Kelly Mack
New User
- Location
- West Virginia
- Occupation
- Handyman
Hey there, I saw the other thread with this title and it had a lot of great info to help, but it wasn't open to ask another question along the same line. I hope it's ok to start this new thread.
I've been changing out receptacles and switches in an older house (they wanted the rectangular look instead of the smiley faces and flippers), there is new work from other parties that has been done also. There's two triple gang switch boxes for ceiling fans and lights that are doing some weirdness.
Backing up...I changed out all the receptacles first and that involved a lot of radioing from the breaker box to different rooms because nothing that was labeled in the box matched the actual receptacles. In the den, I had to have 2 breakers off to turn off the receptacles in that room, which were also connected to the two triple gang switch boxes, so all of those lights and receptacles are intertwined somehow. Of the two breakers, one was original and the second was an addition (not relating to age of breakers but relating to installation). Got all of those receptacles changed out, end of receptacle story.
Now I get to the two triple gang switch boxes, they are both remodel boxes with 3-ways...two of the 3-ways were dimmers (for the accent lighting) and the other was for the ceiling fans, in other box they were all just 3-ways. There was no issue when I changed the 2 3-ways for the fans - straight shooters. Now for the weirdness...
I changed out each regular 3-way, one at a time so nothing got crossed only touching the wires needed to do so, there was a lot of junctioning going on in this box.
Then I started changing out the 3-way dimmers, their configuration was a little different so I did the first one then turned the breakers on to ensure that I'd done the first one correctly...no lights. I rechecked that my runners were correct, seemed pretty straight forward as I was going from a regular 3-way to a regular 3-way, they didn't want the dimmers. I put the dimmer back in, flipped the breakers back on again...no lights. I checked back in the other switch box where the power was coming in to the first 2 switches, there was a wire in there that was tied to both of those on the common...i had no power now on that wire, with the breaker on. Nothing had tripped, pulled the face off of the breaker panel and checked that the breaker hadn't had a meltdown or something but I had power at the breaker.
I am stumped. I consulted with a friend of mine, drew out the diagram of what I had done and he was going to come up to the house with me the next day but the owner called and said the granddaughter was sick and they didn't want us to be exposed so I got a couple of days off to think about my problem. The other thread had some good info that I will check out but the lights were working before I started changing the switches and now there's no power to them at all, argh! Any thoughts on this would be welcome. thanx, kel
I've been changing out receptacles and switches in an older house (they wanted the rectangular look instead of the smiley faces and flippers), there is new work from other parties that has been done also. There's two triple gang switch boxes for ceiling fans and lights that are doing some weirdness.
Backing up...I changed out all the receptacles first and that involved a lot of radioing from the breaker box to different rooms because nothing that was labeled in the box matched the actual receptacles. In the den, I had to have 2 breakers off to turn off the receptacles in that room, which were also connected to the two triple gang switch boxes, so all of those lights and receptacles are intertwined somehow. Of the two breakers, one was original and the second was an addition (not relating to age of breakers but relating to installation). Got all of those receptacles changed out, end of receptacle story.
Now I get to the two triple gang switch boxes, they are both remodel boxes with 3-ways...two of the 3-ways were dimmers (for the accent lighting) and the other was for the ceiling fans, in other box they were all just 3-ways. There was no issue when I changed the 2 3-ways for the fans - straight shooters. Now for the weirdness...
I changed out each regular 3-way, one at a time so nothing got crossed only touching the wires needed to do so, there was a lot of junctioning going on in this box.
Then I started changing out the 3-way dimmers, their configuration was a little different so I did the first one then turned the breakers on to ensure that I'd done the first one correctly...no lights. I rechecked that my runners were correct, seemed pretty straight forward as I was going from a regular 3-way to a regular 3-way, they didn't want the dimmers. I put the dimmer back in, flipped the breakers back on again...no lights. I checked back in the other switch box where the power was coming in to the first 2 switches, there was a wire in there that was tied to both of those on the common...i had no power now on that wire, with the breaker on. Nothing had tripped, pulled the face off of the breaker panel and checked that the breaker hadn't had a meltdown or something but I had power at the breaker.
I am stumped. I consulted with a friend of mine, drew out the diagram of what I had done and he was going to come up to the house with me the next day but the owner called and said the granddaughter was sick and they didn't want us to be exposed so I got a couple of days off to think about my problem. The other thread had some good info that I will check out but the lights were working before I started changing the switches and now there's no power to them at all, argh! Any thoughts on this would be welcome. thanx, kel
