How to Add an Outlet Receptacle on a Home With a Brick Wall

Select an interior outlet on an outside wall that you would like to wire the new exterior outlet to. The interior outlet and the new exterior outlet will be sharing a wall cavity. Turn off power to the selected outlet. Check the outlet with a circuit tester to make sure it is safe to work with.

Back out the screws holding the electrical outlet's cover plate over the electrical box. Set the cover plate aside. Remove the screws holding the outlet to the electrical box and pull the outlet out. Loosen the outlet's screw terminals and remove the wires.

Run a stud finder along either side of the electrical box to determine where the studs are and how the box is mounted. Place a small mark below the electrical box's bottom corner furthest from the wall stud the box is mounted to.

Drill through the mark on the wall and out the brick siding with an 18-inch long 1/4-inch masonry bit in a hammer drill. Hold the drill bit at a 45-degree downward angle as you drill. Go outside and locate the hole in the brick siding.

Drill a series of five or six holes into the brick siding with the 1/4-inch drill bit. Position these holes so they form a 1-inch circle. Use a 1/2-inch chisel and a hammer to knock the small circle out of the brick siding. This hole will be where the electrical cable exits the house.

Run a 12 or 14-gauge electrical cable (depending on the gauge used for the interior outlet) through the interior outlet's electrical box and out the hole you chiseled in the brick siding in Step 5. If necessary, insert a fish tape through the hole from the outside and wrap the cable around the hook to guide it through the wall. Go back inside.

Cut a 6-inch long piece of cable. Use a utility knife to remove the outer casing and peel off the paper insulation. Separate the three wires and strip 1 inch off each end. Wrap the short black wire around one of the outlet's screw terminals and tighten the screw. Repeat with the short white wire and short green wire.

Cut the 6 inches of the outer casing off the cable going through the wall. Separate the wires and remove the paper insulation. Strip 1 inch off each wires' end. Hold the black wire together with the short black wire and the black wire you had removed from the outlet in Step 2. Twist a wire nut over the wires. Repeat with the white wires, then the green wires. Push all the wires into the electrical box. Secure the outlet to the electrical box with the screws you removed in Step 2, then replace the cover plate and go outside.

Feed the cable through the exterior electrical box's hole. Position the box against the brick siding. Mark the box's screw holes with a pencil and set the electrical box aside. Drill a 5/32-inch pilot hole through each mark using a hammer drill. Make the holes 1/2 inch deeper than the concrete screw's length.

Put the cable back through the electrical box's hole and line up the screw holes with the pilot holes. Drive a 3/16-inch concrete screw through each hole.

Cut away 6 inches of the cable's outer casing extending through the wall. Separate the three wires and cut away the paper insulation. Strip 1 inch off the end of the white and black wires. Bend the white and black wires into hooks. Wrap the black wire around a GFCI outlet's "hot" screw terminal and the white wire around the "white" screw terminal. Tighten both screws to hold the wires in place.

Remove 6 inches off the casing of the green wire. Wrap the wire once around the electrical box's grounding screw and once around the GFCI outlet's green screw. Tighten the green screw to hold the wire in place.

Secure the GFCI outlet to the exterior electrical box following the manufacturer's directions and using the provided screws. Snap the box's cover over the electrical outlet. Restore power to the electrical outlets.