Pool Bonding Trouble

[redwolf056]

Customer did a major renovation to a home he purchased. Pool was existing. I'm coming in after the fact. In old photos pre-reno there is what looks like the bonding wire connected to the pool pump. Pool contractor never kept track of it and that wire is buried somewhere now (a concrete footing went in near the equipment so the ground was torn up around there, not sure where the wire is now). Electrician who worked on the house "thinks" he remembers the pool being grounded to the house though, but the job has taken over 2 years so his memory is fuzzy. Pool contractor's main employee may have done something like that, but he quit and disappeared a while ago so can't ask him. Pool deck and turf have already been installed and customer now wants to know if his pool is grounded without tearing it all up. Pool has nichless LEDs the require no bonding, and there are no metal handrails at the steps. I don't see any exposed screws anywhere expect in the skimmer. There is an existing levelor, not sure if that was part of the original bonding. Questions now are -

1) Can I use an Ohm meter to test for bonding if I don't have the ground wire to attach to? Even if I did have the ground wire, what could I even connect the other contact to? Is there some other way to test?

2) Customer is asking what risks he faces if the pool isn't bonded (outside of lightning)?

Thanks for any help/advice.

 

[LarryFine]

1) Can I use an Ohm meter to test for bonding if I don't have the ground wire to attach to? Even if I did have the ground wire, what could I even connect the other contact to? Is there some other way to test?

2) Customer is asking what risks he faces if the pool isn't bonded (outside of lightning)?

Welcome to the forum.

1. No. There is a big difference between grounding any given piece of equipment - and - directly bonding all of the equipment to minimize any voltage difference among them. (a.k.a. equipotential bonding)

2. Electrocution.

 

[redwolf056]

Thank you very much. At this point I know my options are limited. There is little shot of getting true equipotential bonding given that the wire that (probably) used to connect to the pump is buried. I'm also pretty sure the pool lacks a proper ring with 4 connection points, let alone a mesh field under the deck. The pool guy only remembers seeing a wires to the pool lights and one to a bench. Is there a way to test if the pool is actually grounded to the house as the other electrician "thinks"?

And if the pool were grounded to the house and the pool equipment were grounded to some other grounding rods, it's clear they wouldn't be bonded. I'm assuming that the problem with this lies in that the water running through the all the pipes becomes a conduit which can lead to the differences in electrical potential? The pool guy was trying to tell me that because the water is only coming into contact with plastic parts in the pool pump it wouldn't matter, but I don't really know enough about how this works.

 

[qcroanoke]

I personally would walk away. JMO

 

[LarryFine]

Thank you very much. At this point I know my options are limited. There is little shot of getting true equipotential bonding given that the wire that (probably) used to connect to the pump is buried. I'm also pretty sure the pool lacks a proper ring with 4 connection points, let alone a mesh field under the deck. The pool guy only remembers seeing a wires to the pool lights and one to a bench. Is there a way to test if the pool is actually grounded to the house as the other electrician "thinks"?

And if the pool were grounded to the house and the pool equipment were grounded to some other grounding rods, it's clear they wouldn't be bonded. I'm assuming that the problem with this lies in that the water running through the all the pipes becomes a conduit which can lead to the differences in electrical potential? The pool guy was trying to tell me that because the water is only coming into contact with plastic parts in the pool pump it wouldn't matter, but I don't really know enough about how this works.

I don't know how to be clearer:

You can not depend on individual pool equipment being grounded to act as the required #8 copper bonding wire directly interconnecting the equipment, metal parts, ground loop/mesh, water bond, etc.

If a wire is lost or buried, you need to either find it or replace it.

 

[GoldDigger]

If a wire is lost or buried, you need to either find it or replace it.

And replacing it requires identifying and exposing whatever it was originally connected to. It is not as simple as replacing an EGC.

 

[farmantenna]

They installed a new perimeter deck and didnt do any bonding then ? Don't reward idiots with your time. You don't ground the pool to the house.

 

[Mystic Pools]

I personally would walk away. JMO

I agree

 

[PCBelarge]

I just did 2 pools that were existing and the property/building were renovated. Eventually had to disturb the surface and expose rebar on all of them. Similar as there were no metallic parts within 5ft of the pool and no pool lighting. Made it a lot easier. Also the pools were empty.