Electrical short problem/question...

I was replacing some cedar siding on the 2nd story of my house over the weekend. On my sons room, I replaced the west and south sides. When I came inside I noticed some outlets and his entire room was not energized.

I checked the breaker box and the breaker for that bedroom was tripped. I attempted to reset and it tripped again.

After thinking about what to do next, I went outlet to outlet trying to locate the short. I did find the isolate the short and it was in an exterior between 2 outlets...

My first move was to remove any nails that did not hit a stud. Yes, I missed the stud several times. To my defense, it was on the gable side in the trusses where they do not run on 16" centers. I removed about 5 nails and reset the breaker. All was good.

Now the REAL question is what I should do next.

I have had 2 opinions:

1) remove the siding and fix the spliced wire (major pain).
2) let it go, it should not be a fire hazzard and that is what breakers are for.

Neither are professional opinions.

If I do decide to fix the short, how should it be done?

 

Do not let this go. It is a fire waiting to happen.

You have no choice but to replace the wiring. You can leave the wiring in place and abandon it on either end, but you must electrically remove the damaged piece of wire.

 

OK, it needs to be repaired.

What is the recomended method.


Replacing the wire?

Patching the wire?

Installing and box and splice?

I am pretty sure that I can locate the exact spot by replacing the nails that I removed and then remove that siding board.

 

Probably best to replace the cable. You can splice it but the splice needs to be in a junction box and be accessible. There also needs to be at least 6 inches of wire in the box. So you will probably need 2 boxes and cable added between them to gain the length required. You can't make the splice and cover it over with siding.

 

Cut out a 12" wide strip of drywall between the 2 receptacles and replace the cable from the inside. Patch your drywall. It's the easiest way. I say 12" only because will hopefully be wide enough to expose the cable, but you might need to open up the wall more.