I live in a home that is approximately 40+ years old. Almost every room in the house has 3 prong outlets, except the living room. Of course, that is where I need to put my lcd, satellite receiver, etc.

I have a favorite wall chosen. I killed the power to that outlet and opened it up. It is a 2 prong, of course, with a metal box. The box appears to have a small hole in the back of the box (facing you). It also appears to have a copper bar near the very top---runs across the metal box.

We also have an unfinished basement, but, it does have the "drop" ceiling. I took part of them down to follow the wiring froom this box (which appears to go to the light switch in the basement 3/4 bathroom--then to the light---then to the circuit box). Not sure if that is helpful, or meaningful.

Anyway, the question: what are my options as far as making this a properly grounded 3 prong outlet? And, just how difficult might this be? I'd like to be able to handle this, if at all possible.

Any advice and/or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Unfortunately the best way (and to code standards) to do this is to replace the wire all the way to the panel using approved wiring. The wiring in your house is referred to as BX wiring which is a metal jacket covering just 2 wires, black (hot) and white (neutral) and the grounding is ommitted.

If someone tells you to use the metal jacket as a ground by what is normally referred to as pig tailing please do not do this as it is not to NEC codes and can cause a fire and equipment damage, the reason is that the metal jacket is only held in place by a small screw in the connector that holds it to the box and over time corrosion sets in making for a bad connection.

Hope this helps!

Have you used a tester to see if the box is grounded?

You say all of the other outlets are three-prong. Are THEY wired with 14/2 + Ground? If so, double check the wire into this box. If it's 14/2 w/Gr, you may be able to, yes, pigtail to the actual ground wire (not the jacket). That's exactly what I was able to do in my prior 50+ year old house. Each outlet had the ground wire cut off, except in the kitchen wher it was grounded to the metal box. There was enough slack that I could grab the ground and pigtail it to the new outlet.

Tom

Have you used a tester to see if the box is grounded?

You say all of the other outlets are three-prong. Are THEY wired with 14/2 + Ground? If so, double check the wire into this box. If it's 14/2 w/Gr, you may be able to, yes, pigtail to the actual ground wire (not the jacket). That's exactly what I was able to do in my prior 50+ year old house. Each outlet had the ground wire cut off, except in the kitchen wher it was grounded to the metal box. There was enough slack that I could grab the ground and pigtail it to the new outlet.

Tom



Well, it's been a few years since I replaced a couple of the old grounded outlets in the kitchen with new receptacles, but, will have to check that out---and, nope, didn't test the metal box.

yep, I believe every outlet in the house is 3 prong---kitchen, bathroom, dining room, and bedrooms---except for the ones in the living room.
By the way, thanks for the comments guys. It sure is appreciated. Although, I was hoping it wouldn't be quite as complicated as Dark Wizard's comments ;)

have a good one!

Well, it's been a few years since I replaced a couple of the old grounded outlets in the kitchen with new receptacles, but, will have to check that out---and, nope, didn't test the metal box.

yep, I believe every outlet in the house is 3 prong---kitchen, bathroom, dining room, and bedrooms---except for the ones in the living room.
By the way, thanks for the comments guys. It sure is appreciated. Although, I was hoping it wouldn't be quite as complicated as Dark Wizard's comments ;)

have a good one!

Mine is the worst case scenario...just want you to know of any issues. Good luck and let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thanks for your comments guys! Really appreciate it.

I live in between two M*****'s stores. The first one I went to gave me bad advice. The second one I visited this weekend---well, the guy was great! It's not going to be as difficult as I had first imagined.

I'm just gonna disconnect this outlet from the source it is presently drawing its power from. I will discard the old wire, then replace it with modern wire that has a ground and will route it directly back to the circuit panel (not route it back to its original position) . This guy (previously mentioned) "walked" me through it very carefully. Used a sample panel box in the store---demonstrated everything. We both asked questions to make sure we were on the same page. he even "tested" me a bit to make sure I knew what to do. Wow. What a great guy this was. Wish I ran into more people like him!

What prices were you quoted?

I had a guy out today that told $250 for 1 outlet or $400 for 2 outlets.

we just moved into a house with funky wiring, a mix of two and three prong plugs, with most of the three prong not actually being grounded. I thought about just having an electrician ground the plugs that were going to be used for important equipment, but that wasn't very satisfying since I wouldn't be able to move things about.

my electrician suggested installing gfci outlets. you can install a gfci outlet without a physical ground. and if the outlet is downstream in the circuit, then it'll protect the upstream outlets also.

I should point out that we're planning a future remodel, so I was mainly concerned with safety and keeping interim costs down.

If you install GFCI circuits that way, they must be marked on the outside as "ungrounded" (or some similar language). The GFCI does not add a ground. Instead, it simply offers more protection for certain fault conditions. The best thing to do is replace the wiring.

the "master" gfci outlet has the test and reset buttons, so it's obviously a gfci. the other switches in the circuit that are protected by the master outlet are supposed to have a tag added to them that says something like "GFCI protected".

I'm not entirely sure about this part, but I think that if you just replace a two prong plug with an ungrounded and non-gfci protected outlet, that you then have to put some sort of warning sticker on it.

code allows you to replace two prong outlets with gfci outlets. they provide the required safety. I don't know if they make a difference though as far as audio and videophiles are concerened when it comes to things like line noise.

more info here:
http://ecmweb.com/mag/electric_think_gfci/