How to Wire a Lamp

I thought I should talk to you about wiring a lamp because this is something that you might have to do. The fact is that over time the wiring inside the light is going to get weak and sometimes even break. Fixing it is a waste of time because there could be a million problems and you'll be looking for a needle in a haystack. It is easier to buy new wires and set this up on your own. Before you get scared, this isn't that complicated. You'd be surprised how simple a light works when you get to see the inside of it.

Preparation

When it comes to preparation you don't really have much to do here. You'll need to go out and buy wiring for the lamp. This should be quite simple to find at any home improvement store. You just have to make sure that you get one of the applicable length. Obviously the taller your light, the more you're going to need.

Starting will require you to unplug the lamp and take it to a place where you can work (like a garage). Unplugging is very important because you won't want to be playing with live wires. You'll also want to remove the light bulb because you could very easily break it and create a whole mess.

Removing the Bulb Socket

This isn't quite as difficult as most people would think. If you don't know what the socket is, it is just the thing you screw the light bulb into. Typically you can just unscrew the actual socket itself. It really depends on the make of the light. Sometimes it will have a nut on it that you will have to loosen before you can remove the socket. Obviously if you see a bolt, loosen it. If you don't, just try and unscrew the actual socket.

As the socket lets go and you start pulling away from the lamp, you're going to notice that there are wires connected to it. There will be two screws holding these wires to the socket. All you have to do is unscrew them and disconnect them from the actual socket. At this point all you have to do is go down to the base (bottom) of the lamp and pull the actual wires out. It's just a matter of pulling on the wire that you plug directly into wall.

Adding in the New Wire

At this point you should know exactly what to do since this is just reverse engineering. You're going to run the new wiring that you got up from the base (bottom) of the light. Just keep pushing it up until you see the wires come out where you screw on the socket. Typically you'll have to strip the wires once you get them up at the top. Just a little bit is needed, like around 3/8 of an inch should do. You just screw the wires back onto the socket.

At this point you just screw your socket back onto the lamp or if there is a bolt you just have to tighten it. That's really all there is to it. As you can see it is pretty simple to do and you can typically get this done in about 5-10 minutes of your time. Obviously before you start celebrating you'll want to test it out first and make sure it works, but that's all you really have to do.