Pool Additions

[spark master]

Big house renovation. Pool Renovation. Addition of pool ladders & pool Railings for the pool stairs. The bonding grid is no where to be found. Some of the deck is ripped up, but they don't want to rip any more of the deck.

Can they drive a ground rod next to the railing cup, and bond the cup to the ground rod? and call it a day ?
I say no, some people say yes; and it's commonly done on reno's.

Some say the bonding grid is so deteriorated after 10 years, it makes no difference.

Someone else says bond it to the rebar, and back fill it.

I'm wondering what is the right thing, that is 100% right & acceptable.

 

[infinity]

You cannot use a ground rod. Can you find the equipotential bonding conductor that is bonding the pool pump or other equipment and run the new one to it?

 

[spark master]

I see the #8 wire rising from the dirt, to the pool panel. That is the only place I see the equipotential bonding conductor.

Now we want a ladder & railing 100' from the pool panel.
We thought it would be easier to find the copper, & dug down 24" by the ladder install area.

Are you saying our choice is to trench back to the pool panel.... or deck box. and then split lug to the equipotential bonding conductor ??

 

[spark master]

I just OHMed (checked resistance) from the rebar at the proposed ladder location, to the equipotential bonding conductor in the pump equipment area.

I get 400 ohms. Is that considered a lot ? I used a regular DVM.

My thought was to bond the ladder to the rebar. But that leaves 400 ohms of resistance to develop a voltage drop if there is a problem.

 

[GoldDigger]

If you read 400 ohms, then you cannot have a good earth connection on both sides. You absolutely do not have the required metallic connection you would expect if there were a proper equipotential grid.

The wire at the pump could just be an EGC for all we know, but the pump normally would have both an EGC connection and an equipotential grid connection.
If the installer cut corners the wire may just be stuck into earth or concrete.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[infinity]

Using the rebar with 400 ohms of resistance is useless and dangerous. Have you checked the existing metal parts to see what the resistance is between them and the pool pump? If it's near zero then I would connect to the EBC at the pool pump. Better yet ask the inspector how to do it since he will signing off on it.

 

[spark master]

I'm not sure why I'm calling it rebar. It's the wire lathe in the cement sub-deck. Appears to be 10 gauge or 8 gauge wire lathe. I guess it strengthens the cement which is under the slate pool deck. That has 400 ohms to the equipotential bonding conductor. Would this wire lathe normally be bonded to the equipotential bonding conductor grid?

About the bonding wire from the heater & pumps, to the equipotential bonding conductor. There is none, never was apparently. Even the permanent pool heater doesn't have anything into it's bonding lug. The motors have a corded plug only. Nothing into the lug. I don't see any bare copper behind the motors.... thinking a pool boy never connected the pumps properly. Or even did something with the bare copper when the pumps were removed for the winter. So this only shows the original install was never done correctly.

As far as I'm reading your informative answers... it seems we need to trench back to the panel area, and drop a #8 copper in the ground from the proposed ladder & railings to the equipotential bonding conductor which is tied to the pool panel ground bar. Is that correct ??

 

[Little Bill]

You don't need to connect the EP bonding conductor to the panel. It only needs to connect to the grid, (whatever they have, could be just a #8 circling the pool) to the pump, other equipment associated with the pool and anything metal within the EPB boundaries.
Likely the water bond wasn't required when the pool was installed but it would be a good idea to bond it as well while you're into it.

 

[infinity]

Just my opinion but if I were to do any work on this pool I would make sure that everything, even the existing stuff is properly bonded. Improperly installed pols are potentially dangerous and could create potential liability. Just factor it into the cost of the job. If not, I wouldn't touch it.