In the middle of a relatively cosmetic bathroom upgrade and went to change out the old Hollywood light fixture. I opened the wall to add in a new junction box, but came across this random piece of wood behind the wall. Its vertical (the photo may be turned sideways) but is not a stud as it doesn't go all the way down the wall and is maybe only 0.5" thick. Any thoughts on what it could be? Is it ok to cut it out?
Looks suspiciously like "I'll put board back here to screw the fixture to, and run wire there, with no box" - which would be a fairly major code violation and increase the scope of your work to correct it and make it safe.
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You can get rid of the board, but correcting the situation will probably involve a bit more than just cutting it out (i.e. you may need to cut and repair drywall, but that's very much in the "relatively cosmetic" sphere, and not so terribly dificult without complicating factors like tiles or a textured finish, especially if your cosmetic upgrade already includes painting.) I'm dubious that you can just cut out the board and successfully mount an "old-work" box there, as the remains of the board would be in the way.
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