Detect Electrical Wires In Walls

A magnetic stud finder detects the metal nails in the wall studs.

Detect electrical wires in walls.

Mark the wall at each location where the detector indicates that a wire is present. Next a remote lead with a longer wire into the transmitter and plug this lead into a separate wall socket. Tools needed to trace electrical wiring in walls you can use a range of tools to trace electrical wiring in your walls and some of the tools you already have might help you in your project too. When a wire is shorted out or is broken inside a wall and you need to locate it then a electric circuit tracer should help to find the wire.

Move the stud finder over the electrical wires. On metered finders when they are exactly over the wire the meter will read 120 volts or 220 if you are in the vicinity of stove wires. Use a remote return path to find wires in impenetrable walls. When the entire wall are has been checked link the marks together to trace the pathways of the hidden wires.

A fairly simple way to trace the path of a wire is to buy a 75 or 100 foot spool of single strand flexible not solid bell wire. The price range for a circuit tracer does vary however there are some fine stud sensors that have a built in feature that allows live circuits to be detected inside the wall behind sheet rock. A wire detector is simply a type of metal detector that is able to detect the presence of metallic objects in your walls. It also identifies specific wires in a set or groups of other wires in the same connection.

This tool will also detect any live wire running through the wall with a sharp beeping sound while the electrical led would indicate a live wire figure 5. Use the wire detector and concentrate on the specific areas where you suspect wires to be. Turn the electronic stud wire finder on and slowly move it left and right until the detector beeps indicating it has found an electrical wire. A reliable multi scanner with the ability to scan wood metal wire and pipes or any three combinations including wire can be purchased for around 65.

Use your transmitter to plug a single prong or lead into an electrical socket of the wall you re tracing. Turn the ac power inside your house off connect one end of the bell wire to the starting point in your investigation. One such tool is a stud finder. Step 6 calibrating the multi scanner.

Step 4 detect wires use your electric wire detector to find out exactly where the wires run through the walls.