Outdoor Plug Installation & Repair in Dartmouth & HRM

Why did my outdoor plug stop working?

Nine times in ten the plug itself is fine and something has tripped. Outdoor receptacles are required to be GFCI protected, and that protection is often not in the outlet you are standing at. It is in another receptacle somewhere inside the house, and it has done its job and cut the power downstream.

The second most common cause is water where it should not be, usually because the cover has cracked, the gasket has perished, or a cord has been left plugged into a flip-lid cover that cannot close over it. The third is the connection itself, which on an outside wall spends its life being heated and cooled and eventually works loose.

Where is the reset for my outside outlet?

Look for a GFCI receptacle with test and reset buttons, indoors, before you look at anything else. The usual places are the bathroom, the garage, the basement and sometimes a laundry room. Press reset on every one you find, even in rooms that are working perfectly, because one GFCI can protect several outlets spread across the house.

If the reset will not hold, stop pressing it. A GFCI that trips again immediately is detecting current going somewhere it should not, and on an outdoor circuit that usually means moisture has got into the receptacle, the cover or the cable. That is a fault to find rather than a button to keep pushing.

Why does my outdoor GFCI trip when it rains?

Because it is detecting exactly what it was fitted to detect. Water inside the box or across the face of the receptacle gives current a path to ground, and the GFCI cuts the circuit rather than let that path run through whoever picks up the cord next. A GFCI that trips in the rain is working, not faulty.

The fix is sealing, not swapping the device. That normally means a proper in-use cover, an intact gasket, and a look at whether the box is mounted so water runs off it rather than into it. Where a cord has been left running out to a shed or a set of lights, the entry point is worth checking too.

Can I add an outdoor plug for Christmas lights?

Yes, and it is a good deal easier than running a cord out through a window every December. A dedicated outdoor receptacle near the door or the driveway, GFCI protected and fitted with an in-use cover, takes the seasonal load without anything being propped open to the weather.

Worth deciding before he comes: where you actually want it, and whether you want it switched from inside. A switched outdoor plug means the lights go on and off from the hallway instead of from a timer nobody can reach in the snow.

What it costs

A dead outdoor plug starts as a service call, which begins at $249. That covers coming out and finding the actual cause, which on this job is genuinely the work: the difference between a tripped GFCI two rooms away and water tracking into a buried splice is not something anyone can price down the phone.

Adding a new outdoor plug is quoted rather than charged as a service call, because the cost is driven by where it is going. A receptacle on the other side of a basement wall is a different afternoon from one on the far corner of a finished second storey. Describe where you want it when you call and Jamie will tell you what it involves.

Permits and inspection in Nova Scotia

Replacing an outdoor receptacle that already exists is permit-exempt under the Electrical Code Regulations, provided a construction electrician does it and keeps a record. Adding one new plug is usually exempt too, because the regulations allow a single new branch circuit rated up to 30A at 120V under the same conditions. Adding several circuits is a different matter and needs a wiring permit. Our guide to doing your own electrical work here quotes the exemption in full, including the condition people read past.

Either way it is not work a homeowner can permit themselves. In HRM permits and inspections come from Nova Scotia Power Inspection Services acting for the province rather than from the municipality, and only a holder of a valid Nova Scotia Electrical Construction trade certificate can obtain one. Ontario’s ESA does not operate here, whatever the search results say.