Replacing the parts of outlets
Because of the high cost of hiring professional suppliers, I’ve taught myself how to complete home improvement projects… Over the years I’ve gutted most of the rooms in the house down to the bare studs and taught myself how to create a comfortable and beautiful living space, then i’ve learned to install insulation and drywall. I’ve substituted overhead light fixtures and windows. I’ve refinished hardwood floors and laid down ceramic tile. One of the jobs that initially intimidated me was replacing electrical outlets. I don’t like to tackle any DIY projects that have the potential to kill me or burn my house down. I would never attempt to install a new electrical panel. I hire a licensed electrician for the complex jobs, however, replacing the guts of an outlet, or even moving the location of an outlet, is not overly difficult. In my home, the outdated outlets were brown in color, split into the middle of the baseboards and had been painted over. I discovered that there is nothing spine-chilling or tough about it, and the first step was to turn off the power to the house, however rather than worry about cutting the power to the particular set of outlets I planned to work on, I flipped the main and interrupted power to the whole house. I used a screwdriver to remove the face plate from the electrical outlet. I detached the electrical outlet from the box by unscrewing the visible screws. This allowed me to pull the outlet away from the box. I detached the wires from the outdated outlet by unscrewing the screws they are wrapped around. I loosened them just enough to slip the wires off and then tossed the outdated outlet into the trash! Now it was time to deal with the grounding wire. The ground wire needs to be grounded to the box as well as to the outlet. The ground wire is usually be a red or a bare copper wire; Before installing the new outlet, I wrapped the ground wire around the grounding screw at the back of metal box and then pulled it forward to the receptacle.