# Outlet in Garage and lights in 1/2 of basement not working



## Frustratedwife (Jan 19, 2010)

The single outlet in my garage stopped working and at the same time half of my basement went dark. The outlets on that side still work, but the lights won't/ I have located and reset all 4 of my gfci's and flipped all of my breakers with no solution. Anyone have any suggestions. My husband in Iraq is unavailable for consultation.


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## SABL (Jul 4, 2008)

Can you tell us the year the house was built?? Are the circuits clearly listed inside the breaker panel to tell what breaker controls which circuit?? 

If the house was built in (and around) the 70's the wiring *may* be Aluminium and an electrician may be required if you do not have a friend or relative that is familiar with residential wiring. 

The problem seems simple and an easy fix but electricity can be deadly and I really think an electrician should be called. He/she will know exactly where to look and very well could have the problem fixed in no time at all.


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

Hi and welcome to TSF :wave:

Look for an outlet, probably in the kitchen/bath/basement that has 2 buttons, marked something like test and reset. If there is one push the reset.

Not much we can do, as we are not there to look at it. You need to find somebody that is familiar with house wiring. Just to dangerous for you to start taking things apart.

You have done all you can do by checking the breakers/GFI's.

BG


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## Frustratedwife (Jan 19, 2010)

The house was built in 1990. And no, the box is not clearly labeled. The only ones that are labeled are the a/c and hot water heater.


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## Snoopdogie187 (Jun 27, 2002)

We had the outlets go out in the upstairs bathroom, and also on our front porch. Oddly it turned out that the outlet in the garage next to the box needed to be reset. This was one problem that took a few weeks to figure out. 
We also had our outlets for the sump pumps in the basement go out. (this was real fun as by the time we found out we had a few inches of water that collected down there.) This one I flipped the reset button (which was mounted on the ceiling in the basement). I actually traced the wires for this reset also, and it appeared to be connected to the power for our pool outside, so I don't know how it affected the sump pumps. 
Basically, who ever did the wiring in the house could have done it in a strange way, so don't leave anything over looked no matter if it makes sense or not.
Also as mentioned, if you can't fix it by just flipping a switch, or pushing a button, call someone with experience with electricity.


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## Frustratedwife (Jan 19, 2010)

Okay! Thanks everybody for the suggestion. It turns out that my flat iron was plugged into an outlet that was on the same circuit as the garage outlet and the basement lights and all that was on the GFCI in my kids' bathroom. Apparently it was tripping every time I reset it because I hadn't unplugged the flat iron!! Problem Solved


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