I noticed this question of wire gauge came up earlier but here is mine: The lady next door asked me to install three prong (grounded) outlets for her to replace the two prong outlets in her house. Most of them were installed in the late fifties but in each box there was bare copper wire (14g) that could be connected to the ground screw on the new sockets. If the ground wire wasn't long enough I used 14g solid wire, stripping the ends to make connections and connecting to the screw in the junction box which would suffice to provide a ground. The question is: the junction boxes at the back wall of the house had no ground wire at all and to do this right I feel I would have to run a wire from a pipe or other ground to each box which would then connect to the outlet ground screw. Was it common practice fifty years ago to hook up wiring with no grounded junction boxes? I know she can't afford to have the house re-wired at this point. Thanks for answers, comments, flames whatever.
- posted
20 years ago