Water pipe electrode

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wirebender

wirebender

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North Central Texas
I have an old building which has galvanized water supply.

The plumbers have changed over to PVC inside a cutout in the bathrooms which will be enclosed, so the water line will not be accessible.

Do I have to use this as an electrode?

How would I do this and it still be accessible?

Can the connection be made outside underground?
 
wirebender said:
I have an old building which has galvanized water supply.

The plumbers have changed over to PVC inside a cutout in the bathrooms which will be enclosed, so the water line will not be accessible.

Do I have to use [water supply] as an electrode? Yes.

How would I do this and it still be accessible? You answer yourself with your next question...

Can the connection be made outside underground? Yes. See Exception No. 1 to 250.68(A) regarding buried electrode connections.
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Replies.
 
Exception No. 1: An encased or buried connection to a
concrete-encased, driven, or buried grounding electrode
shall not be required to be accessible.


I guess i always thought this was talking about electrodes we buried.

Seems to me it would be better to make the connection inside, though.
 
wirebender said:
...

Seems to me it would be better to make the connection inside, though.
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I agree... but the details you provided don't leave much in the way of options. There isn't any location where the remaining metal portion of the water line would be accessible inside?
 
wirebender said:
it's in a trough in the concrete slab in the bathrooms which will be closed in by walls.
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I cannot make any sense of that.

Water lines are in an otherwise accessible trough, but the walls are going to be on top of the trough making it inaccessible afterwards?

Or do you mean the water lines are trenched into the bathroom, and the trench will be backfilled including concrete slab on top?
 
Trench may be a better word, but i didn't want to give the impression that the concrete had been cut out to run the plumbing in.

The trench appears to be leave a "leave out" in the slab with the water line and cast iron sewer, about 18" wide and a foot deep.

There is a wall on each side of the trench, separating the area into two restrooms.

It will not be filled in with concrete.
 
Is the cut out in the bathroom within 5' of where the pipe enters the building? If so then an access panel can be put there.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Is the cut out in the bathroom within 5' of where the pipe enters the building? If so then an access panel can be put there.
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I would say it is where the pipe enters the building. The pipe is under the slab until it enters the cut out.

This is a slab on grade, I keep forgetting y'all think of basements and crawl spaces. :D

I think I'll just connect there and let the inspector sort it out.

Thanks everyone.
 
wirebender said:
I would say it is where the pipe enters the building. The pipe is under the slab until it enters the cut out.

This is a slab on grade, I keep forgetting y'all think of basements and crawl spaces. :D

I think I'll just connect there and let the inspector sort it out.

Thanks everyone.
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If there's a meter, where's it at?

How deep is the water line outside?

Otherwise, yeah, if in the trench is metal, it'll be considered buried, and will not need to be accessible... but you best get inspector to see it there before trench is backfilled and slab repaired.
 
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wirebender said:
Trench may be a better word, but i didn't want to give the impression that the concrete had been cut out to run the plumbing in.

The trench appears to be leave a "leave out" in the slab with the water line and cast iron sewer, about 18" wide and a foot deep.

There is a wall on each side of the trench, separating the area into two restrooms.

It will not be filled in with concrete.
Click to expand...

Smart $ said:
If there's a meter, where's it at?

How deep is the water line outside?

Otherwise, yeah, if in the trench is metal, it'll be considered buried, and will not need to be accessible... but you best get inspector to see it there before trench is backfilled and slab repaired.
Click to expand...

The concrete will not be repaired or backfilled.
it will be left as is, with a wall on each side.

I don't know how deep the water line is outside.
 
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