Difficult Advice

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Pierre C Belarge said:
The exception as far as I understand it is for installations that are older and never had an equipment grounding conductor or means.
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I agree that was probably the intent of the sections in question, but they are vague enough to be applicable, IMO.
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I've spliced some short conductors in my short time, and these are essentially nonexistant at the boxes, from what I saw.
 
georgestolz said:
I agree that was probably the intent of the sections in question, but they are vague enough to be applicable, IMO.
happydevil.gif

I've spliced some short conductors in my short time, and these are essentially nonexistant at the boxes, from what I saw.
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I was thinking outloud...kind of. I would say you can tell best from your vantage point.
 
wait wait

wait wait

There is always, sawsall and plaster and new sheetrock, If it were mine, I would probably do a wiremold, or extention and surface conduit to the closes EGC location and bucannan the conductors together. Probably not pretty, but effective.
 
You may get lucky & be able to attach a new piece of NMB to the existing NMB feeding the switch from the receptacle, (if thats how its run), & pull a new one in. If the previous installer cut off the grounds, then perhaps he didnt staple either.
 
I have this situation in several lights around my house :( And some lights and fans do not even have junction boxes! Just had a thought. If the light fixture was large enough to cover it, replace the box with a larger one and maybe that will give you enough of a ground to at least make a splice in there. The problem I see is mounting a light fixture to a larger box when the mounting bracket would be expecting a standard size. I don't even know if they make these.

Hmmm...those GFCI exceptions give me an idea. A light fixture with built-in GFCI protection! I can see the advertising now.

"Some #%&!@*! cut off all your grounds? Introducing GFCI lights! Made to cover the wiring mistakes of pea-brained idiots. Order now and receive a sledghammer absolutely free, good for showing those original "installers" faces what you think of their work!"

patent pending, George. No funny business.

Dave
 
If you can get slack out of the EGC, what about using a WAGO to connect and splice out? Cliff, sometimes it's hard to get your crimper in the back of the box to get a solid crimp on the Bucannon.
 
georgestolz said:
When was bonding for switches and lights first required in the NEC? As old as the remodel is, I wonder if it was compliant at the time, perhaps?
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I think that it came into the 1999 code in 380-9(b). In the 1996 cycle 380-12 required that any metal enclosure be grounded (bonded).
 
Judging from the sticker on the back of the receptacle, from a hardware store that's been extinct long before '96, it very well could have been compliant at the time of installation, in that case.

So, if you were to play home inspector for a moment, what would you recommend? Doing nothing could be code compliant, but it's not safe by today's standards.

Would you recommend having GFCI's installed for the lighting, or simply tell them to leave well enough alone?
 
As the home inspector, I probably wouldn't be able to determine the historical mileposts that you just gave (the price sticker).

As the home inspector, finding the ground missing between a switch plate screw and an adjacent ground (assuming I even checked this), I would call it out as something a licensed electrician should look into. As an HI, I'm not going to open the box. . .

Given the price sticker, I say that a nylon screw cover plate or a invisible screw cover plate is the solution. Since an HI doesn't open boxes, what he can't see, or test, won't catch his attention.
 
Quick fix

Quick fix

If it is possible to install an old work box above the existing recep. I would do so and pull the wires in and connect the grounds properly to new recep. The existing recep gets a blank cover. I do this often when wires burned in box from overheating, usually from loose connection.
 
Funny, Huh?

Funny, Huh?

Pierre C Belarge said:
I think I can remember saying that many times before on situations where we came behind others who had decided to cut the EGC.
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I have seen this many times before....Homeowner (or a 'friend') gets a wild hair and decides to do some remodeling and/or electrical work and cuts off the GEC....I mean, what gives, are people really that (for lack of better words) dumb, and think that bare copper wire is there just for show? "They must just install that bare wire to improve the rigidity of the cable" or something like that....man, it makes me sick. Sorry you had to see your friend buy that house George. You're good, so fix it up as best you can for them.
 
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