Pool deck drainage bonding

[mopowr steve]

Anybody run into this before,
a customer has set in place a trough drain something that seems more familiar in front of a garage door before a new concrete pour about two feet from pool edge. It’s a pvc channel about 4” wide with metal grates about 2’ long that screw down into the pvc trough and run the length of one side of pool.

I’m trying to imagine a way to bond the metal grates, only thing is there seems to be no good way of doing it. I thought maybe setting a #8 solid copper along a small groove that the grates rest into so that when in place they would make contact with it. But for one, if I did that the grates will not set down completely and second just relying on an unbolted contact would end up resulting in a questionable contact once corrosion sets in.

Anybody got any ideas?

 

[JFletcher]

Get the homeowner to replace them with plastic.

Barring that, those grates need to be removed on a driveway to get rid of all of the rocks and sand that collect on the channel. To that point, if you can get them bonded, I would use a piece of insulated and stranded #8 to bond them to the EPG and to each other.

As to the physical connection to the grate, what about drilling and tapping a hole into the grate, then use an appropriately-sized ground screw securing a stainless steel eyelet that is crimped onto your wire?

 

[mopowr steve]

Get the homeowner to replace them with plastic.

Barring that, those grates need to be removed on a driveway to get rid of all of the rocks and the collect on the channel. To that point, if you can get them bonded, I would use a piece of insulated and stranded #8 to bond them to the EPG and to each other.

As to the physical connection to the grate, what about drilling and tapping a hole into the grate, then use an appropriately-sized ground screw securing a stainless steel eyelet that is crimped onto your wire?

Thanks for the thought,
I was pondering that but wasn’t sure if it would provide plenty/convenient removal of grates.

if anyone else has idea’s.....chime in.
Thanks

 

[Little Bill]

Sometimes I have to bond the top of swimming pool walls. It's where the liner track is mounted to the top of the pool. The track is made up of several sections and they are not physically or electrically continuous. What I do is bolt a lay-in lug to each section then run a #8 bare conductor through/in the lugs all the way around.

What you might do is bolt the lay-in lugs to the bottom of the grates and run #8 through them. Just put them away from the edge to allow the grates to sit back in flush.

Now how to tie the bonded grates to the rest of the grid, I don't know as I can't see your pool from here.

 

[Mystic Pools]

Poor idea to use a metal grate around a pool. Sometimes I wonder about my fellow pool contractors. May have a been a masons idea too. Never mind the bonding aspect, but the corrosion factor is there.

Anyway, another option if your customer does not like plastic, is custom stone grates. There are a number of companies fabricating stone grates. It will give your customer the opportunity to select a material that can compliment or closely match the patio or the coping stone.

The plastic is fine but over time it becomes brittle from the sun and the pool chemicals.

 

[Adamjamma]

Would they need bonded if channel is all plastic? Argument could be made that they can never be energized unless an extension cord or wire from elsewhere was somehow crossing them and was broken... because these are installed in a way that should never allow them to become energized.

 

[NorthwestPV]

I have an almost identical installation. The trench drain they are using has a metal frame with fiberglass body. With this one I was planning on bonding the support legs which is welded to the frame in which the stainless grates sit into. I tried to get the architects to move the drains 8"out from the pool to be past the 5' mark without success.

 

[Mystic Pools]

I have an almost identical installation. The trench drain they are using has a metal frame with fiberglass body. With this one I was planning on bonding the support legs which is welded to the frame in which the stainless grates sit into. I tried to get the architects to move the drains 8"out from the pool to be past the 5' mark without success.

Architects know best Don't get me started.

 

[Mystic Pools]

Would they need bonded if channel is all plastic? Argument could be made that they can never be energized unless an extension cord or wire from elsewhere was somehow crossing them and was broken... because these are installed in a way that should never allow them to become energized.

If there are non-metallic, no need to be bonded.

 

[JFletcher]

Would they need bonded if channel is all plastic?.

Yes, 680.26(B)(5), 2008 NEC.

 

[kwired]

Would they need bonded if channel is all plastic? Argument could be made that they can never be energized unless an extension cord or wire from elsewhere was somehow crossing them and was broken... because these are installed in a way that should never allow them to become energized.

The problem isn't so much whether they become energized as much as it is they can become a different voltage from the pool and pool associated items. If the pool and equipotential bonding system are all at 2 volts above true ground potential and these non bonded drainage covers become true ground potential - pool users are subjected to that 2 volts. If they are bonded to the equipotential bonding system they are always at same potential as everything else connected to the equipotential bonding system and won't matter from user's perspective even if those items are all sitting there at 1000 volts to true ground, as everything they can touch is all at same potential - similar to a bird on an overhead high voltage line if it can't touch anything at different potential it doesn't get shocked.