Grounding Rod

[rexrodi@]

I was told my house lacks a needed grounding rod or electrode as they called it. How do I correct this kind of problem? Was told a little masonry work goes with this requirement. Need help and answers...
Thanks a lot.

Hafa Adai!

Hafa Adai!

[handyandy]

Do you mean for your electrical panel? I see many houses without them, why did they tell you that you need one?

Nevertheless, a grounding rod is placed into the ground, and then wired to your electrical panel to ground it. Often this is done by placing a small hole in the masonry. Is that what you mean?

Make sense?

Hafa Adai! Welcome to Home Repair Forum!

[rexrodi@]

Thanks for the reply, said it it needed to address a rare but possible occurence of ground faults where this will serve as protection or something.As my house is old the said a two-wiring system does not conform the current 3-wire system of today. Will it be electrically just to ignore this suggestion?

Hafa Adai!

[handyandy]

No I think it is a good idea. Isn't that hard to do. Are you going to try it yourself? You could probably install the grounding rod, and then have an electrician actually make the connections, if you felt confident.

Keep in mind that this will only ground the electrical panel. If your wiring throughout your house is only two wires (no ground) then the plugs won't be grounded still. So it depends on what they are suggesting you ground.

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[rexrodi@]

Thanks handydandy for the advice, I may have to do the grounding installation as preparation for the electrician to come for the main panel, what do I need and how? Appreciate very much your assistance.



Hafa Adai!

[Dan O.]

There are a couple of ways you can accomplish the grounding. If you are in a part of the country where the ground is relatively damp (Not Sand), then you may be able to connect it to the Water Service coming into the home. You will need a braded copper cable (minimum 6 AWG) to connect it to the pipe, and it must be connected both before and after the water meter. Otherwise you can put a Rod into the ground outside of the foundation and put a hole in the wall to connect the cable to it and you electrical panel. Or drill a hole in your foundation and install rod underneath. Be careful if you decide to drill, you may hit a rock and end out perforating your basement. To conform to code you must have the ground rod at least 8' long and achieve less than 25 ohm resistance from the panel connection to ground. This page looks like it is a good reference (yaay google!) https://hosta.atsc.eustis.army.mil/c...en5144/le1.htm