In an older house, i need to install a ground wire, how do i do this.?

Answer 1

If you need to do this for every outlet, you would have to tear off most of your drywall/plaster, rewire the house, and put it back up. If you need it for one outlet, you can find a nearby copper water pipe and attach the ground (bare/green) wire to the copper pipe.

Answer 2

There is an answer here about grounding to your cold water pipe. I HIGHLY recommend not doing this. Your pipes may be copper in the house but there could be some insulator to prevent the ground from getting to earth. The most typical is at your water meter, there is usually a gasket on each side of the meter that works as a great insulator. Also, a lot of utility companies have switched to plastic or PVC pipes. If you are on a well system, your pipe to the well is probably plastic. Any insulator preventing your ground from getting to earth will cause your metallic pipes to become electrified.

Grounding should only be done by a licensed electrician. If your service is ungrounded you could get electrocuted by installing a ground. The electrocution would come from unknown faults. Don't take this as me discouraging you from grounding your electrical system, I just think you should leave this to a professional. I truly believe your electrical service needs to be gounded.

You need to ground your electrical service at the first point of disconnect. The best ground out there is a "ufer" ground. This is 20 feet of rebar encased in your concrete foundation. However, I doubt you have this.

Water pipes are a good grounding electrode if all metalic and extending 10 feet or more underground outside of your house. However, we save water pipes as a last resort.

You may also pound 1 - 8' x 5/8" (minimum size) galvanized ground rod. This will require a #6 ground wire to it. The NEC requires 25 ohms of resistance for your ground. If you do not have 25 ohms, you only need to pound 1 more ground rod, six feet away from your other ground rod. You do not need to keep installing ground rods until you reach 25 ohms.

Answer 3

You need to start with a grounding rod if there is not one in place, such as a direct earth feed to the building from the mains power input cable. From the grounding (earth) rod you can take the main earthing wires for the house circuits, in the UK these earth wires would need to be 10mm squared cross sectional area copper wire. Grounding rods are usually made from at least 12 mm diameter copper rod hammered into the ground a good distance - 2 ft at least but preferably 31/2 feet You should get details of the building wiring regulations for this task before you start and the installation should be tested by a professional electrician before use.

Answer 4

Call a professional electrician. The ground wire is a safety switch which directs errant electrical current to a safe discharge. There are a number of rules involved in properly grounding a circuit and if not followed could easily result in death or property damage. Make sure you call out several electricians and have them bid against each other.
You've not explained why you need "a ground wire" and I can only assume it is because you have a three prong plug but only a two prong outlet, being that it is an older home huh?
If this is the case your municipality might allow you to swap out that 2 prong outlet with a GFCI outlet (the one with the buttons between the upper and lower outlet that read "Test" & "Reset") and using the label that comes with the GFCI stick the label on the outlet that reads "No equipment Ground" which just alerts all persons that there is not effective ground at that outlet and I'm into working smart and not hard! :)

Answer 5

I think I would make sure that you don't already have grounds installed...usually in older homes, each box has a separate ground running to it in the walls, OR if metal guard wiring is used the metal guard is the ground wire. Don't go tearing out anything until you KNOW there are no grounds running. This would have to be a very old house (pre 40's) to not have a ground wire running from box to box.

Answer 6

one if code permits / go to the cold water pipe and secure to it with a pipe clamp made specificly for this (harware store )/ but the best way is to install a ground rod 5/8 x 8 solid copper electrode into the ground with a fence post pounder and use the appropriate clamp and minimum grd wire 6 g solid wire or stranded green color coated pvc nylon jacketed wire thhn/thhw

Answer 7

Hi,
6 sq mm cu wire cable fixed with cu rod make 1 m depth 15 mm dia hole , insert the rod and fill with salt,charcoal,sand up to top of rod connect the next end in to Nutral or call experienced Electrician Bye bye sambomahadeva

Answer 8

If you have to ask, you shouldn't be doing it. Call an electrician. If your house isn't grounded and you want it to be so. You to have it done professionally according to your local codes.

Answer 9

install a lightning rod to your roof,install a ground cable to it
and sink it in the ground

Answer 10

If you don't know, get a professional. Electricity is not something to be played with. You could hurt yourself or burn down your new house by doing it wrong.