PSA: Found a dead short under a carpet tack strip

Went to a house in Phoenix last Thursday. Computer kept tripping the breaker. Pulled the tower away from the wall and saw a carpet tack strip pushed right through the power cable. Had a perfect little hole exposing the live wire. Anyone else find weird stuff like this hidden behind desks?

3 comments

3 Comments

taraj112mo ago

Wait, was the tack strip actually embedded in the cable or just laying on top of it?

smith.blair2mo ago

Genuinely not sure, I was too busy trying to fish a six inch strip of carpet tack out of my rental's vacuum hose while pretending I knew what I was doing. My proudest moment was probably when I yanked on it and the whole vacuum shot backwards like a rocket. Taught me a valuable lesson about reading the room, or in this case, reading the floor before you clean it.

perry.jessica23d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly I think it was probably just laying on top. Those tack strips have those little pins that poke up and they love to grab onto vacuum hoses. Must have been sitting there loose on the carpet and the vacuum just sucked it right up against the cable. If it was actually embedded in the cable you'd have seen way more damage or a total short. That would have been a much bigger problem than a stuck vacuum.