Lighting and Outdoor Outlet Replacements in Casselberry
An outdoor outlet box pulled up out of the mulch and remounted on the wall, a new LED porch light by the front door, and an LED flush mount in a bedroom.
- ScopeOutdoor outlet remount, porch light and bedroom ceiling light replacement
- LocationCasselberry, Florida
- SectorResidential
- EquipmentIn use weatherproof cover, PVC riser, LED wall light, LED flush mount
Three small repairs on one house. None of them needed a permit drawing, and all three were worth doing properly.
This home is in Casselberry, the same city as our shop on Seminola Boulevard. The list was the kind homeowners save up until it is long enough to justify a service call: an outdoor outlet that had come off the wall and was lying in the flower bed, a porch light by the front door, and a ceiling light in a bedroom. One visit covered all of it. Bundling work like this is the cheapest way to hire an electrician in Casselberry, because the trip and setup get paid for once instead of three times. The lights were about looks and convenience. The outlet was different. It was the one item on the list that actually mattered for safety, and it gets most of the space below.
Can an outdoor outlet that fell off the wall just be reattached?
Not the way this one was. The box was lying on its side in the mulch, so it had to be rebuilt and mounted back on the wall where water drains away from it.
Look at the before photo. The gray box is sitting in the flower bed below the stucco, wrapped in black tape, draped in cobwebs, with a green garden hose running right behind it and a metal connector sticking out the side. Tape is not a weatherproof cover. A box on the ground sits in the splash zone of every sprinkler cycle and every afternoon storm, and in Central Florida that is most days from June through September.
The code language is simple enough. A box has to be securely supported, and a receptacle outdoors has to be protected from the weather it lives in. This one was neither. Reattaching the old box would have left the same corroded parts in service, so the fix was a new box, new receptacle and new cover, all set back up on the wall. It is routine outlet and switch installation. It just started from a worse place than most.
What does an outdoor outlet need to be safe in the rain?
An in use cover that stays closed with a cord plugged in, a weather resistant receptacle, and GFCI protection. The box also needs to be up off the ground.
The after photo shows how that comes together. A gray PVC riser comes up out of the bed and carries the wiring into the bottom of the new box, which is fastened flat against the stucco a comfortable distance above the mulch. The bubble cover is the in use type. You can leave an extension cord or a pressure washer plugged in and still close the lid over it, which a flat flip cover cannot do. For wet locations that style of cover has been required on 15 and 20 amp receptacles for years.
The garden hose is still there, looped against the wall. That is fine now. Before, it was lying across the same patch of wet mulch as a live box. Ground fault protection is the last layer: if current leaks to something it should not, the device trips in a fraction of a second. If you are not sure your own outdoor outlets are protected, an electrical inspection will test every one of them.
Should you replace an old light fixture with an LED one?
Usually, yes. An integrated LED fixture has no bulbs to change, and on an existing box the swap is quick.
Inside, the bedroom had a textured ceiling and dark crown molding. The first photo is the new fixture going up with the diffuser still off, so you can see the ring of LEDs on the round board and the three posts the shade twists onto. The second photo is the same fixture finished and lit. The popcorn texture matters more than it looks. The canopy has to snug up against a bumpy surface without crushing it, and on older homes that texture can contain asbestos, so we disturb as little of it as possible.
Out front, the porch light is a slim LED wall light mounted on the stucco just above the house number. Heavy trowel texture like this never gives a fixture a flat surface to seal against. Getting it tight to the wall is most of the job. If you are planning more than a fixture swap, our lighting installation crews handle new circuits and recessed layouts, and a bedroom box like this one can often be checked for ceiling fan installation in the same visit.
From the job site
Casselberry lighting and outdoor outlet photos
Got an outdoor outlet or light that needs attention?
Write down everything on your list, even the small stuff, and we will knock it out in one visit. Call (407) 880-8977.