Premo Rockout Drywall Outlet Hole Cutter
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Premo Rockout Review
The owner of a new product called the Premo Rock Out contacted me to take a look at her product video. You can see the Premo Rockout Video here. I took a look at the video and then contacted the owner to see if she was willing to send me a product to test and do a review. She agreed and sent me the product.
This Premo Rock Out product allows you to cut out an opening around an electrical box perfectly without having to remove the drywall from the wall or use a saw or power cutting tool like a dremel and possibly damage wires. Rather, the Premo Rock Out cuts through the drywall like a punch press cuts out jig saw puzzle pieces. You place pins into the outlet box where the electrical outlet will be fastened, press the drywall in place so the pins push through, place a guide plate over the pins, and then hammer on the cutter to cut out the drywall piece. You then pull the drywall cutter off and a plug of drywall is removed leaving a perfect sized hole.
Results and Observations
To do this trial, I fastened a blue plastic outlet box about 3 ft above the floor on the back side of our unfinished basement utility stud wall. I then fastened a half sheet of drywall with two screws up about 2 ft above the floor. What happened was after I pounded a few times on the drywall punch, the sheet shifted down and the top edge of my hole was pushed out. After I realized what happened, I tried again, this time with a sheet resting on the floor and securely fastened in place at the edges (which would be a typical situation for most wall outlets). The product worked perfectly, cutting a clean hole, as shown in the photos below. So in summary, if you use this product, make sure the sheet does not shift as you are hammering. If the outlet is up high - the sheet can be secured with 6 or 8 drywall screws at the edges and perhaps supported from below with a temporary two by four. This product could potentially be a big time saver on large jobs - I think it would be worth a try for professionals or those that decide to put up their own drywall on their new home. Another note: The guide plate makes a reliable guide for cutting a perfect hole, even if you do not use the cutout punch. So even if you decided to not use the punch cutter, the guide plate will serve as a means of always cutting out your hole with precision with whatever tool you use.
A Note About Drywall and Remodeling
One should note that this is a product for new construction. If you are cutting holes around existing wired outlets with receptacles, you can mark locations with a dab of ketchup on a rag dabbed onto the outlets that then allows you to make imprints of the exact locations of the outlets - this works! See my article at Naturalhandyman.com where I used this method.
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