Electrical box too deep after adding drywall or paneling
Adding new drywall or paneling over an existing wall leaves the original electrical box buried too deep. This gap, sometimes measuring up to three inches, makes it impossible to connect a replacement fixture. The challenge is figuring out how to attach the new fixture without removing the drywall.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Using mismatched extra-long bolts to reach the recessed box.Did this help you?
- 2Cutting away the surrounding drywall to access the box.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“found the box was too deep to connect my replacement fixture to.”source ↗
“The front edge of the box is 3in from the front edge of drywall.”source ↗
“Is there any way or ideas of how to get the next fixture on without removing drywall?”source ↗
“Recently updated my bathroom, we covered the old wall with paneling and the electrical sockets are both deep and the bottom part is too low - pictures for reference”source ↗
Where this came up
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