Well, THAT'S A Different Ground Wire!

rhinoguy

Here in NC I see some interesting older homes with odd updates. Many houses are built with a central spine of 3 pieces of 2 X 12 running the length of the house with 2 X 10 for joists. In one house I found a 1/2" pipe (copper) running the length of the spine board. It was tee'd off at each perpendicular wall. No caps, no water connection! It was being used as a huge ground wire! All joints were soldered and taps were copper mounting straps soldered on, with brass screws and nuts for wires to attach. Green #12 wires went into the same holes as the cotton romex and were attached to ground studs on outlets. The pipe went through the wall to the outside power panel. Then it went into the box through a romex clamp. Inside a piece of #2 copper was soldered into the pipe and attached to the ground lug of the panel. The panel itself had a proper ground rod. An Electrumber, with propane to burn?
The dated glass R C Cola bottle (A $27 vlue on Ebay!) I found under there indicates the house was built in 1951. The Duke Power panel is dated 1970. Heaven only knows when the "ground pipe" was installed.

JohnJ0906

Please tell us you took pictures!

__________________
John from Baltimore
"One Day at a Time"
All replies based on the 2008 NEC

mdshunk

I need to see some pictures of this. Not doubting you one bit, but this is a truly special install. In fact, it might even be legal if it was done today.

rhinoguy

I'll see if I can get some pics. BTW, my first real job was as a broadcast engineer for local radio stations. They have no use for a guy too old to climb towers in the middle of the night, so I don't do that anymore. But back in the day I used 3/4" copper pipe as a ground rod for a three thousand watt FM. I even put a tee in it to allow putting water in the ground (earth!) when it got dry in the summer. It is still in use since 1984. BTW, transmitters do NOT go on the second floor, unless it is a college station. Oh, the ground rod radiates strongly! Weird, but legal and it extends their coverage since for some damn reason their antenna is horizontal but car antennas are vertical. I didn't do the entire installation.

Tmrrptr

It's always fun building for a propellor head !
They always have some idea for a better mousetrap.
As long as it's t&m, and meets codes, who cares!
If it won't meet codes it's cash on the barrelhead.
If it's not safe, they can do it themself.
...
on a decent sized custom, the client showed up very excited and asked us to stop setting forms. She was willing to pay.

Got the tractor back, covered everything, and re-oriented abt 15%
according to her instruction.
Everything was more or less fine from that point, but always fun.

Reason for re-do?

She wanted it aligned w the great pyramid at Giza.
r

mdshunk

Wait until you get a few of these fengshui weirdo's.