I have a couple outlets in my home that would be better to use were they on the other side of the walls they currently reside in. One is for a phone jack, the other is a cable outlet. I am pretty handy at D-I-Y stuff, and this doesn’t seem like this should be very difficult, but I have never done an electrical project before, and I’d like some friendly advice on how-to. Both walls are interior 2x4 framing. Thanks!
Any good hardware or home-renovation megastore will have books on basic wiring with diagrams and such. I highly recommend them.
I’d suggest you also make up a master wiring diagram. Draw up a rough sketch of the layout of your house, including all outlets, lights, electric heaters, etc. Have a partner flip the breakers one by one while you test each electrical device with an AC voltage sensor (a pen-sized device that buzzes when brought near a hot AC cable). When you’re done, you’ll have a complete idea of how your house is wired up. I’ve found that older houses that have been renovated multiple times can end up with one 15-amp circuit with six outlets on it (because it was easier to simply branch off of existing outlets rather than go back to the box) while another circuit has just the bathroom light.
In case the existing outlet is on a circuit that doesn’t seem particularly crowded, you shouldn’t “move” the box at all. After cutting the power to the outlet (and double-checking that this has in fact been accomplished), I’d use a spool of 12/2 electrical cable and feed it either through the ceiling or under the floor, whichever is easier, branching off the existing outlet. If you’re determined to remove the existing outlet, don’t rip the box out but just remove the sockets, use splice covers to attach your new cable, put a coverplate over the box (so you don’t in future accidentally drive a nail or screw into it), cover the hole in the sheetrock with a patch, apply drywall compound, then sand and paint. Boxes are cheap and trying to rip one out is more trouble than its worth, unless you’re tearing down the whole wall or something.
Look around first, though, for easier cable paths. If the room is on the first floor and you can casually drill downward and run cables along your basement ceiling, consider wiring a new outlet directly to the electrical breaker box (again, cutting all power first, likely with your house’s master breaker - if you’re not confident you can do this, don’t even start).
Anyway, get a wiring book, an AC voltage sensor, a sketch pad, a stud finder, and plan carefully before you start punching holes in walls. Also make sure another person is nearby who knows what you’re doing, lest you crisp yourself and lie there twitching away the weekend until your co-workers wonder why you haven’t shown up for work on Monday.
And, of course, I got so caught up in high-voltage pontificating, I totally forgot that the question is about telephone and coax cables.
Sigh.
Same as above; use splices or male-to-male coax adaptors if possible; though running new lines back to the source is preferable. Leave existing boxes in place because digging them out is a nuisance.
And one year from now you will wish you had a phone jack on the other side of the wall…
I assume you merely want to move the outlets to another room, on the same wall just opposite where they are now.
Be prepared to patch a pretty good sized area of drywall, or plaster, at their existing site. The existing boxes will need to be removed and that’s hard to do without some damage to the wall.
Oh yes. If your wall is wood paneled and not drywalled, I’d leave them where they are and run extensions behind the mopboards.
That said. Take off the cover plates and remove the existing boxes. this won’t be easy because they are probably nailed to a stud. Be careful not to damage the cables which are probably stapled to the stud not far above, or below, the box. If the boxes are plastic you can break them up. If they are metal you will have to somehow pry them off. If the cables are fastened to the boxes with cable clamps you will probably need to remove an area of drywall to get at them.
Discouraged Yet? No?
Well then, after you have gotten the boxes out, or dropped down inside the wall :eek: , and the cables loose you are home free. You can buy plastic boxes that mount directly to the drywall and once you have them their mounting in the wall should be obvious.
After they are mounted you need to patch the place they came out of. You can do this in several ways. 1) Trim the ugly hole to a rectangle and cut a piece of drywall to fit it. Screw the patch to the stud and tape the gaps. 2) Similar to 1) but remove exisiting drywall in an opening that spans the space between studs. Cut a new piece of drywall to fit, install and tape. 3) Stuff a piece of an insulation bat with the paper side out behind the hole and fill the hole with patching plaster. I would do it in two or three thin layers.
Finish the patch to match the wall. Be prepared to have the patch show for quite a while unless you want to repaint the whole room.
Well, instead of removing the old boxes entirely, you could just cover them with blank cover plates. Save you a whole lot of trouble.
Use the old box as a junction box if necessary, running short wires from there to the new box.
David Simmons has it right! 
I’m not a bit discouraged. The coax box scar will be behind a solid mahogany double dresser. We have no plans to sell this place, so I’ll only see it when I move the dresser to vacuum (::snerk:: NEVER!).
