Ways to extend receptacle outlets when a box extender won't fit?

13 years ago

Wondered if anyone might know of a good solution for this problem---we have a series of electrical receptacles in our kitchen, and added a tile backsplash. We need to move the outlets out about half an inch so that they'll clear the tile, but two of the outlets use smaller metal electrical boxes and we can't fit the standard box extenders into these. We don't have access to move the boxes, and since we tiled to the edges of the boxes leaving just enough space to remove them, we can't use a ReceptXtender on these, either (the boxes are 2" across and the ReceptXtenders need 2.25").

Do we have any other options short of removing the tile? We are doing a kitchen remodel with permits so we would need any solution to be to code, too, just to complicate things.

Any ideas?? Thanks!

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Comments (4)

ontariojer
13 years ago
There are steel and plastic options for this. Here s an example:
http://www.galco.com/scripts/cgiip.exe/wa/wcat/itemdtl.htm?pnum=TP709-COHC

Just go to an electrical supply house, they should have something like this.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link
Ron Natalie
13 years ago
You should have moved/extended the boxes before you started tiling. I guess you realize that now.
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artemis78
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks; yes, moving them beforehand would clearly have been easier, but not really an option now! :) (It would have been a challenge to move the two older boxes anyway, though; we'd have had to open the wall to get at them since they're boxed in with hundred-year-old plaster. We did move the new boxes, since those were just screwed into the studs.) It looks like the link above should solve the problem of the older boxes being too small to fit the extenders, though---thanks!
brickeyee
13 years ago
Even the extensions are a lot easier to do before raising the wall surface.

If you cannot fit the thin sheet metal extensions you are going to have to cut the tile.