Thinking Outside The Box:
Access To Wiring
Out here in the wild west, in
California & Nevada at least, new houses are built with the
service panel access on the outside of the garage. I don't know why
they do it this way. I'm originally from Wisconsin where service
panels are commonly found in basements. But we don't get basements
out here either. Anyway we have to go outside to open up the panel
& do anything with it. Unfortunately, the opening provides no
access to the top of the service panel where one would install a
cable clamp for Romex for a new branch circuit. My garage is
finished so there is gypsum board over the other side of the service
panel. To gain access to the desired area above the service panel, I
took my trusty wallboard saw & very slowly & carefully,
groping behind with my hand once I had established a small hole so
as to avoid welding without a mask, I cut out the wallboard
covering the desired area. Now I have the access I need.
Now what I would like to do is get
a metal door that I could install to cover that area safely and yet
easily open it up again when I need to. What I envision is something
like a service panel box but with no back to it. Do you folks know
of any such product that I could buy for this purpose? Have you ever
dealt with such a project? If so, how did you do it?
Any suggestions will be greatly
appreciated.
- Gene L.
- Las Vegas, NV
Most
of us just use a piece of plywood a couple of inches bigger than
the hole and screw it to the studs surrounding the cut-out portion
of drywall. But that might not meet building codes, and it's kinda
cheap-n-cheesy.
I suspect there are all sorts of
access doors and access hatches you can get. In hotel maintenance
I have seen (and crawled through) numerous metal access hatches.
These are general purpose access doors, used to reach plumbing
shutoff valves or air filters or gain entry to crawl spaces above
hallways, etc. There should be something available (perhaps in the
commercial construction supply industry) that is rated for outdoor
use. Maybe you can contact some
heating-ventilating-air-conditioning supply houses to see if they
sell any access hatches.
Recently I saw some small access
hatches for sale at Home Depot, believe it or not. But they were
plastic and kinda flimsy.
I know there are many large
outdoor-rated electrical cabinets available. You might be able to
get just a cover panel from such an enclosure. Or maybe you could
get a larger electrical enclosure and cut out the back. My
suggestion would be to call some local electrical supply houses
(the ones that mainly sell to contractors) and see what they have
that might meet your needs. Some of these places balk at dealing
with do-it-yourselfers, but all you are doing is creating access
in a wall (who knows, it could be to make the work easier for the
electrician). Explain your story and see if they are willing to
help.
There are many products out
there, they just are not commonly used in residential
construction, so the best place to start would be a
commercial-oriented supplier.
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
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