Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House): Ground rods

 In newer homes, the grounding electrode (or electrodes) almost always have been put in by licensed electricians. As a result of that, the electrode is done properly and usually driven deep into the ground. However, when I inspect older homes that had knob and tube wiring, which had no such ground originally, I often see electrodes such as the one in the photo. About half of it is still hanging out of the ground. Why? Well, sometimes the person putting it in is just lazy. Other times, they give it a lot of effort but it ends up that the rod hits a big rock in the soil and it will go no farther. They should, at that time, pull it back up and put it somewhere else, but often people just say to heck with it and leave it like that. Another common problem with the grounding electrode, at older houses, is that they use an old galvanized pipe instead of a proper rod and, over the years, it has rusted away. The grounding system on the home is not a good thing to leave to chance.

 Thanks for dropping by.

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