Tiling Around the Electrical Outlets

I received an email asking about how I tiled around my electrical outlets. 

The question exactly was: Did you have to move the boxes forward a bit so the outlets were flush with the tile instead of still flush with the sheetrock?

The direct answer is No, I didn't move the gang boxes at all. 

You of course have options on how to do your outlets. Initially thought we would use the bumper things, they're called plaster boxes, mud rings, and/or box extenders... the ones we bought are metal. They come in different thicknesses too. You have to put them on before you tile though.  This particular double gang box had one on for months.  Handy Hunk put it on there for me because I could not get the switches to line up perfectly, which doesn't work for putting on faceplates. 

They screw directly into the gang box, as you can see above. I just didn't feel like messing around with them. Handy Hunk, who happens to be an electrician among other things, didn't have it as #1 on his priority list. SO, I got tired of waiting. What I did was that I simply unscrewed the outlets then pulled the outlets out of the gang boxes in the wall.

Then I made sure to cut my tile as close as possible to the gang box opening size.

Careful not to cover the holes for the screws (I had to fix one little spot with my tile clippers :-) ) 

Then when I put the outlets back the little wings (on the top and bottom of the outlets its the metal part with the really far apart Mickey Mouse ears :-) ) could rest on the tile. So, my outlets won't sink back into the gang boxes.  This is where the 2" machine screws #6/32 went to work.  I used those to secure the outlet back to the gang box.  I already had longer faceplate screws.   So I used them.

This is what I ended up with.   Nice flush outlet and faceplate that covered it perfectly.

Hope this helps!