It's not necessary to ground a plastic box, is it?


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Old 05-31-13, 09:22 AM
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It's not necessary to ground a plastic box, is it?

A friend is adding a small linen closet in the corner of his bathroom.This will require moving a receptacle. [I think that's the correct term for the wall plug]
I've done a few small electrical tasks for him, and will do this one.
It is an "end of run" receptacle, GFCI protected (upstream) to code, etc. It will require running about 6 ft of cable to get to the new location.
I plan to replace the plastic receptacle box with a plastic junction box, keeping it accessible of course, and splice the wires inside that box to those in the extending cable. (black-black, white-white, ground-ground).
When I explained this to my friend, he asked "How are you going to ground the (plastic) junction box?"

I didn't think that that was necessary. Is it ? I know that you have to ground metal boxes, but plastic?

Side question- the receptacle that I'm removing is a 4-plug size. Could I use that as the junction box?
 
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Old 05-31-13, 09:32 AM
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No, you don't have to ground a plastic junction box. I have no clue how one would accomplish such a feat anyway. Obviously do not use a metal cover.

Sure, you can use the existing box to make your splices rather than yanking the thing out of there.

I would sure like to see the wiring in your friend's house.
 
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Old 05-31-13, 02:16 PM
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No, you don't have to ground a plastic junction box. I have no clue how one would accomplish such a feat anyway. Obviously do not use a metal cover.

Sure, you can use the existing box to make your splices rather than yanking the thing out of there.

I would sure like to see the wiring in your friend's house.
Thanks, Core. When he asked that, I was like "huh?" it has never crossed my mind to attempt to ground a plastic box. Then I thought the saying goes "you don't know what you don't know", so I figured I'd ask, just to be safe.

Actually, from what I have seen, the wiring in his house looks pretty good-because he never handles the electrical work. His finish carpentry, on the other hand, is amazing!
 
 

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