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Originally Posted by Sunbeam lodge
Help!
I am expanding a porch and I need to move an outlet 3 or 4 feet. The wire is not long enough to reach the new outlet. How can I lengthen the wire? can I run the short wires into a new box, connect the new wire and then out to the new outlet.
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If the wall where the existing outlet is located will remain where it is, I'd suggest that you leave that outlet and its box in place. That way you can feed the power to the new outlet from the existing outlet. All outlets have two "hot" screws and two "common" screws, so you can probably connect the new wire directly to the existing outlet. Then connect the bare (ground) wires together, and feed the power that way to the new outlet. Just be absolutely sure to connect black-to-black (hot) and white-to-white (common).
If for some reason you don't want the existing outlet to remain, unless you're going to remove the wall where it's located you can still use its box as a junction box to connect the existing wires to the new wires. Then you can install a solid plastic cover plate in place of the outlet cover plate. Either way, whether you keep the existing outlet itself in place or not you can use the existing outlet box as a junction box for the new cable. Also, Paugus Bay Resident is correct that all junction boxes must be accessible, and using the existing outlet box to make your connections would satisfy that requirement.
P.S. Don't forget to turn the circuit breaker off before you do any wiring!
