Electrical Grounding Rods?

[rwalter]

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick question. I know a 8' grounding rod is necessary to meet code. However I was talking to one of my relatives at a party yesterday and he told me that he thought the code had changed. He thought that the universal building codes  now require two grounding rod,  that they be spaced 8' feet apart and they be installed in a continuous  loop.
Does any one know what the univeral code requires. I realize local code varies depending on locality.  I want to place the rods in place before my back fill so I don't damage my French Drains or hit the edge of the footer.

[glenn-k]

I'm not sure about that but check to see if a uffer ground is acceptable - a 20 ' piece of rebar laid in the ground under the footing or possibly the backfill with a bent up end sticking out of the ground to attach to.  Just something we used to do years ago- don't know if it still goes.

[spinnm]

I'm reading this.  House electrician not in at the moment.

Ground rod 8' minimum.  If resistance >25ohms, install 2nd ground rod minimum 6' apart.
03 IRC par. 3508.2.1 thru subparagraph 3.

02 NEC par. 250.5

Think in our last house had one piece of rebar coming out of the foundation, then the second was the more normal copper rod by the box.

I'm getting this out of the Taunton Press books Code Check Blah.  Great little books for reference.  

[spinnm]

Cleaning out files and just ran across another thing.

Evidently there is a web site called www.codecheck.com

You might check it out and see if it's useful.

[DavidLeBlanc]

(miscellaneous semi-off topic)

I never knew that houses had to be grounded until I watched a home building show on HGTV.

Some rich kid's dad was building him a "pad" in Portalnd OR and they forgot to put in the ground AND didn't bother with an inspection before covering the drains. Much fuss ensued. Drains on slopes are a big deal out here - the rains send houses down the hill every winter.

I never could decide if I liked the house or not. Very avante guarde on a very steep slope overlooking the freeway in a neighborhood of older traditional houses.

As for the kid the house was being built for. I knew I didn't like him! LOL Such a spoiled brat metrosexual. I never could figure out if he was a crab or a lobster, but he sure as heck had the self centered rich brat sneer down pat.

[Amanda_931]

Speaking of sites about things that go wrong all the time--from Code Check this time.

"The Code Check Series are condensed guides to the most commonly cited code violations encountered by building inspectors."

And Shelley was right about the URL:

http://www.codecheck.com/

[peg_688]

I believe it's a NEC code . Two are require 6 feet apart,8 foot sounds right'  They are gavl. metal and the sparkie always drive them with a roto hammer.   Which works great better than beating it in   I don't think you can just bury them . The 6 feet apart has some thing to do with the gnd being dry they figure with two one will meet the ohm requirement .  I wonder if they need more rods in Az. ??   Thats what I've seen / been told .  Good luck , HTBH ;)PEG

[borgdog]

Yes, I had to add a second when I replaced my "temporary" meter post a while back. two 8 footers, placed six feet apart, and connected with one continuous ground wire from the panel.  I have been told by an electrician friend of a friend that you are allowed to lay them horizontally in a trench as long as they are still 6 feet apart.  

This all came about because the wood post my temp meter was mounted to had rotted out after 20 years, and I had to replace it.  I had the utility turn off the power and pull the meter so I could disconnect it all from the post and replace it.  Well, I knew I had to get a permit to get all them to do this, what I didn't know is that becuase I was touching it I had to bring it all up to the latest code.  Just something to keep in mind.

[PEG688]

  Dan Now there's a inventive   interpations of the term temp  Good on ya    HTBH ;)PEG