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Is this a "I'm not going back to Lowes again" wiring job?

Blanky

Blanky

Platinum Member
Bought this house new not too many years ago. I went yesterday to replace one of the outdoor lights with a motion detector light. Got it wired up and realized it doesn't entirely cover the blue tabs in this box.

8ErsCaJ.jpg


It looks to me like the original electrician used what he had on hand, which is why he drilled his own hole in the box, and the blue tabs' screw holes are not being used for anything.

The original light had absolutely no waterproofing at all; no gasket like this light has (you can see the gasket at bottom of pic). It simply went over top and has endured lots of rain for years without any apparent problem.

Anyway, I'm thinking I will just trim the tabs so that my new faceplate covers them up and put a dab of silicone to help things along.
 
Looks like a post siding install, I say siding because I see the J channel on the left, so yeah he probably used what he had or the previous home owner did it.
 
I think that's an improper box for mounting fixtures too. I especially like the drywall screw holding it in place.
 
That's a typical install, most outdoor lights don't have a gasket.

You'd use some caulking if you needed it.

I prefer metal boxes for anything more than a switchplate/recepticle; but they are functionally the same.
 
I looked closer at the second light like this. You can see in the first pic in fact that this one was the same way; the round half-dome on the original wasn't big enough to cover the blue tabs. They snapped off very easily due to UV damage over time. Motion light is just enough to cover them now, so now it looks fine installed 🙂

Assuming only a small hole was made in the house wrap for the wire any water that gets in behind ought to run down in front of it anyway I guess. Thanks for the posts!
 
Just had to post here to say I hate motion lights. Every night when I walk down the fucking middle of our street with my dogs the neighbor's lights pop on one after another. Annoying as shit because the dogs are all "what's up! what's up!" every time one goes on.
 
My outdoor lights on the side of my house (on vinyl siding) look exactly like yours when removed. Seems that this is a common 'corner cutting' method that most people will never see (unless you get an inspector to take the lights down and look). Kind of like ceiling fans being attached to regular light junction boxes. Nobody looks at this stuff 99.99% of the time (statistic made up on the spot), even when inspecting! 😛
 
That's weird that they'd use a rectangle box for a light fixture. You could maybe make some kind of decorative collar to hide it then install the light over. They make some for indoor lights to look more fancy, you could do something like that but use a material that will work ok indoors like real wood that's painted. You'll want to put plenty of caulk to seal that up too from driving rain.
 
Markbnj said:
Just had to post here to say I hate motion lights. Every night when I walk down the fucking middle of our street with my dogs the neighbor's lights pop on one after another. Annoying as shit because the dogs are all "what's up! what's up!" every time one goes on.
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Agree, that's annoying. Their sensitivity should be turned down. This is for the back of the house in any case 🙂
 
Blanky said:
Agree, that's annoying. Their sensitivity should be turned down. This is for the back of the house in any case 🙂
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I don't think people quite understand how many deer are wandering around setting them off at night around here. I'm a night-owl and don't usually go to bed until 3 AM, and they are turning on all around us all the time. One of the first thing's I did when I got here was take down the motion lights the last guy put in. A switch works great.
 
Markbnj said:
I don't think people quite understand how many deer are wandering around setting them off at night around here. I'm a night-owl and don't usually go to bed until 3 AM, and they are turning on all around us all the time. One of the first thing's I did when I got here was take down the motion lights the last guy put in. A switch works great.
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Yeah, leave everything dark so the burglars don't worry about being seen. Of course most burglaries occur in the daytime when people are at work and school.
 
There's nothing against using gang-style boxes for lighting, however:

Drywall screws are a huge no-no.
Center strap, as a non current carrying metal part needs to be bonded to ground.
Fixture needs to be gasketted or otherwise sealed from rain.

Wish I could use the old carlon blues up here in canadia.
 
stormkroe said:
There's nothing against using gang-style boxes for lighting, however:

Drywall screws are a huge no-no.
Center strap, as a non current carrying metal part needs to be bonded to ground.
Fixture needs to be gasketted or otherwise sealed from rain.

Wish I could use the old carlon blues up here in canadia.
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The original center strap had a screw to allow grounding, but the screw was not attached to anything, just screwed into the strap 🙂
 
Oh right never even thought of grounding, with metal boxes this happens by default because the whole box is your ground (the ground wire would be connected to the screw inside the box) but in this case the ground wire needs to go on the fixture or the little bar. More than likely you'd just screw it to the little bar as the fixture will be grounded through it.
 
It's not uncommon to use a 1 gang handy box to mount an outdoor light. Those are metal though. That blue plastic box is supposed to be used indoors with sheetrock and are used for "old work".

Trim the tabs, caulk, and move on. It's not worth ripping out.
 
who? said:
Yeah, leave everything dark so the burglars don't worry about being seen. Of course most burglaries occur in the daytime when people are at work and school.
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That could definitely be a consideration, but not around here.
 
paperfist said:
What's with the blue wire nuts, shouldn't they be yellow?
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Blue is usually water-proof, but color most often indicates what size wiring the nuts can handle. Yellow is just one of the most common because it matches with household wire gauge splices.
 
alkemyst said:
Blue is usually water-proof, but color most often indicates what size wiring the nuts can handle. Yellow is just one of the most common because it matches with household wire gauge splices.
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Wow had no idea there were water proof wire nuts. I'll have to go back and redo my outside lights.
 
He's just a creative electrician I don't see the problem. Hey honey, were you making barbecue chicken? No? Whats that smell?
 
paperfist said:
Wow had no idea there were water proof wire nuts. I'll have to go back and redo my outside lights.
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They have a little goop in them, you can probably inject the same stuff into your existing ones rather than redo them all...not sure what the stuff is, probably just dielectric grease.
 
Engineer said:
My outdoor lights on the side of my house (on vinyl siding) look exactly like yours when removed. Seems that this is a common 'corner cutting' method that most people will never see (unless you get an inspector to take the lights down and look). Kind of like ceiling fans being attached to regular light junction boxes. Nobody looks at this stuff 99.99% of the time (statistic made up on the spot), even when inspecting! 😛
Click to expand...
Uh, inspectors aren't suppose to dismantle the joint in the course of their inspection!
 
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