I'm moving our dryer in our laundry room, and the current plug will be too far away.

The current wiring is stapled to the studs and can't pull it into attic.

I'd like to wire in a junction box in the attic and run a new wire from the junction box to a new outlet in the laundry room. The current plug will not be used.

Is this possible?

Best way to do this?

Thanks

 

The first thing we need to determine is if the cable is 3 or 4 wires with ground. If 3 wires you will need to rerun the circuit. a 4 wire circuit could be spliced to relocate.

 

The plug has 4 wires: red, black, white, and uninsulated.

 

Not a plug. A plug is male. You have a receptacle

You can install a 4x4 metal box in the attic. Cut the cable as close to where it enters the wall and shove the stub into the wall so it can't be reused. Remove the receptacle and box or leave the box and cut the cable short and shove into the wall.

Run the cable that was previously going into the wall to the 4x4 box and secure with a Romex connector (cable clamp). Run your cable to the new receptacle into the 4x4 box and secure with a Romex connector. Leave one ground wire about 10" long and one about 5" long. Connect the two ground wires with a green (ground) wire nut feeding the longer wire through the hole in the end of the green wire nut. Connect the ground wire feeding through the green wire nut to a green ground screw in the 4x4 box.

Connect black to black, red to red, white to whit using wire nuts. Cover the box with a blank cover plate. Note box must be fastened to a framing member.

 

I might suggest to cut the cable a foot or so away from the top of the wall in case someone decides to move the dryer back to where it was.mthis would allow enough to make a splice to the old cable.

 

Forgive my ignorance, but do the plastic junction boxes had a ground screw like the metal?

As mentioned, I'm going to leave the current wire accessible in case the need ever comes about to return to using that plug.

 

No ground screw on the plastic.
I would advise using a metal box though. Metal provides sturdier mounting and a more secure way of attaching the strain reliefs. Just better all around when using cable larger than #12.

 

When I wrote 4x4 box I meant metal.

 

Use a deep box. You need at least 21 cubic inches of capacity.