In my garage, which is attached to my house, I have standard flush-mount electrical box -- much like you'd find inside any house. The "guts" of the box and wiring lie behind the sheetrock in the garage.

I have my 110v compressor plugged into this box. I want to move the compressor to a corner location in the garage, which will allow for a more convenient and open garage layout for me. The problem is there's no electrical box near where I want to put the compressor. And I really don't want to run an extension cord between the compressor and the outlet.

So I'm soliciting ideas on how I might tap into one of the flush-mount boxes and extend ~6-8 feet of electrical wire via conduit to the location where I want to put my compressor. Very specifically, what's the cleanest way to get the wire from the existing box and bring it out to some new conduit?

I plan to keep the conduit on the interior of the garage (not within the sheetrock) to avoid tearing into the wall, and making this a much bigger project than it needs to be. And I'll run the conduit along the garage interior wall to my desired location. Then mount a standard metal outlet there.

I hope my question is clear. Input is appreciated. I'm VERY handy around the house. I have LOTS of tools and I know my way around electricity. Just never done anything like this before and I want to keep it clean.

TIA.

 

Hi,

Not sure about all of the code issues (it might be considered a wet location).

But, they do make surface run systems -- I've used them to add on, but only in my house. They are started at your existing outlet by mounting a box over the top of it. The box allows you to slide the surface mount stuff into it and connect the wires.

Otherwise, you can probably just mount some conduit on the outside of the sheetrock. I'm pretty sure that it's legal as it's done in businesses all the time. Not sure how you would connect it to your existing outlet without making a hole and adding the conduit -- might have to actually add a junction box to do it right.

Good Luck,

hj

 

You may be able to get a box extension which will protrude from the drywall far enough to connect conduit. Then you put your cover back on it and it functions just like it did when flush with the wall. Not great looking, but not terrible.

Another idea--how is that existing box fed? Can you go upstream and get to the wiring and add a junction box to take off from?

 

Most metal boxes have either threaded knock outs or junction rings to dap too , the box will stick out like mentioned , run the conduit up and over to where you want it , remember you'll have to bend metal or get the 90s in PVC with the PVC pipe.on your original box keep the plug there just leg it over to new box.

 

Thanks for the input, guys. It is MUCH appreciated.

Subsequent to these suggestions, I found the following YouTube video. It looks to be my best option. I'll have a couple of metal boxes hanging on my wall whereas all of the others are flush mount -- less than idea. But, really, I do think this is the "cleanest" option I have. The 2 metal boxes will be connected to each other with about 6 feet of conduit in a straight line, so no bending of conduit will be necessary.