Building foundation. Trying to locate ground rod

I would like to locate the ground rod to my home. The panel in the house is on the carport in the laundry room. The carport is poured concrete and the panel is located on the inside wall.

When I open the panel, I can see a single no 6 bonded to the panel. The number six goes out the panel at the top and over head and back down the outside wall to the front of the house. This is where I assume a ground rod should be.

I took shovel and have dug down 6 bricks deep and have hit the base. I seems like I have hit tightly compacted sand, but still no attachment for a ground rod. I would have expected the ground rod to have been driven in the ground and the wire attached to it a little below the surface. This doesn't seem to be the case.

My next thought is to open the sheet rock wall and see if the ground rod is attached inside the wall.

Because my dirt finishing is better than my sheet rock finishing, I would like to find out from the pros where is the most likely place to expose the ground rod.

Reply to
Terry
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Is this location at the front of the house approx where the city water service line would be? Maybe it's buried/attached to the water line.

Why else would they run overhead great distance rather than planting a gnd rod at the panel site?

Jim

Reply to
Speedy Jim

I've always driven them as close to the panel as possible. Is it possible that its going to a water pipe?

Reply to
RBM

Another possibility if if is newer house is that the ground is tied to the rebar in the footings or slab.

Reply to
marson

Why?

Reply to
HeyBub

I don't think so. It is in the laundry room, but the water hook up is not close to where it is going down the wall. BTW there was no county water at the time, and the well is on the other side of the house.

This picture is what I can see

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The entire area is poured slab for the carport. There is a storage area and the laundry room.

The panel is in the laundry room. The water hookup for the washer is in yellow. I can see from the attic that the ground goes overhead into the outside wall. The chance that it is connected to the water pipe is slim.

I assume anything is possible, but it seems unlikely. I think if I cut a hole in the sheet rock that I would see that the ground is in that wall and grounded in the front of the house.

I have dug down in front of the house 6 bricks deep and no sigh of a ground wire. I have hit compacted sand.

Any thoughts?

Anyone?

Reply to
Terry

The house is roughly 35 years old.

Reply to
Terry

I really don't want to get into that again. :)

If I could locate the ground rod, at the spot in front of the house it would be the best way to attach another ground wire and ground rod.

Reply to
Terry

No reason that you couldn't add more rods and run a new conductor to the panel

Reply to
RBM

Dr Ufer invented the Concrete Encased Electrode system in WWII. It has been an acceptible grounding electrode in the NEC for decades, particularly if you don't have a metalic water system. The other thought is they could have used the well casing if it was metal.

Reply to
gfretwell

Keep digging ...........

Reply to
110111001001000101

. Still not sure why you want/need to find the ground rod (or whatever metallic object is used as the ground) itself! On the off-chance that you feel the ground is not doing its job? In most North American installations (Multi Grounded Neutral, principle) the neutral wire serving your house will also be grounded back at the distribution step down transformer, and grounded again (and only) your neutral to ground at your incoming service panel.l So if you want to test it? There was a gadget called a ground megger. I haven't used one for about 40 years. So there is probaly a modern solid sate equivalent or 'Ground Tester'? The megger method involved setting out two temporary ground pins and connecting leads to them and the ground conductor. You can then measure usually in the low ohms range the resistance path of the grounding system. Still wondering why you need to find the ground rod or whatever? To make it meet code? Something floating and getting a tingle of voltage off it?

Reply to
terry

Thats the way they did my place in Tucson

Reply to
Rudy

A copper clad ground rod has a rated life of 40 years. Galvanized are less. You are better off driving a new rod and just run a new wire. In the time that you spent looking for the old one you could have had a new one installed.

Reply to
John Grabowski

I want an extra ground rod and I want to bond the copper water pipe in the basement.

I had lightning hit a modem, router, and two motherboards.

Reply to
Terry

How about driving a rod where your existing ground wire is going into the soil? Use a Kearney connector to bond the rod to your existing ground wire. If it is headed to your water service, great, if it is tied to another ground rod, great. This way you don't have any chance of a change of ground potential. Anything that was grounded on the original installation is still grounded.

To save your appliances in the next storm, contact your local utility and ask about a Watt Stopper. Improving your ground will not hurt anything. It will also probably not improve what you have substantially.

Reply to
DanG

Where are your other utilities bonded? (phone cable)

Reply to
gfretwell

Terry The quality of your Grounding Electrode System may not be the culprit here. If all of your wire carried utilities are not bonded to the same Grounding Electrode System the differences in potential between the separate utilities equalizes through the commonly connected devices such as Modems, fax machines, computers, answering machines, and so fourth. The first task is to assure that all of the Grounding Electrode Conductors for the different systems terminate to the same Grounding Electrode System. If separate Grounding systems exist then you must bond them all together into a single system. Meaning no offense I must warn you that the knowledge and skills to perform equi-potential bonding is beyond the skill set of most do it yourself folks.

-- Tom Horne, speaking only for himself.

Terry wrote:

Reply to
Thomas Horne

Psst: grounding won't help.

You need surge protection.

Reply to
HeyBub

Yes, I have read your helpful suggestions in the past. This is one of the reasons I am trying to locate the point my panel is grounded.

I have not been able to find a place where the copper pipe in the basement has been grounded. This is where the CATV and phone are bonded. As near as I can tell, the copper doesn't even come in contact with earth.

It is true that it might not be the culprit, but for now, it is the only remedy I have.

I think I have dug as far as a shovel will go and no sign of the ground rod. I was hoping someone familiar with building footing construction might have an explanation of where I am with the shovel.

If the house is a rebar type grounding system, then it is possible that the water pipe has been grounded at the point the copper pipe enters the laundry, but without cutting holes in sheet rock I can't verify this. (although if this were true, I would expect the ground wire coming out of the panel to head toward the piping)

I would rather just run another one than to start tearing out walls looking for the existing one.

I do have an alternative route for fishing an interior wall, if I have to, but it really would be the best place if I could just attach another ground clamp to the existing ground rod.

Reply to
Terry

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