Drilled into a live wire last Saturday and my drill kicked back so hard I nearly fell off the ladder

Was mounting some shelving brackets in my garage in Portland and hit a wire hidden behind the drywall. Sparks flew, breaker tripped, and I spent the next hour replacing the damaged Romex and patching the hole. Anyone here ever had luck with those stud finders that also detect live wires?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice44512d ago

Mine was a "what's that burning smell?" situation. Hit a wire with a drywall screw mounting some floating shelves in the basement. The funny thing is I had one of those fancy stud finders with the live wire detection, but I forgot to switch it out of stud mode. Wasted an hour with the multimeter and a patch kit while my wife just shook her head from the doorway. Now I just tap the wall with a knuckle and hope for the best, which is honestly not going great.

angela19112d ago

Honestly, @alice445 you hit the nail on the head about those combo stud finders. I got one of those the other week after a close call with a ceiling light box, and the manual was a joke about switching modes. Ended up putting two deep scratches in the wall trying to find studs because the live wire detector kept beeping at old wiring. Tapping knuckles gives better results half the time.