Spent 3 hours hunting a ground fault that turned out to be a staple through a wire

Just finished up a service call in an old house where a bedroom circuit kept tripping randomly. Took me forever to find it because it wasn't tripping right away. Pulled apart every box, checked every splice. Finally started opening up the walls where I could see a shadow in the insulation. Found a staple right through a 14/2 romex about 4 inches above a switch box. Barely touched the hot. Anyone else run into this where the staple gun just barely nicked the wire?

2 comments

2 Comments

sullivan.abby10d ago

Four inches above a switch box? That's just cruel.

zara44710d ago

yeah i saw this whole thread going around on bluesky the other day. @sullivan.abby youre right, four inches is just mean. someone posted a pic of their setup where the box was literally hidden behind a bookshelf after they moved it. i read somewhere that the old standard was like 6 or 8 inches, but they keep shrinking it every code update just to mess with us. its like they want us to give up and just pay an electrician to move the whole thing. honestly feels like a practical joke at this point.