"Robert Green" wrote in message
...
"Pico Rico" wrote in message
...

"Hosan Pyped" wrote in message
news

Regardless of electrical code, would you buy a house where some
jackleg had done that?

what is the difference? a wire is a wire.

If I saw a separate wire pulled to an outlet box I'd be uneasy about where
it went and whether it really tied into the proper place. (In fact I have
seen that and I was uneasy because some kid did it in my old house and
then
put up two different ceilings that made it very hard to trace back. In
that
case the ground wire did NOT go back to the panel, but to a clamp on a
cold
water pipe. While the outlet appeared koshed with an outlet tested, a
replumbing job with plastic pipe could have ended up with an open ground.)

I'm with Pyped and several other posters who advised that running new NM
was
the was to go.

I'd bet a competent home inspector would red flag a ground wire going to
places unknown, especially if it ran under sheetrock or stapled ceiling
tiles or was in some other way untraceable visually.

To be sure it was tied into the panel you'd have to hire an electrican to
trace it with a fox and hound. I am surprised the NEC allows a separate
ground to be run outside the main cable sheath or conduit. If it runs
somewhere other than along the main cable or conduit, the chance of
someone
disconnecting it at some future time because it seemed unrelated to the
110VAC wiring is another risk.

GFCIs or new NM would certainly be the preferred way to do things, and I'd
rate those solutions as two or three times as good as a new ground wire,
especially if it didn't at least run along the old wire so that it was
obvious it was related to that old, ungrounded cable.


Well, that's a good explanation. My initial thinking is that it would be
placed along the entire run back to the panel. But, that is how **I** would
do it.