I been doing wood-frame residential wiring for years, but now I want to do a little rewiring in a newly-constructed condo with metal stud walls, which appears to be built to commercial codes.

Despite otherwise good design, it has one of those wall switches that controls half of a duplex receptacle. I hate those things -- it's gotta go. What I've got is a metal box with a neutral, a hot, and a (now capped off) switched hot.

I want to run a length of romex behind the wall, from the box near the floor directly upward to a spot as close to the ceiling as I can reach, where I would bring the cable back outside the wall & mount a flush box for a permanent fixture.

There's no ground wire -- evidently the box is grounded through the structure? Or through ground wires connecting the boxes? This is really uncharted territory for me. I don't even know whether or not the receptacle and switch boxes are adjacent to studs, as they invariably are with wood framing?

I have much experience with the Wiremold (surface mount) system but the, um, architectural committee has vetoed that approach. (Mrs. Professor thinks it would look tacky here, and I tend to agree. I'll probably have to re-think the proposed tool pegboard for the living room, too. )

Anyhow, is it possible to run a cable (containing the switched hot, along with neutral & gnd) out of the metal receptable box and up the wall? Is it safe? I'm a little worried about untethered cable possibly ending up just behind the drywall in places. Murphy's Law says that's the exact spot where I'll decide to drive a screw later.

If you're concerned about drilling, nailing. or screws at some future; why not use BX or greenfield instead of Romex? I don't think I'd hesitate to fish a cable of any sort from a receptacle to a new outlet higher on the same wall, if I understand the problem you describe.

Yes, I just want an outlet above the existing one. I'm used to plastic boxes with plenty of room inside, or else cutting away some of the drywall to gain access to the outside of the box. Here I'm trying to work from the confines of the inside of a fairly small metal box. Bx would have to be attached from the box's outside, right? Sounds like I'll inevitably have to cut away some drywall above the box & patch later. Do you see a "cleaner" way to do this?

BTW, how do you locate metal studs in a wall? All I know is that a so-called stud-finder uses some kind of wood densitometry, and before that people used something like a magnetic compass to locate nailheads driven into wooden studs.

Can't answer to wire pulling but I can tell that most newer stud finders will point out metal studs.

My building has metal studs and I find them easily.

I think most stud finders also work like metal detectors and locate the nails in wood lumber so it stand to reason that they will find metal studs.

Thanks to you both for responding. This is a vacation home so I didn't have all my tools with me, to actually try out the stud finder.

I guess I'll cut away some of the drywall above the electrical box & try to attach some armored cable to it, to run behind the wall. We have matching wall paint to hide the repair if I can get the texture to match.

Another question: Normally when attaching hardware to a wall (hooks, shelf brackets, etc.) I try to FIND wood studs to drive long screws into. With metal studs construction, you have to AVOID the studs and just use short drywall screws or toggle bolts for heavier loads -- is that right? Or are there screws that you can actually drive through drywall into steel studs?

Metal studs are just sheet metal bent to form a stud shape. I find it very difficult to hang anything of weight to them.

For minor loads, I use a plastic anchor that you just push in a hole you drill in the wall.

For medium loads, I use an anchor that drills in to the wall. They have a higher holding power.

For heavy loads, you need a toggle bolts or mollies.

See this site for more on Anchors.

Thanks for your helpful answer.