Removing Wires From Framing

Remodeling Tip:

By Ethan Bickford

During demolition you’ll often run into this problem.

A wire through a hole in the middle of a stud that’s being removed.

Now you could try to carefully cut the stud at the point where the hole for the wire is but then you run the risk of damaging the wire.

I was looking at this problem a while ago and realized I could use the grain of the wood and the hole the wire is passing through to my advantage. Here’s what you do.

I starting by bending the wire out of the way slightly. Then starting about 1-1/2” away from the hole cut a kerf angled slightly towards the hole then do the same on the other side.

Here I used an oscillating multi-tool but any number of saws will also work.

Assuming you didn’t make the mistake I did here and cut the kerf angled away from the hole then you should be able to easily tap out a block of wood from the stud, freeing the wire and allowing you to continue demoing the wall while leaving the wiring intact.

Warning: working with tools is dangerous and doing it around wiring is even more dangerous. Shut off the breaker for the circuits in the area you are working in and always assume wires are live.