John Ross wrote:

zxcvbob wrote:
John Ross wrote:
I had an electrician over and asked about grounding an outlet (early
'60s house with grounded wire only to baths and kitchen).

This was an outside wall with a water pipe faucet near. He said he
could just poke a hole through the wall and run the ground wire to the
pipe and attach it there. So he does this and I end up with a green
ground wire coming out of the wall about a foot up. He then said he
could just have it go straight down to the ground and then over to the
pipe, which is about 6 feet away. I was surprised when he offered to
just make a very shallow impression in the dirt and then just cover
directly with dirt. So basically it is just put on the ground with a
little dirt thrown on it. I did ask if this was code and he said
"sure" (just so you know, he is licensed and has been around for
years).

Well now I don't feel so comfortable with this. Is it ok to have a
wire like that in/on dirt with no hard weatherproof casing? Is this
considered normal practice for a ground wire?

Interested in opinions on this and what problem(s), if any, would you
be concerned about. Note: to be clear, this is not bare copper, it
does have the green sleeve.

--
John


It actually might be OK if it's 6 gauge solid wire (or if the wire was
protected by a conduit) and it connects to the main water supply line
with a listed clamp.

From your description, it's probably not kosher but it's probably not
dangerous either. And it's not clear if the green wire does anything at
all. Is it actually connected to a water pipe?

Bob

Sorry for the confustion. YES, it does end up on a clamp on a water
pipe.

I don't know enough about this stuff to tell you the gauge. He had a
huge spool of green grounding wire and it is not flimsy at all. Does
the green coating count as "conduit" as you termed it? In any event,
is laying a ground wire such as this directly on dirt considered
acceptable?



A substantial copper wire in direct contact with the dirt is OK. The
water pipe that he connected to is probably part of the grounding
electrode system (it's the water main, right?), so that's OK. The main
problem I see with this is the wire is not protected from someone
cutting it with a shovel if they dig there.

Bob