Picking Electrical Outlet Locations

Video Transcript

" Hi I am Drew Fendy, master home inspector. I have been inspecting for over 24 years. Today we are going to describe how to install an electrical receptacle for Expertvillage.com. You have got a general location where you want to put your receptacle. We have got it situated so that we don’t have any problems with the studs in the wall because the box is going to have to fit in there. So we need to find the studs, and there are several ways of doing it. Here I put the Sheetrock up to show you what is going on. There are screws or nails holding the Sheetrock in the different locations. Obviously they mark where the studs are and we cannot put a receptacle where the stud is. So you are going to locate these, really easy once your Sheetrock can look closely on the wall and sometimes you can see the studs where the screws, and nails are. You can also get a stud finder or electronic stud finder when you slide it across it will indicate a beep or show light where the studs are. So choose, find out where your studs are and then you can choose the location somewhere as in-between to put our electrical receptacle. Now we do not ever want to put electrical receptor over an electric heater or over a stove or anything where the wire can come out and be on something when catching on fire. So keep that in mind when you are locating your receptacles. We want to be between the studs in here with the receptacle and we want to be away from the stud so that the receptacle can mount okay. The receptacle has these little wings on it and it can both pop up and lock it in place and obviously we don’t want to cut where the stud is because the receptacle is not going to fit. So we want it in here."