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miamicuse miamicuse is offline
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Default Below grade electrical wiring

The conduit has a single red wire, no white wire or any other wire.
Strange...

"RBM" wrote in message
...
If the conduit only has one red and one white wire, and no others, yes,
you have no ground wire


"MiamiCuse" wrote in message
...
Thanks, there is only one red wire inside the conduit, does this mean I
don't have a proper ground wire?

"RBM" wrote in message
...
It sounds like you have buried EMT and not galv pipe. There is no
practical way to repair it, although the fact that the wires are wet is
not an issue. Even wires in a galvanized pipe underground will be wet
and in contact with the pipe and ground, etc. I would just make sure the
conductors are protected by ground fault devices on the house side, this
way if the insulation on the wires failed, you would be protected. You
would also want to be sure that there is a separate ground wire in the
conduit, and that the conduit is not used as an equipment ground



"MiamiCuse" wrote in message
...
In fixing my pool skimmer plumbing I had to remove about a 12"x18" area
of my concrete pool deck. The deck is a 4" thick concrete slab, then a
layer of 3/4" tile on top.

While fixing the plumbing, I noticed an electrical conduit that went
below the slab, I believe one end of it goes to the exterior wall of
the house where there is a switch and an outlet, and the other end go
to a planter area twenty feet away where there is a conduit coming out
with a few outlets, used for exterior lighting. There are several
planter areas around the pool deck, all with electrical outlets coming
out of the ground.

Problem is, the rigid conduit these wires are in, is badly corroded,
the area where I opened up near the skimmer, the conduit was corroded
so badly when I poked it with a stick it broke like a twig, exposing
the red wire inside. I suspect it's the same with all four wires that
ran underground to get power to the planter areas and may be the
submerged pool light as well.

Something tells me it's not safe to have exposed hot wires like this
underground especially where it may be wet - near the pool plumbing, in
the planter areas where it could get water from the sprinklers, but
it's not practical to rip up my entire concrete pool deck just to redo
it.

Is there a practical solution?

Thanks,

MC