Am I the only one who's had a meter socket literally fall off the wall?

Was doing a service upgrade last Tuesday on an old house in Oak Park, and when I went to disconnect the meter, the whole socket pulled out of the brick. Turns out the previous guy just screwed it into old plastic anchors that had rotted away. The customer just stared at me holding the meter in one hand and the socket in the other, and goes, "So... that's not normal, right?" I had to spend 2 extra hours drilling new anchors and patching the brick. Has anyone else run into a retrofit nightmare like this or was I just lucky?

4 comments

4 Comments

sanchez.ivan13h ago

Tapcons? In crumbling brick? That's sketchy as hell.

blake_kelly192d ago

Man, that is a CLASSIC old house special right there. I've seen that exact thing with the plastic anchors from the 70s turning to dust. Best fix I've found for those rough brick situations is to use a hammer drill with a proper masonry bit, then swap in some Tapcon screws with the Hex head. Just make sure you blow out the dust from the hole really good before setting them or they'll spin right out on you.

ray6132d ago

Blake_kelly19" you're just repeating what every sparky says, sometimes old anchors hold fine if the brick is solid.

shane17013h ago

That's fair, but how do you tell if the brick is actually solid enough without drilling into it and finding out the hard way? I mean, I've seen bricks that look fine on the outside but crumble as soon as the bit hits them.