What Is a Wall Drop in Connection to Electrical Wiring?

Wall Drops

• Wall drops refer to the locations inside the walls where the wires for your home descend to the baseboard level from the ceiling. At the baseboard, the wires might terminate at an outlet or connect several outlets in the room via a horizontal connecting wire. The number of outlets a single drop can accommodate depends on the circuit that wire is connected to. Some circuits, such as those for major appliances, require a dedicated circuit and the wall drop supplying the power will not be connected to other outlets in the room.

Multi-Story Homes

• Usually wall drops are seen in lower stories because the electric wiring is fed through the ceiling and dropped through the walls to the room below. For multi-story homes, the space in the ceiling of the first floor is under the floor of the second floor. For rooms on the second floor, instead of wall drops from above, the electric wire might be passed through the floor and up the walls to the outlets or ceiling fixtures, but this is not always the rule as wiring can be run through the attic in some homes and dropped into each room as needed. In homes where the circuit panel is in the basement, both floors might have wire feed up from the floor.

Attic Drops

• If the wiring is fed through the attic and dropped into rooms, locating the drops is easier. Look for a conduit protecting the wiring in the attic and follow it. Make a note of the location in each room where it drops down. You might tap on the nearest stud and have someone listen in the room below to find the wall drop.

Locating Wiring

• When wiring a home, the electricity lines are fed through the unfinished walls and the outlets connected. When trying to find a wall drop, look for power outlets in a first floor room. An exact diagram of the wiring in your home can be found on the original blueprints, but to get an idea of where the wires are, test the circuits. Have a second person shut off each circuit while you move to each outlet in the home with a voltage tester and indicate which outlets are on which circuits. Outlets on the same circuit will be wired together. The wire will be inside the wall horizontally to each of these outlets. Lighting fixtures and switches are generally installed on separate circuits from general-use outlets. Wire for the switches will feed up from the floor or down from the ceiling vertically along a stud.