Any clue what happened?

[cummins2k 1]

To put it lightly this hasn't been my best week but I did finally get a full day off from both jobs so I decided to do a few things around the house. I had repaired a leaky main water valve and went to see if it was holding up good still (it was) when I ran across this.

It almost looks like a mouse chewed on it. Normally it is fairly dark in this corner because the one light in the crawlspace just doesn't get this far but I had thrown a drop light in there when I noticed it. The wire was 12-2 Romex running to a dish washer the previous owner had installed. When we first bought the house the dish washer would leak due to whoever installed it running screwed through the sides (I guess they figured you mounted it this way?) Of course this water would slowly run down through the hole in the floor were the romex entered. This is probably what caused the corrosion.

Either way I decided to throw caution to the wind and fix it since I was bored so off to the hardware store I went. Mind you I am not an electrician, just watched good ol' Dad wire up a few houses and did a little reading before starting.

I decided not to run Romex like the previous owners did rather I went with a flexible metal conduit and 12 gauge THHN/THWN wires. I terminated the good part of the original romex in the crawlspace and installed a junction box. Then ran the flex conduit up through the floor. At the junction box I connected the wires with nuts and wrapped them with colored electrical tape dependent on whether it was a hot, neutral, or ground. I secured everything with appropriate clamps and anti-shock bushings then finished hooking up the dish washer.

When I flipped the breaker there weren't any sparks, glowing, funny noises or anything and the dish washer worked just fine. No it's time figure out what chewed it and how it is getting in.

[Mopar1973Man 5,937 5 Vehicles]

Time to put some expanding foam in the holes.

[cummins2k 1]

Time to put some expanding foam in the holes.

Lol, I took the pictures before I did that. I went around and sealed up a few with Great Stuff.

[MnTom 406]

Well, you did fairly good, BUT, you need to anchor the romex within 6" of the box and put a cover on it. Looking at the pictures it almost looks like at one time or another someone had a trouble light or something similar resting on the wire since there appears to be scorched insulation there.

[cummins2k 1]

Well, you did fairly good, BUT, you need to anchor the romex within 6" of the box and put a cover on it. Looking at the pictures it almost looks like at one time or another someone had a trouble light or something similar resting on the wire since there appears to be scorched insulation there.

The box is covered, I just took the picture early. As for the Romex I had stapled it after the picture was taken. Is this acceptable as an anchor or do I need to use something else? Also there are two romex lines in the picture that appear to be connected but they are not. The original romex runs up around the foundation wall and back to the panel, I am still in question of whether or not this is ok. The other one seen in the picture running through the floor goes to another room. I haven't investigated what all it runs but I know it runs the outlet on that wall of the room. This house is a wiring nightmare. But we picked it up for cheap. There were a few illegal families occupying it when it foreclosed. We found wire splices in the attic that were laying in the insulation, they had wire nuts and electrical tape around them but no junction box. This was for a room addition. Most of the outlets in the added room and kitchen either had no ground (but the ground wire was in the box, just disconnected), hot/neutral reverse, or just didn't work.

[ISX 59 1 Vehicles]

Anchors=staples pretty much. It's fine. Looks like you did a good job on it