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I'm trying to pull the phone wire in my new house, and replace it with Cat6 cable for Ethernet. Upon removing the faceplate for the dual cable (coax) and phone jack, I found what I believe is this gang box:

New work plastic electrical box

Obviously I can't see the bracket for the drywall atop it, so I can't be completely sure this is what I've got, but the blue box looks almost exactly like mine...

I've already unscrewed the screw until it (apparently) came out of the bracket, in an effort to remove the box so I could see into the wall at how the phone line is run. Unfortunately, I can't pull it out -- seems that it can't slide off the bracket? Double-unfortunately, the screw seems to have come out of the bracket, and I can't put the box back in the wall, either.

Can I remove this box without putting a big hole in my wall to get at the bracket? I was hoping to avoid that (literal) mess for this little project, and just pull the phone wire and run the Ethernet cable in its place. Is my only option cutting into the drywall anyway?

Moshe Katz
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Kromey
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2 Answers2

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Have you tried going to Home Depot and playing with the boxes there? If you find one that matches, you can hold the box in your hands and try to wiggle it out of the bracket. That might help you figure out the right way to extract the box in your wall from its bracket. Even bring a screwdriver to take out the screw.

I always figure that it would be entirely within store policy to buy the box, take it outside and examine it like this without damaging it and then return it so why not just avoid the extra paperwork and do it inside.

Philip Ngai
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If you can bend the bracket out of the way enough, you could use an old work (pop-in) box. They can be found at most home improvement stores and are quite sturdy. Installation video here

bshacklett
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