I already had electrical outlets installed prior to sheetrock...

I have a major renovation going on and during framing, plumbing and electrical rough in I got sick of dragging a 100' extension cord everywhere and have to use those dim work lights after dark so I went ahead and install about 80% of the outlets.

Now I am ready to do sheet rock I am wondering if I should remove the outlets so they don't get damaged during sheet rock installation or get rolled on later when I paint the walls...or should I just tape over them and peel the tape off later?

It will be some work to remove these outlets from the boxes and install them back later, we are talking about 72 outlets.

Thanks,

MC

 

yes, you need to remove the receps. The rock almost never matches the front of the box exactly so they need to be removed, if for nothing else, to reset them on the face of the rock.

If you are pre-cutting the holes for receps, you can simply pull the 6-32 screws that hold the recep and stick the receps in the box. The one end will stick out so it only works with precutting the rock.

and please, turn off the power while you are doing this until you install the receps correctly again.

and to 72 receps; power tools, the only way to fly.

 

72 receptacles! That's nearly 900 linear feet of wallspace. Is this a commercial concern or a residence? If you have them mostly installed, I would do as nap said and just loosen them, sticking them in the box and rescrewing them once the rock is in.

 

Unless you are a very good drywaller and can cut those boxes out exactly right... I think you should unscrew the outlets and cut the wires, shoving them into the back of the box so that you can cut out the holes for the boxes with a router. Which takes longer... wiring 72 outlets, or taping and putting 2 or 3 coats of mud around 36 poorly cut outlet holes? (giving you the benefit of the doubt that you'd get about half of them cut nicely)

Unfortunately you got the cart in front of the horse on this one. You could have wired maybe one outlet per room for convenience sake. You do have more than one extension cord, right?

 

OK I will remove the receptacles.

How about ceiling sheet rock? How would they cut the round holes for the recessed lights already in place or the square holes for the bathroom exhaust fans?

I don't think they can use a zotozip to route the holes it would destroy the housing, do they precut or there is another way?

yes 72 outlets I got carried away and installed them all. Oh well live and learn.

 

As you install the ceiling sheetrock, measure from each edge to the center of the light location. Before you install screws in the immediate area of the box, use a rotozip and insert the bit in the interior portion of the box, move it to the edge, jump over the edge and zip around the outer perimeter. The plug will fall out and the sheetrock will jump in place with an almost perfect cut. You won't cut the boxes if you don't use too much pressure, so just take it easy.

 

chandler is correct, in most cases but just to let you know what can happen if you get a bit overzealous with the roto-zip.

On the job I am currently, everything is steel. Steel boxes, steel plaster rings etc.

the rockers actually roto-zipped off one of the ears for the 6-32 device screw

they have also figured out how to cut the wires in the back of a 2 1/8" box with a 3/4 plaster ring on the front of it.

 

ha ha! Nice, nap! Sounds like you've got a top-notch drywall crew there.

I bet they can also hit electrical wires and plumbing by nailing and screwing through the protective steel plates?

Maybe Chandler or I should have added that one running the router kind of needs to know what he's doing. Beer 4U2

 

We have not hotted up much of anything yet but I am really expecting some repair work in our future.

This is a hospital I am working on. The rockers figured out how to put holes in the med gas piping (copper pipe) that feeds the headwall units in the patient rooms. Luckily (hopefully) the 3 that were seen before the rock got put on everything were the only 3.