Quote:
Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy
I would try pulling every dead outlet or switch and checking for power, starting with the one closest to a breaker box. Figure out where you have power coming in, but not power going out. Or power going out of a box, but not making it to the next box. If you have a dead wire you can verify point A to B by disconnecting both, jumping one side, and using a continuity test on the other to insure that the wires run between these boxes. If the electrician was any good the routing should be logical.
I bet (hope?) that you'll find an obvious smoking gun when you start pulling outlets and switches.
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I've opened every dead box, none have power. So next I need to look for a box with power, where the 'outgoing' line is dead. Easier said than done, but I suspect, as suggested above, it's a back-stabbed receptacle.
The problem is the garage is the likely place for the problem to 'start', and a) there are a ton of outlets/boxes b) a lot are covered by benches and unpacked boxes.
That's why I am looking for a tracing tool, I want to work backwards from what I suspect is the first dead box. The alternative is to investigate all the functional outlets and hope the dead circuits start working...