I’ve recently become the owner of a home that was constructed in the mid 1950s (in the US). As such, not all the outlets are grounded, three-prong receptacles, since that wasn’t code-required at the time. It looks like a few have been added or upgraded over the years, but there are still many that are ungrounded. What is the best way to go about converting those receptacles to be grounded? Will that require a professional? It seems like probably the kind of electrical work that I am capable of doing myself, but I am also very much not an electrician.
Are you looking to get them swapped over to 3 prong for general use or are you looking to get them grounded for something specific? If you just want to plug 3 prong devices in you could look at installing gfi/gfci outlets. You’d need to investigate your lines but installation is pretty easy. If you need the outlets grounded for specific use I believe you can run a simple copper wire. Might require more looking into since I’m not super familiar with that one.
GFCI doesn’t change the fact that there is potentially no ground wire.
Well no, but short of a rewire, a gfci with sticker is the code-compliant way to plug in three pin plugs to an ungrounded receptacle.
A rewire is the right solution but utterly impractical for many. Just silently swapping in new receptacles and leaving the ground unconnected is easy but not compliant. This is the middle ground.
Just general use so I’m not limited on where I can use my 3-prong appliances