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.
Depending on how they ran the wire and the type of wire it may not require a professional but if you dont feel comfortable doing the work there is nothing wrong with hiring an electrician.
To verify if a ground wire was run, there are two things you can do:
This means turning of a receptacles at the breaker, removing the cover and pulling the receptacles out of the box to look at the wire run. If it has a black/white and bare copper (or copper clad aluminum) then there is a ground wire in the box. If you dont see a bare copper wire or if the wire was cut short at the point the wire enters the box then an electrician is probably required.
To check your breaker box, flip the main breaker that runs service to your house. It should be the 50/100/200 amp breaker at the top that is not part of the column of smaller breakers. Then remove the cover around the breaker box to expose the wiring inside the box. All the wires from your house should run into this box and if you have ground wires they should be connected to the ground bus inside the breaker. Again you should see lots of black/white wires and bare copper wires that are ground wires. If they are all cut at the point the cables enter the box you will probably need to run new wire and that will require an electrician.
Just want to add a note that flipping the main breaker de-energizes the rails but there will still be hot wires in the panel from the meter box. Exercise caution.
Fair point, they should not need to dig around to see the ground wires, but with the cover off extra caution is recommended. Dont stick anything INTO the box even with the main breaker off as the wires leading to that breaker are still hot.
Im all about DIYing to save money, but if you have the slightest doubt about your ability to do electrical work, hire a professional. The potential downside to making mistakes here is electrocution and/or your house burning down with you and your family inside.
Thank you for the info! I like DIY, and I’m reasonably handy, but I have no interest in accidentally burning my house down lol, so I’ve got no shame about hiring a professional.
Sounds like it might be at least worth it to get a pro out to take a look and provide a quote