The phone outlet has bugged the hell out of me since I moved in with my now-hubby five years ago. I surely won’t miss it in that location, and it’s on a wall where I have my tea box collection hung up. Easy-peasy hide, even if it’s a big 'un. I also thought about putting the new box right above the old one, and just using a cover plate on the old box. Or just sitting a new box there if I have to break out the old one.
Thanks Rocketeer! Simulpost, I guess!
put a coverplate over the box (so you don’t in future accidentally drive a nail or screw into it), cover the hole in the sheetrock with a patch, apply drywall compound, then sand and paint.
I have always heard that you cannot bury a junction box, just cover with blank plate. Anything with connections needs to allow access.
Not burying boxes only applies to power.
You’re free to bury splices and junctions in signal wiring wherever you want. You’d be a fool to, however, as sooner or later, the connection will go wonky and you’ll be pulling your hair out trying to remember exactly where that hidden splice is.
For the phone jack, I’d advise leaving the existing jack where it is and just run an extension from it to the new desired location.
For the cable, disassemble the fitting from the wall plate and screw the extension into it and run the new cable to the desired location. Cover the original location with a blank wall plate and you’ll probably be able to transplant the original jack to the new spot.
On mounting the new jacks/plates: you can get by with just making as big a hole as required in the wall and using plastic screw anchors behind the plate’s mounting screws. Or, if you’re brave, just put the screws into the sheetrock, but plan on the plate working loose quickly.
The better way is to cut a full-size hole in the wall and use a “box eliminator” - the thing goes against the wall and the U-shaped ears are bent around the edges and back against the inside of the wall. Give 'em a squeeze with pliers so it stays in place - if you just do them finger-snug, the thing will shift around. If you can’t find these, you can also use an “old work” electrical box. These things have two screws on the front side that you snug down and tabs flip around and squeeze up against the inside of the wall.
I’m trying to do away with the phone cords that right now go around a wall from my kitchen to the hallway where the phone stand is. The whole distance from the phone jack to the wall edge is maybe fourteen inches. The phone stand is in an alcove in the hallway just behind the existing outlet. The phone mess is on the eating bar area on the living room side of the kitchen/livingroom greatroom (it’s a small duplex, just over 1000 sf). I just don’t like the wires hanging down and around the corner. You can see them when you come in the front door. Tacky, tacky, tacky. The same electrical genius who wired this wonder also put the light switch for the overhead kitchen light in the same place. You have to walk around the eating bar island into the living area to turn on the light for the kitchen. It’s not reachable from the kitchen for any normal sized human.
By the way, after you get the old boxes out, poke a screwdriver through the drywall on the opposite side so you can locate the new boxes. 
Hmmm, the contractors that built your houses must be better than the ones I’ve seen. Most of what I’ve dealt with is a small hole in the wall where the cable/phone guy has a wire poking out of it. I’ve never seen an actual box for these.
For the cable, there is usually just a wall plate that has a regular old co-ax union in the middle where you attach the end of the cable in the wall to the back of it and then screw it into the wall (using anchors because the wire is between the studs).
The phone connections I’ve seen are similar. However, they are sometimes wired directly to the jack, sometimes they have the typical connector plugged into the back of the plate.
I’d advise taking the cover plates off and seeing what is there before you head off to Home Depot or whatever.
If there are no boxes, do as Dave Simmons says and use a screw driver to poke a hole on the other side of the wall (assuming you have drywall - use a drill if you have paneling) and poke the wire through the other side and use the same plate that you just removed.
Again, assuming there is just a hole in drywall, you can use some mesh and spackle to cover the hole. If it is paneling, you could just use a blank wall plate.
I don’t really see why a box would be needed here anyway. For an electrical connection, they protect any exposed connections to prevent a shock or fire. With telephone and cable connections, there is no danger of shock or fire. This method is faster, cheaper, and will probably look better since it is easier to get the cover plate straight (those boxes can be a PITA to get plumb).
Don’t you believe it. A telephone ring signal in the US comprises a 90 VAC, 20 Hz signal which absultely CAN deliver a nasty shock. When working on telephone wiring, it is highly advisable to have a phone off-hook on the circuit to prevent an incoming ring signal. Also, a properly grounded cable installation is generally pretty safe, but if the ground fails, you can get a nice zap from a buildup of atmopsheric static charge. I agree neither is a significant fire hazard.
Not to mention the chance of faulty equipment. More than once, I’ve gotten a good sting when unscrewing coax connections and voltage that was going to ground is now going to me.
And if someone rings your bell, there’s a pretty painful jolt if you happen to have a good hold on the wires at that moment.