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Home > Archive > Home Repair forum > July 2005 > Retro Grounding Outlets
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Retro Grounding Outlets
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| Gordon Parks 2005-07-29, 12:21 am |
| Just bought a house, built in 1963, that only has grounded outlets in the
bathrooms, kitchen and the outside outlets. These outlets are GFCI and they
do trip when the test button is pressed. The rest of the outlets in the
house are not grounded. I removed one of the outlets to see if there was a
ground wire in the box. No such luck. Light tugging on the wires tells me
that they are probably stapled inside the wall. Do I have to run all new
wire back to the panel or can I run an additional wire (Green?) to the
outlets? I haven't even started looking at light fixtures yet.
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| If the cable is BX you can ground the outlets to the box
"Gordon Parks" <flashgp@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:9qgGe.11013$6M3.4781@trnddc03...
> Just bought a house, built in 1963, that only has grounded outlets in the
> bathrooms, kitchen and the outside outlets. These outlets are GFCI and
> they do trip when the test button is pressed. The rest of the outlets in
> the house are not grounded. I removed one of the outlets to see if there
> was a ground wire in the box. No such luck. Light tugging on the wires
> tells me that they are probably stapled inside the wall. Do I have to run
> all new wire back to the panel or can I run an additional wire (Green?) to
> the outlets? I haven't even started looking at light fixtures yet.
>
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| Gordon wrote:Just bought a house, built in 1963, that only has grounded
outlets in the
bathrooms, kitchen and the outside outlets. These outlets are GFCI and
they
do trip when the test button is pressed. The rest of the outlets in the
house are not grounded. I removed one of the outlets to see if there
was a
ground wire in the box. No such luck. Light tugging on the wires tells
me
that they are probably stapled inside the wall. Do I have to run all
new
wire back to the panel or can I run an additional wire (Green?) to the
outlets? I haven't even started looking at light fixtures yet.
1963? Did
you do a proper testing of the outlet and box to see if it's grounded?
It could be that the wires are in conduit, and the ground
connection_is_ the conduit, or the boxes could be connected externally.
Take your tester, stick one lead into the hot(small)slot, and touch the
other lead to the screw in the center or to the box itself. If it
lights up, you're good to go. If not, you've got some fishing to do. Tom
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| Steve B. 2005-07-29, 2:21 am |
| On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 02:23:01 GMT, "Gordon Parks" <flashgp@verizon.net>
wrote:
>Just bought a house, built in 1963, that only has grounded outlets in the
>bathrooms, kitchen and the outside outlets. These outlets are GFCI and they
>do trip when the test button is pressed. The rest of the outlets in the
>house are not grounded. I removed one of the outlets to see if there was a
>ground wire in the box. No such luck. Light tugging on the wires tells me
>that they are probably stapled inside the wall. Do I have to run all new
>wire back to the panel or can I run an additional wire (Green?) to the
>outlets? I haven't even started looking at light fixtures yet.
>
The outlets that you think are grounded are most likely not grounded
either. Someone most likely upgraded to the GFCI stuff at some point
nad didn't put on the stickers to tell you there was no equipment
ground.
If you need a ground in certain locations you can have new wiring run
to that location but unless you have a specific need for a ground just
leave it be....
Steve B.
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| tom wrote:
> 1963? Did
> you do a proper testing of the outlet and box to see if it's grounded?
> It could be that the wires are in conduit, and the ground
> connection_is_ the conduit, or the boxes could be connected externally.
> Take your tester, stick one lead into the hot(small)slot, and touch the
> other lead to the screw in the center or to the box itself. If it
> lights up, you're good to go. If not, you've got some fishing to do. Tom
>
Testers using a neon light will light up with a very small current and
will not detect a reliable ground. Using a 100W light bulb would be a
lot more reliable.
Bud--
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| As Bud has noted, those receptacle testers can only report a
defect. They cannot report good conditions such as a good
ground. They can only report a bad ground. Why? Bud provided
the example.
tom wrote:
> 1963? Did you do a proper testing of the outlet and box to
> see if it's grounded? It could be that the wires are in conduit,
> and the ground connection_is_ the conduit, or the boxes could be
> connected externally. Take your tester, stick one lead into the
> hot(small)slot, and touch the other lead to the screw in the
> center or to the box itself. If it lights up, you're good to go.
> If not, you've got some fishing to do. Tom
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