I have an older home with very few grounded outlets. I pulled the wires out of the wall on one outlet to find that there is not even a grounding wire present. How do I ground that box without calling an electrician?

 

hello,
there r several ways u can do this.
best and safest way in my opnion is to pull new wire from panel.
another option that is used frequently is 2 pull a green wire into the box and attach it to a water pipe this works only if the water pipe is metal. another way is to pull in the green and attach it to a ground rod. pullin in the green doesnt fix the outdated wireing thats why i say pulling in new wire is safest and best. if u need help on how 2 pull in wnew wire let me know and ill help u

 

A little electrical theory is necessary here to fully understand what happens and why things are done the way they are to protect people.
There is only one way to correct a non-grounded system by grounding. That is to pull in a new circuit wire that has a ground. This ground must always be tied into the electrical system as a whole. It must at some point be tied into the common which is the neutral. This is done in the main panel and thus back to the meter. The ground rod is only for the purpose of giving a ground fault a rapid path to ground if needed. If don properly, it theoriticaly never gets that far because it will create such a large load on your hot part of the circuit that it will trip the breaker, blow the fuse.
By attaching a great wire or ground to either a water pipe that is not bonded to the service will merely electrify the water pipes. If your system has not been updated, you water pipes are not bonded, I can assure you. This goes back only about 30 or 40 years.
Putting it on an independent ground rod will only ensure that you will have a massive electric bill as all the curent will be fed into the ground. Again, you will not trip any breakers because it is an independent ground.
The only second way to have a psudo-type of ground is to istall GFI receptacles or breakers on your circuits. This is acceptable by the NEC, but is not considered a grounded circuit. It protects only because you will have created an uneven load with a short and that is what trips the GFI device.

 

lol long winded version saying same thing here. david i told him safest and best was to pull in new wire

 

Granted Spky,
However, I think it should be left at that. To give other options that are not acceptable or to let them assume their suggestions might be OK may be dangereous. In your previous answer in mentioning the water pipe and ground rod, I know you know, but you assumed they knew that their system would necessarily needed to be bonded in order for this option to work safely.
It is difficult sometimes to put into words what you are thinking because we may make assumptions that they are not making nor know anything about.

 

hi david this is verry true, it is harder to put in wrighting then just do it , and i do asume things or just over look them.....i think im getting better at it though...or at least i hope i am

 

Hey guys -
The GREAT thing about these forums is that people ALWAYS can benefit from more than one opinion! Our moderators help ensure that questions get answered, and other visitors to our site are always WELCOME to give their advice as well (and there have been times in a number of forums that advice has been conflicting!)
However, we at DoItYourself really appreciate everyone's time and effort in answering questions. I think EVERYONE learns a little something from every post - I know I certainly do!
SO thank you BOTH for your input!

Lydia
DoItYourself.com