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I have a flood light that's not properly mounted and I'd like to run conduit to raise it about two feet higher on a stucco and brick wall.

The wires exit the house via a small, approx. half inch hole ( see photo ). I was planning on using a service entrance LB like this one or a regular conduit body but I just want to make sure this is the most appropriate way to handle wires exiting a house without conduit?

Is using a weatherproof box better than a conduit body in this case? I think the box would be unnecessarily bulky compared to the conduit body/service entrance LB but what would be the best option to seal it from the weather?

Wires exiting the house

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  • Can you access the other side of the wall? Jun 5, 2020 at 17:42
  • You will have to change wire types to raise the fixture. You can recess a fixture in that location and still use NM but to come outside with a box or go up the wall you need a box for a splice then wire rated for the location. Me I would just cut in a box and put the light there with the original wire that is code compliant.
    – Ed Beal
    Jun 5, 2020 at 18:41

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cringe

This was a bodge job from the beginning. Hole unguarded, NM cable coming outside as if Shelter-in-place was over, fitting intended for octagon box misapplied to mount an outside light, etc. Is the light even rated for outdoors??

(NM-B is not legal nor reliable outside; this could be tripping a GFCI if it was on it just from hot-ground leakage from insulation breakdown. Meanwhile the paper stuffing is wicking water tens of feet down the cable).

I think a plain old 1/2" conduit body would be perfectly fine as part of a nutritious breakfast - er, proper wiring method.

I would run up the wall with conduit to your desired light location then fit an appropriate box there. My preference is a box where the flexible cable to the light exits the bottom of the box with a proper liquidtight strain relief; that way when the liquidtight leaks, water still doesn't get in. You don't want the conduit to turn into a rain superhighway into your house.

The only issue is, you can't run NM cable outside, and UF cable won't fit inside conduit (unless you make it stupid-huge). That limits you to THHN wire, which works great in conduit (use stranded since you'll be splicing to wire nuts at both ends). You will need to make a transition from NM to THHN somewhere inside the house, and that requires an accessible junction box to do that.

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    thanks... so if I use the conduit body, is caulking enough to seal that hole in the stucco and the gap between the stucco and the conduit body?
    – mikeLdub
    Jun 5, 2020 at 18:57
  • you can't do junctions inside a conduit body
    – Jasen
    Jun 6, 2020 at 4:09
  • Yeah, I was envisioning to extend the conduit through the wall, to a junction box inside. Make the NM to THHN transition there. Can't do it in a conduit body unless the body is absolutely gigantic like junction-box size, and that... defeats the purpose... Jun 6, 2020 at 5:41

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