Our 30-year-old cement fountain in the back yard finally fell apart. In the 7 years we've lived here, we never used it as a fountain because it had obvious leaks. My wife planted flowers in it. But now it's fallen apart and we had it hauled away.

Revealed under the fountain was a typical 3-prong electrical outlet (switched from inside the house). It's not in good shape and would need to be replaced if we ever wanted something electric there again. I'm thinking a waterfall or something would look better than this naked outlet.

My polarity tester shows Hot and Neutral are reversed. I guess it wasn't installed by a pro. And there's a third thick white wire emerging from a separate conduit. I guess the white wire is ground? I wonder why it's separate from the hot & neutral. Can anyone confirm this looks like a ground wire?

What would you do to rehab this outlet?

 

You'll probably need to start over. The wiring is in bad condition, and looks like only an indoor type. Can you dig down beside it to determine if the conduit is continuous or if it only goes through the slab? Can you tell where the circuit originates and is there conduit on that side?

 

I can only dig a few feet before I run into concrete deck. Other, equally old, wiring around the home is properly inside conduit, so I presume these wires are, too.

I was secretly hoping the answer would be "just cut and strip the wires and attach a new outlet." Not good enough?