grounding outlets

My husband and I bought an older home (1939) and none of the outlets are grounded. where do we begin and where are we going once we wire the outlet? To the breaker box?

Someone mentioned that there are adapters for two prong appliances that come with a ground wire that you screw into the face plate. Do those work?

 

you will need to install a grounding wire from each receptacle to the box it is in. these grounding tail can be purchased at most any home improvment store, and comes with a green screw that will screw into the back of the box.

 

A good starting place for this kind of job is to get a good DIYer book and read, it would prepare you for what you are going to get yourself into. As well as giving you the ability to know what tools you might require and what material you are likely to need.
You can run new wires to each receptacle with a ground wire in them and go back to the panel. This however is not always practical. You must make connection to each device on the circuit right back to the panel, which can cause multiple problems in reaching certain areas without removing a lot of Drywall to get access

The other method is to change out the 2 prong receptacles and install a GFCI in their place. Then labeling the receptacle as a none grounded one (these labels are usually provided with the GFCI. This will meet the code and offer you some protection to the devises that are plugged into it.

The adapters your talking about only work if you have a grounded receptacle in the first place.

Hope this helps a little

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You can re-place the existing receptacles with Grounding-type receptacles if the outlet boxes inside the walls are metal and if the cables between the boxes are metal cables.Because the cables inside the wall are not visible, look at any exposed cables and the cables connected to the Service panel.At any receptacle outlet you should "read" 120 volts Black-to-White,120 volts Black-to-Ground (the metal of the box/cable is Ground) and Zero volts White-to-Ground. Zero volts Black-to-Ground indicate an absence of Ground and 120 volts White-to-Ground indicates "reversed polarity"----Good Luck!!!

 

Also start with the kitchen and laundry, baths too,, some rooms 2 prong are ok,, usually bedrooms where the only stuff plugged in is 2 prong. In my dads house I upgrade where needed.

 

All good ideas--
I've been having problems mainly in my Kitchen. I'm still not sure whether its my microwave acting up, or if the outlet can't handle the voltage etc... I've moved it to the only open outlets. It blows the breaker at least once a day....

I'll try the GFCI's and upgrading the kitchen for now.

Thanks!