Fixin' to get homicidal...

[Uncle Cracker]

I'm running a couple of new circuits to the shop this weekend... Doesn't help that my attic is about 300 degrees... But figured it would still be a fairly easy job, because the roof pitch is high and the center space is decked. The breaker box is installed in a thickened wall, and it looked like a no-brainer to fish a couple pull strings up alongside the existing wiring into the attic... NOT! Apparently, the moronic electrician who wired the house thought it would be a good idea to fill the thickened wall from the top of the breaker box to the attic with expandable foam!! No way I'm gonna be pokin' through 5 feet of Great Stuff... Now I gotta go around. Gonna disembowel the next electrician I run into...

[Ed62]

That sucks. I hate it when you think you've got the world by the tail, then something rears it's ugly head.

Ed

[gsmittle]

Man, that sux. You might wanna look for the guy that did it and disembowel him. Otherwise, some poor electrician's gonna get a surprise.

g.

[Uncle Cracker]

You might wanna look for the guy that did it and disembowel him. Otherwise, some poor electrician's gonna get a surprise.

After 10 years, I'll never find him. Just gonna have to kill 'em all...

[cabinetman]

Hey, you only gotta go 5'. Maybe there's a snake of sorts that electricians use just for problems like that.
.

[crokett]

HD sells a flexible drill bit that is 6' long IIRC. It is in the electrical section and you can attach a cable to the end of it to pull it back once you do the drilling. You might try that.

[Uncle Cracker]

Problem is that all the other wires from the whole house go right down through the goop in that same stud space. There's no way to know what I'm gouging up while I'm hacking through it...

[Hellrazor]

Problem is that all the other wires from the whole house go right down through the goop in that same stud space. There's no way to know what I'm gouging up while I'm hacking through it...

Thats ok, the shock therapy will be helpfull and what is 1 or 3 more wires to pull

[Pappy]

I ran into a similar situation when I decided to run all my cable and phone lines in the attic. I found that all the walls in my house are insulated. Makes pulling/fishing a wire harder but it helps a lot with noise from the trains.

[Uncle Cracker]

Makes pulling/fishing a wire harder but it helps a lot with noise from the trains.

I guess I'll have to go out and get me a train, Pappy...

Update: Digging through the crap with a pry bar (pulling out the chaff with a shopvac as I go...) About halfway through, and only have about 100 holes in my back from roofing nails...

[DaveS]

Is the breaker in a non-visible spot? (i.e. not in the living room, etc.).

If so, you can just run some conduit. The plastic is really easy to work with, and pretty inexpensive.

[Uncle Cracker]

Is the breaker in a non-visible spot? (i.e. not in the living room, etc.).

If so, you can just run some conduit. The plastic is really easy to work with, and pretty inexpensive.

Thought I was gonna have to go that route, but I have managed to get through the expando-foam... Problem with the other way is that all the knockouts are in the top of the load center. Getting through the side would have been every bit as big a PITA as going through the foam, so it was "choose my poison". Still pissed off at the electrician, though...

[Hellrazor]

Still pissed off at the electrician, though...

I bet he was laughing the whole time he emptied the cans