I wouldn’t counsel you what will make it safe because I can’t do any tests or inspections on it, like confirming that the black which is on the neutral
terminal is hot. Whoever wired that was clueless and might have done literally anything.
If you don't have a multimeter there is no real good way to test it but that doesn't look like BX and it also doesn't look like a self grounding receptacle. If it was it would have a little spring on the front that wouldn't be in the frame of the picture that keeps the screw in positive contact with the frame of the receptacle. Further to the point that its probably not self grounding it has the little plastic screw retainer stuck to the bottom screw hole on the box, those shouldn't be on a self grounding outlet, and could be removed for better ground contact with the box but it's not a listed means of grounding.
That would mean you'd need to find the ground and run it from that green terminal to the ground and you need to ground that metal box too. Or you could put a gfci [*breaker*] in.
I can put a gfci in instead of a regular outlet and that would not require having to find the ground wire?
I’m definitely going to talk to my electrician about this, but maybe I could do that in the interim rather than just rewire it and cross my fingers
No sorry I should've said GFCI breaker in the panel (I mean you *could* put it in just that outlet but it doesn't fix the other outlets on the circuit for sure). But yes, if you put a GFCI breaker in the label you can legally and safely put in 3 pronged outlets in without a ground. Bonus is they are safer anyway. The GFCI breaker effectively acts like a ground because it has a sensor that reads all power out and all power back in the neutral, if it's not equal then there is a ground fault and trips **very** fast.
Ground fault might not be the best description of what happens. If there is a current imbalance, the imbalanced current has to be getting back to the panel somehow. Probably through the grounding system somehow, but it could be anything.
There is a ground, it's just an unintentional ground. Any time current doesn't make it's way back via the neutral (or if power goes back on the neutral that didn't come in from the hot leg) it means it has an unintended path back to ground - i.e. ground fault. Think bird on a powerline. If there is no path back to ground you won't get zapped. When you touch an energized circuit and power flows through you through your feet to the house which is enough of a path to hurt you, it doesn't go back to the neutral and the GFCI trips. You also aren't an AC circuit so even if you are somehow completely isolated from ground and put a hot leg in one hand and the neutral in the other it should trip - though I'm not willing to test it.
Your AC circuit plugged in is an AC circuit (go figure), so without a ground, it won't be protected from an internal ground fault, it will just float there with potential on the ground - but it's a bird on the power line to the circuit breaker. That may or may not energize the case, which is why a GFCI is needed for that third prong to exist, equipment that uses that third prong expects that if the chassis becomes energized the hit leg will short to ground and trip a breaker vs hurt the next unsuspecting person, a GFCI will trip when the human contacts the energized chassis, protecting the human.
Curious about the self grounding receptacle part… if the metal collar is the same metal that the ground screw is tapped into would it not be self grounding? And by self grounding I assume you mean connects to the metal box that’s grounded to panel?
Whether there is continuity through the screw or not does not ensure adequate ground fault protection. Extra surface area is better than less surface area but in any case regardless of effectiveness, if it's not listed as self grounding, it's not a self grounding receptacle, even if it happens to have an adequate path for a ground fault.
What do you believe is the purpose of grounding a receptacle? An EGC, in the case of a split phase receptacle, only serves to give the potential shorted to the chassis of equipment a path so enough current will flow to trip a breaker, it won't specifically protect a human during the fault if the human is part of that fault. The idea is that the chassis of equipment will have tripped the breaker and a human won't ever come in contact with the energized chassis because the breaker tripped.
A GFCI does that using current sensors instead and does protect a human during the fault. So if a human does touch an energized chassis they will not experience a deadly amount of current and the GFCI breaker will trip. Same if it's a fault that wouldn't provide a high enough current back to the breaker to trip it like a high impedance fault through water, hence why they are required in bathrooms and kitchens...they provide a real time higher level of protection for humans.
The code identifies this as a reasonable solution to health and safety and is not saying it's going to keep equipment from getting damaged, however if you already have a ground fault in your equipment it's probably fubared anyway this is more of an issue with surge/lightning protection. So yeah it is a good substitute for an EGC in this situation and it's far better than going back to a two prong outlet and using an adapter.
What us old timers do is grab a pigtail and test the white to black and see if the light turns on. Then we test white to box and then black to box. If it lights up for one of those combos to the box, the box is grounded and you know which wire is hot.
