i'm buying a 1960 built house in az and it has no grounded outlets in any room. can i install the wire or do i need a contractor to do it. if so how much should it cost.
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my electrician just did a whole house (changing outlets and switches and adding grounds) for me and charged me $175 and i charged the customer $200
Howdy, the wiring did not have a ground when your home was built. The grounding was to utilize the neutral wire and Are the boxes metal? If so you can ground to the metal box but unless the wire to the box was metal sheathed back to the panel then you are not grounding like you wish but adding more of window dressing. To run a ground wire from the panel to each outlet is almost impossible at least very costly. In the other post i think you would find that your electrician just grounded to the receptacle boxes and nothing more.box but that none of your receptacles are grounded to the grounding rod of the home- in my opinion you have very false hope of not becoming the best ground if you are involved in a short- i mean the water inside you is a better ground then the building materials around your boxes.
To answer your question, you may install ground wires yourself whether you can or not I can't answer. Besides the ground to the outlets from the main panel you should also make sure you have a ground from the panel to a suitable grounding rod.
Jack
Actually Jack you are not permitted to run a seperate ground. outside of the jacket. If you want to hack it to make it work then go ahead. If you are taking the time to install a ground wire to each box, then why not just install a new cable? You as an alternative, just install replacement 2 prong outlets, if you just want new outlets due to age, paint etc.. And that $175 number is kinda low, depending on how many receptacles...but you get what you pay for sooo..my suggestion would be to plug in a cheap receptale tester, with the 3 led's. just to confirm that infact the receptales are in fact grounded properly.
Ummm, According to the NEC? Nope, you're not right there wirenuts. Start your reading assignment at 250.130 and read through the exceptions to 250.134.
Shuchy derns, NEC beat me to it.
Jack
I just read this and now that I'm over my coughing and gasping fit............ Your just kidding right? Or is that a per device price?
Might have been a small house
Jack
Maybe an outhouse:D
A cheap price on a job like that may get you someone cheating the ground back to the service panel via the neutral. It will fool the three light tester but it won't give you a proper equipment ground.