Want to cover telephone jack and outlet with new cabinet


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Old 02-18-11, 06:48 PM
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Want to cover telephone jack and outlet with new cabinet

Before you go crazy, I have learned that it is against code to cover power outlets. So here is my thinking.

Can you cover telephone jacks or do they follow the same electrical code requirements?

Here is the overall situation. We currently have an upper and a lower cabinet. We are getting a 90" pantry to replace it so there is no use in having the telephone jack or the outlet. The only place to move them would be behind the fridge. Once again useless. So they are not needed.

The other complication is the outlet is daisy chained to others. Here is my thought, pull the electrical wires up the wall into my attic(slab house so all electrical flows through the attic anyways). Once pulled into the attic, I would install a junction box, go black to black, white to white, then attach the ground to the junction box. Give it a blank plate.

Is there any specific place I need to put that box in the attic?

If I need to pull the telephone line up the wall do I need to put it in a box or not? Can I just cap the wires?

I appreciate any advice you can give.
 
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Old 02-18-11, 07:19 PM
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Originally Posted by jleonar

Can you cover telephone jacks or do they follow the same electrical code requirements?
...
The other complication is the outlet is daisy chained to others. Here is my thought, pull the electrical wires up the wall into my attic(slab house so all electrical flows through the attic anyways). Once pulled into the attic, I would install a junction box, go black to black, white to white, then attach the ground to the junction box. Give it a blank plate.

Is there any specific place I need to put that box in the attic?

If I need to pull the telephone line up the wall do I need to put it in a box or not? Can I just cap the wires?
So you have two things to relocate: A telephone jack and an 120-volt electric receptacle?

Generally the phone jack could be abandoned in place, but if it were daisy-chained you would want to pull it back to the attic for future access. Unless local codes are more stringent, you probably do not need a box for it up there, although depending on insulation conditions you might want that. If it's just that jack connected as a spoke to a central hub, just disconnect that cable at the hub and leave it at that. But, get all that done and verify that everything else is working OK before you cover anything.

For the electrical, without a floor plan I can't tell you whether abandoning the receptacle would put you out of code compliance. It's quite possible you would need to add a receptacle on either side of what sounds like a new floor-to-ceiling pantry. What is the on-center measurement from the receptacle you want to abandon, to the closest receps on the left and right of that recep? And what is the width of the new pantry?
 
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Old 02-18-11, 08:02 PM
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Why not just cut a hole in the back of the cabinet, to access the boxes. A receptacle in the cabinet may come in handy for an xfrmr for uc lights.
 
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Old 02-18-11, 08:14 PM
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Biggest problem is cables usually run horizontal not vertical except for the first box so there may be no cable to pull up.

Here is my thought, pull the electrical wires up the wall into my attic(slab house so all electrical flows through the attic anyways
I'm sure you know but in case you don't the cable is stapled in at least a couple of places to the stud so it is more then just pulling it up assuming it does run vertical..

I would install a junction box, go black to black, white to white, then attach the ground to the junction box
The two cable grounds would be tied together. If you use a plastic box you don't need to ground to it. If you do use a metal box you would add a pigtail to the ground wires and connect that to the box.

Justin's solution may be simplest though you may have to add one for spacing if the AHJ rules it no longer counts because it is in a cabinet.
 
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Old 02-19-11, 05:11 AM
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I agree with Justin. Just cut a hole in the back of the cabinet to allow access to the the outlet and phone jack. We do it all the time and is much easier to going in the attic, plus the cables are likely strapped so pulling up will be quite difficult. You could even bring them forward using box extenders and mount them flush to the back of the cabinet for a clean, finished look if you want.
 
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Old 02-19-11, 06:09 AM
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I think I might go with a combo of the advice here. I really don't need the phone jack as we do not have a landline phone. Additionally, if we sold the house, there is no place for a phone in that area unless you remove the pantry cabinet and put countertop back.

Here is a layout of the kitchen

http://i.imgur.com/giiL3.png

The outlet and telephone jack are on the right side of the fridge behind the pantry(U242490). The other electrical jacks around the area are behind the fridge and in between the two windows on that wall. Plenty of power options. If I were going to have a telephone, I would personally put it on the wall between the two windows.

But personally, we don't need it so I think pulling it in the attic would make the most sense so that it could be relocated later without having to pull a cabinet down.
 
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Old 02-19-11, 09:00 AM
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Originally Posted by jleonar
if we sold the house, there is no place for a phone in that area unless you remove the pantry cabinet and put countertop back.
...
The outlet and telephone jack are on the right side of the fridge behind the pantry(U242490). The other electrical jacks around the area are behind the fridge and in between the two windows on that wall.
...
pulling it in the attic would make the most sense so that it could be relocated later without having to pull a cabinet down.
Thanks for the drawing. So if I understand this correctly, U242490 is the pantry ... 24" wide, 90" high. You have one on either side of the Fridge which is under cabinet W362418, centered between the two pantries.

Presumably the recep between the two windows would be sufficient for that wall, which I suppose would be in the dining area, since there is no counter, but don't take my word for it. Hopefully one of the pros will tell you if another recep might be required between the right-hand pantry and the existing recep.

If the wire in the existing telephone box is Cat 5 or better, you could use it to connect your fridge to your network ... or for your pantry scanner that makes up your shopping list for you.
 
 

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