The sink is not centered on the wall as the sink vanity doesn't take up the entire wall.

The second problem was when we went to hang the mirror.  We found that the light hung down over the mirror.  This was a surprise as I had held up the mirror on the pre-sheet rocked wall so my uncle Larry could determine where to place the switches and light.  The light fixture base was a few inches above the mirror.  However the lights themselves hang down below the fixture's base and therefore hung over the mirror. 

Tammy was in tears and very unhappy.

So, after I got work completed on a few other items in the bathroom, I turned my attention on how to fix this light problem.

I couldn't just cut a new opening just for the light and move the light fixture was it was attached to a metal bar.  And the wire wasn't long enough to move the light fixture.  If I moved the light I would have to re-wire it.

The only solution was to cut out the wall.  I hated to do this on a new nice wall but I had no choice.


Here is how the wiring looked like before we had originally sheet rocked the wall.  I am glad my uncle Curt thought of taking photos of the electrical work before we sheet rocked the wall.  With the photo I knew what I was working with, and I had an idea where to cut the sheetrock.

Before my uncles and I had installed the sheet rock we had measured the location of the studs.  What we didn't measure was the location of the stringers.  I wanted to cut the sheet rock on the studs and stringers so I wouldn't have to build support for the cut sheet rock when I put it back on the wall.  But where was the stringer just above the switch box?

Notice the dark stud my uncles placed on the wall to make a stud every 16 inches?  Notice how the dark stud is broken up by the stringers that was used to frame the old medicine cabinet?  As I cut through the sheet rock with my utility knife I felt when the grain of the wood changed from vertical to horizontal.  That is how I found the lower stringer.  Bingo!

The switch and outlet.

Here is the light in the wrong location.  Notice... not over the sink.  And no room for my big mirror.

(Note the wall color change is because I stitched two photos together to make this one photo.)

Now that I made the opening it was time to remove the old wiring and install new longer wiring.  I had found that even after removing the staples holding the wire to the stud the old wire was three inches too short to reach the new light location.  Argh!

Then it was on to the next problems.   Study the following photo.  Notice:

1. Two wires - one hole.  Why not a hole for each wire?  I don't know.  Two wires in one hole made it harder to remove the old and install the new wire.


2. The hole is to the right side of the electrical box and not centered above the box.  That made moving the wires in and out harder.  Why the hole is on the side and not further out like in the stringer above this one, I don't know.


3. The box is plastic and the openings for the wires are push in tabs.  That is how the wires are held in place.  I would have preferred a metal box as it is sturdier and I wouldn't have to be careful not to break the plastic box.   Clamps to hold the wire would have been better than the push tabs as tabs made it hard to remove the wire.


4. Lastly, the biggest problem.  The wire on the left came from the circuit breaker.  The wire on the right goes to the light.  Ah... but in the box the left (circuit breaker) wire entered the box opening on the right.  The right (light) wire entered the box opening on the left.  Yup.  The wires crossed.  And the wire I needed to replace was bent as it went from the left side of the box to the hole in the stringer.

Why couldn't there be two holes through the stringer, else the hole be centered over the box, or the left wire go left and the right wire go right?  Anything to make it easier for me.  Nah.  Not gonna happen.

I couldn't pull the wire out of the box no mattered which direction (in or out of the box) I pulled.  Especially as the wire had a big kink in it.   I had to cut the hole larger.  Easier said than done.  I carefully used my poke saw to enlarge the hole while being careful not to cut the wire to the circuit breaker.

The cutting was very slow going which gave me plenty of time to curse this setup.

Finally, I had enlarged the hole enough to move the wire.  Because I had a stringer and sheet rock above the box I tied the new wire to the old wire so I could pull the new wire though the box and wall.  Having an outlet box with tabs didn't make this easy.

It took a long time but I finally got the light moved.

Then it was time to replace the sheet rock.

The fixed wall with the new light location.  Up and over.  Tammy is not happy as she felt I did a crappy job fixing the sheet rock.  After she painted the wall we found the paint magnified the mud imperfections and did not hide them.  The mud job to seal the sheet rock wasn't as smooth as I thought prior to painting.

Fortunately the mirror hides much of the cut.

As you can see the lights are now centered above the sink and are above the mirror.

What a pain.  No wonder I don't have my shower done yet.

With the mirror hung I was finally able to shave off my beard.  I had started the beard when we started the bathroom remodel in May.  Tammy didn't like my beard and couldn't wait for me to shave it off.