Grounding Rods

[petersonra]

No inspections back then.

I wonder what the op has to say about it.

 

[packersbay]

Who prefers it?

Is it a code violation or is it fine to bury in trench. Cant find nothing in code book

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Is it a code violation or is it fine to bury in trench. Cant find nothing in code book

There is no burial depth for the grounding electrode conductor. We usually put it a few inches in the dirt

 

[James L]

I wired quite a few houses 20 years ago in a golf course subdivision of mountain-ish terrain. Rock bed was only a foot or so down in a lot of places.

I remember the first time I tried to drive a rod (6 feet at the time) and hit that rock less than a foot down. I moved around at least 20 times - inches away, feet away, no luck.

I finally just scraped a channel in the dirt and laid the rod in it. Told the builder to add dirt.

I later thought - I wonder if I should have tried right up next to the foundation. Surely there's got to be a small crease where they dug or blasted to dig the basement

 

[geoffgelectric]

I would use an SDS 60” x / 5/8” to blast through it! Guarantee you hit something soft eventually. If not .. put an extension bit on it and go further!!


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[petersonra]

I would use an SDS 60” x / 5/8” to blast through it! Guarantee you hit something soft eventually. If not .. put an extension bit on it and go further!!


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Speaking of blasting, I was watching a YouTube video the other day of a guy doing some prospecting out in the wild. He was drilling holes maybe an inch deep in rock and then putting some kind of a blasting device in it. When The device was detonated it made a nice crack and opened up the rock face a lot more than you would have thought for the little bit of noise it made. apparently it's basically a charge that drives a wedge in the rock face..

That could solve your problem!

Another YouTube video I saw not long ago a guy was putting in a wooden lamp pole. There was bedrock only a few inches underground there so he brought in an excavator that had a jackhammer on it and jackhammered a hole into the ground deep enough to set the pole.

Another guy I saw jackhammered slots in the bedrock for his septic leach field. Personally I was unconvinced this was a good idea I'm not sure where the water would go.

 

[hillbilly1]

I’ve been trying with jack hammer

I’ve been able to get through rock like that, but slow process. If that didn’t get it, probably nothing else will. Though I have found the jack hammers at the big Orange rental don’t have the wallop the ones from the contractor rentals do. If you can get it on top of the rod by yourself without much trouble, it’s probably light duty.

 

[Fred B]

Have you considered 250.52(A)(3) concrete encased electrode? Would it be acceptable to lay in 20ft of rod next to the footing and encase with concrete adjacent to footing essentially extending the footer? I don't see a minimum depth requirement associated with this form of grounding electrode other than the 2in of concrete.

 

[packersbay]

I finally got it, after digging as far as I could, then I drill down thru rock, that ground rod went in using a jack hammer on it.