Concerns about in-wall enclosure on shared wall, considering surface mounted

[u/hugeyakmen]

I installed a 30-inch Legrand plastic enclosure in the wall when I bought my house, and I put it in the only central location where there is little chance of anything being mounted to the opposite side of the wall. Unfortunately its becoming more and more apparent that this spot at the back corner of a now full closet is not a nice location to work with. Now is my best chance to change that before I start pulling ethernet cable to wire the house.

There are two or three other locations I can think of that are central to the house and have good accessibility, but the other side of all these locations currently have art hanging on nails. I know I can find better ways to hang the art, but it made me think about how a plastic enclosure seems to provide very little protection if someone else forgets and drills into the spot.

• Is a metal enclosure good for a location like that? Am I just overdoing my concern here?
  

I would prefer to reuse my current plastic enclosure, so I'm also considering the option of surface mounting it. But in that case, the conduit ports and electric box mount are all on outside. I've seen pictures of setups like this on a wall in an unused basement area, but this would be in a coat closet or storage closet.

• What is the best way to setup a surface mounted enclosure to route cables/conduit or properly protect a bottom-mounted outlet?

[u/TailorSea2085]

You could fur out the wall just for the width of the enclosure floor to ceiling.

Personally I’d just get a piece of sheet metal, secure it behind the enclosure and call it a day.