Electrical Service Upgrade, Part 2

Here is my beautiful wife, slinging a sledgehammer, while I direct and take pictures.

Our electrical system is not well grounded, and last week we set out to correct that little oversight. To meet code, we need to have two separate 10’ 5/8” grounding rods, buried 8’ apart. These need to be connected using a single length of 4 gauge copper wire back to the grounding bar in our new electrical panel (we’ve yet to do this part, since the panel isn’t quite yet hooked up). My electrician friend suggested that the easiest way to bury these stakes is to use a large hammer-drill with a stake-burying attachment. I have a small hammer-drill and no attachment, so I called upon Trissa’s willingness to swing iron.

It rains in Seattle for a reason, and last week that reason was to provide us soft ground for pounding stakes. It took us about half an hour to bury both of them.

Code dictates that the panel also be grounded to the water supply, within a few inches of where the water main enters the house. Our old box was grounded to a water pipe, but not near the main entrance. I think the reason for this requirement is in case your water pipe transitions to plastic anywhere along the way. If it did, and a jumper cable wasn’t installed, the ground would be worthless. So I ran another 100’ of the 4 gauge copper from our new panel, through the basement, to the opposite corner where the water comes in.

Anyways, thanks Trissa, for doing so much of the pounding!