What year were you required to use 14/2 12/2 Romex WITH A GROUND.

[fishingmaniac]

I’m guessing somewhere in the 1960’s but I’m curious as to the code year.
Someone told me they believe their house was completely rewired, knob and tube removed, in 1981. I’m looking at a lot of 2 hole receptacles and cloth Romex which may (or may not) only have that tiny ground that tends to break. I also wonder what year that changed to a full size ground. I believe The code has wavered a couple times on changing any 2 prong to 3 prong when using a GFCI receptacle or breaker upstream. I don’t believe you should do that giving someone the impression of a good ground when there is none. There must be a good thread here on all that somewhere.

 

[infinity]

My old house was built around 1961 and had NM cable with the reduced sized EGC. I would assume that it was required at the time of construction.

 

[mtnelect]

This might help to explain.

 

[fishingmaniac]

This might help to explain.

So in 1999 at least the full size EGC was required (I'm guessing long before that too). I don't think I've ever seen the NMS-B, although I've seen plenty of the structured wiring banana cable which sounds similar. No mention of the smaller EGC in cloth wiring though. I guess I'm still searching for it's birth in the code.

 

[letgomywago]

It was location dependent.
1956 required certain outlets have grounded outlets like the kitchen and CW but not required to have grounded receptacles and switches in other areas for the most part but the wire did have it and so the way it was terminated dictates whether it's currently usable.

 

[jmellc]

Our house was wired about 1954 and had no grounded cable at all. All 12/2 or 14/2 cloth Romex and range cable was cloth covered 3 wire. 10-2 cloth Romex to water heater. 60 amp panel was grounded to water line nearby. I first noticed grounded receptacles in a friend's house that was built about 61 or 62? I started electrical work in 1976 and saw some cloth cable with reduced and full grounds here and there. Saw some plastic cable with no ground and 1 or 2 with insulated reduced ground. Saw a lot of steel BX over the years but don't think I ever saw any of it with grounds. BX was my least favorite of all cables. Hard to cut, easy to damage wires, insulation could crumble, often did.

 

[letgomywago]

Our house was wired about 1954 and had no grounded cable at all. All 12/2 or 14/2 cloth Romex and range cable was cloth covered 3 wire. 10-2 cloth Romex to water heater. 60 amp panel was grounded to water line nearby. I first noticed grounded receptacles in a friend's house that was built about 61 or 62? I started electrical work in 1976 and saw some cloth cable with reduced and full grounds here and there. Saw some plastic cable with no ground and 1 or 2 with insulated reduced ground. Saw a lot of steel BX over the years but don't think I ever saw any of it with grounds. BX was my least favorite of all cables. Hard to cut, easy to damage wires, insulation could crumble, often did.

Again some of this will be affected by each area and what code cycle they were under and if there was any inspection or licensing this far back it was a bit more sparse

 

[hbiss]

BX was my least favorite of all cables. Hard to cut, easy to damage wires, insulation could crumble, often did.

Never had a problem with BX, matter of fact I prefer it and wish they would make NM illegal. The BX with crumbling insulation seemed to be only manufactured during a certain time period. I would say early 60's until they started using TW conductors. The old RW conductors are still fine today except for what they used in that BX during the 60's. Bad rubber compound.

-Hal

 

[norcal]

My guess on when EGC's were required is whenever the 1965 NEC was adopted. Have seen NM cable w/ a reduced EGC in a 1950's MH, a Spartan "Imperial Mansion", they were pretty well built for a trailer & have a mill finish aluminum skin on the roof, sides & bottom, I took advantage of it & added grounding receptacles, panel was a Federal "No ARK".

 

[jmellc]

Never had a problem with BX, matter of fact I prefer it and wish they would make NM illegal. The BX with crumbling insulation seemed to be only manufactured during a certain time period. I would say early 60's until they started using TW conductors. The old RW conductors are still fine today except for what they used in that BX during the 60's. Bad rubber compound.

-Hal

Don't think I ever saw any with TW. I think in this region, they were moving away from it before TW. I think I saw some cloth Romex with TW and I installed a lot of plastic Romex with it. I would be ok with using modern versions of it in steel wrap. That's the weakness of MC is that it can peel all too easily if snagged. With the splitter we have today, stripping it wouldn't be such a headache. I read that a lot of damage used to happen from lack of good cutting tools way back. Score with a hacksaw, maybe cut too deep, then have to twist and bend a lot. I was told a time or 2 that steel MC can be ordered but I've never seen it or found it in catalogs. It would be much heavier too, 1 disadvantage.

A lot of BX I saw has been rusted badly too. Seems the galvanizing was sprayed on before the strips were cut, then raw edges were left and rust spread from there.

 

[Hv&Lv]

1962 from what I read.

https://kuhlmanelectricalservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/History-of-Wiring.pdf

I’m sure someone here has a 1962 code book and can verify

 

[kwired]

My recollection sometime in mid 50's EGC was required for some circuits, as mentioned many times was a reduced size for when the circuit conductors were 14 or 12 AWG. Then I believe 1962 was when NEC made it a requirement for nearly everything to have an EGC.