How to retrieve wires from wall cavity?

N

Niallman

Registered User
Messages
157
Hi, any recommendations for retrieving wires from a cavity? Moved into a house recently and the two wall lights in the sitting room had been removed and the wires were pushed back into the cavity attached to string. The strings came out though leaving the wires behind. Theres one dimmer switch in the room controlling the ceiling light and I don’t know if it also controlled the wall lights. There aren’t any extra wires leading off from the two socket points in the room, so I’m guessing the wires are coming from the ceiling rose. Don’t suppose theres an easy way of sorting this out?!
 
You might have to enlarge the hole where the ceiling lights are, or perhaps a little above this to find the wires again. As for the switch, it'd be unusual to have a ceiling light and wall lights controlled by a single switch. Perhaps take a look behind the dimmer switch to see if you can locate any unconnected wires.
Leo
 
Hey nialman,
Annoying isn't it?! I always found a wire coat hanger opened out with the hook squashed a closer together and fish like a madman!!You will be able to widen the hole,not too much, in the wall a bit to make it easier for yourself because the fiting you put on will cover the hole.
On a serious note tho sounds to me that the wall lights are controled by the dimmer(should never be fed from sockets) and so the cable in the wall could be live so make sure the circuit is dead before fishing starts.If your unsure dont risk it.A good sparks will do it cheaply.
 
Yeah, annoying alright. Particularly when the people that used live there won't respond to by requests for info on what was there and if they know they way it was wired up.Thanks for the comments anyway, I'll try the coat hanger trick and hopefully snag the wires. Must remember to turn off the juice first!
 
If the coat hanger doesn't help - try to to charge the cable with low voltage like a small household battery (after turning off the main fuse of course!). This would help to detect the cable hidden within the wall from outside the wall with the aid of a metall/cable detector.
 
Bizarre. I went searching for the wires over the weekend and theres nothing there. Went fishing for them with long welding rods and didn't snag anything. Had the use of a Voltage/Metal/Stud detector as well and it didn't find anything anywhere in those walls. Completely puzzled because there definitely was lights there and why else would they leave strings hanging out of the holes?! Nuisance the previous owner won't respond to my questions.
 
Maybe they just stuck up lights to cover the holes!!! The string was designed to fool you into thinking they just took the light fittings!! Hence no reply from them on topic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top