I went to put in an outlet with charging ports and found this monstrosity behind the wall plate. The box is filled with expanding foam, I'm guessing as some kind of support? Then painted all over. I scraped it all out, put in outlet spacers and its much better. I think there's foam around the box too, but I'm not gonna worry about that (yet).
Now I get to spend next weekend replacing all the outlets in the house just in case there's any more sketchy "fixes" ๐ซ
After cleaning and replacing:
Honestly, this should be a to do for any new homeowner - the process is easy and the tools are cheap! At bare minimum, everyone should own an outlet tester and just wander around plugging it into stuff.
You would be shocked (or, at least you will be if you don't test) to find out how many outlets have a loose/missing connection or are wired backwards. Takes 30 seconds to fix and could save you a lot of headache.
i just use a paperclip.. also tests the circuit breaker.