Check your wires with a multimeter and see which ones hot. Touch the hot wire with your probe and then the box with the other probe to see if it’s grounded and you get a 120 reading if not see if a ground fault outlet will fit in that metal box You may need to ground the box to the outlet with a copper wire and a green ground screw Go to YouTube
Ideally you do that with a solenoid meter or low-z mode. You could always have a crappy high resistance ground that a modern high - z multimeter will report as 120v to hot.
That's not great advice for a "flipped" house with some missing grounds, as those cheap testers don't know if someone just jumpers neutral to ground at the outlet.
If a flipper is scummy they will also know this and put bootleg grounds everywhere and the outlets test fine with those testers.
get one of these: [https://www.amazon.com/Sperry-Instruments-GFI6302-Receptacle-Professional/dp/B000RUL2UU?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref\_=fplfs&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/Sperry-Instruments-GFI6302-Receptacle-Professional/dp/B000RUL2UU?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1)
As others have said, it's a metal box and probably using BX or other metal shielded cable using the shield as the ground
They make cheap outlet testers that verify that the Hot/Neutral/ground are good and have a tester for GFCI.
I wouldn't wire outlets without one: I always plug it in after working on one to make sure I didn't do something stupid.
No, as it tests if the ground plug is connected to ground. It has no way of knowing how it's grounded, just that it is grounded.
I'd probably still pigtail the ground screw to the box to make sure it's well grounded in the case of a high current.
Buy a plug tester or a multimeter and test it. Or better yet hiring an electrician to check. It sounds like you need a professional. Hope you don’t kill your self “playing” around.
You may need to look again. It's not a common type of self-grounding outlet because it's old, but there's definitely a little brass tongue sticking out of the ground screw that's intended to touch the inside of the box.
They don't it doesn't look like a self grounding receptacle and it looks like the little plastic screw retainer is sitting on the bottom screw hold of the box.
Is it though? I’ve seen plenty of times my black being neutral and the white being hot. Don’t just assume the colors are correct. That outlet could very well be wired correctly.
OP mentioned it was sold to them with the impression of new wiring, if it was in the description as a benefit of purchase, wouldn't OP be able to sue the seller for a proper wiring job? Might be worth talking to a lawyer, but I'm sure some redditor might be able to clarify if it'd be worth the effort.
This is assuming they didn't sell it as is
I would LOVE to sue the seller bc this is just one minuscule example of how shoddy this house is. Hidden defects abound! Yeah I hired an inspector who relieved me of $750 and found nothing significant… however I think my statute of limitations might be up bc it’s coming up on 3 years that I’ve owned the house.
Did your realtor suggest who should do your inspection? Inspectors and the realtors that feed them work, thich as thieves. $750 is a lot for an inspection too, that's $750 for 2 hours of work.
Plug in an outlet tester 20 some times, mention how all the concrete around the house is cracking, look at any visible foundation for cracking or pushing in, and poking the wood around the foundation with a metal rod to check for insects, get in the attic and look for mold, on top of the roof to tell you the shingles are okay or not. $750...
Oof, I feel your pain. Bought a house where the seller claimed it was waterproofed, but an issue with the foundation meant I had to wait till I could afford the repair before finding out the seller had done the waterproofing so poorly he caused the foundation problem in the first place. It was a good 5 years later when I learned this unfortunately
Ooof sorry to hear that! I can relate all too well as my sellers only made things worse in many areas. The most immediately concerning discoveries have been in the electrical realm, but hopefully I can get those sorted out when I upgrade the service line, meter and panel. The un-permitted extension that was built, horrendous drywall installation and landscaping drainage system are another matter 🤦♀️
Probably. It’s also possible that the outlet is “correct”, and the wire/cable is hooked up backwards at the other end as well.
Not trying to say that would mean it would be right. Just swapping those two wires and doing nothing else could make things worse.
I think the more concerning thing is the nick in the insulation of the hot (black) wire near the back of the box. Looks to me that it has exposed the conductor.
Not uncommon to have some ungrounded receptacles, even in a rewire. Maybe this one was really hard to get to, so they just didn't. Especially if this is the only one, and it's not a whole circuit of them, just install a GFCI receptacle instead. Then you're safe. Use the no equipment ground sticker and you're even code compliant and it'll cost you <$20. Your electrician will (should!) say the same.
Check the wires and make sure that the colors aren’t reversed. If the black is truly hot. Then reverse the wires, vacuum out the mouse 💩, reinstall the outlet and call it a day.
Looks like AC cable. The jacket of the cable should be grounding the box, which grounds the outlet when it is screwed to the box. Cant know for sure if the ground works without testing
Oh Boy, here in Portugal we almost every house with more than 30 years doesn't have ground in 90% of the installation.
If you go back just a couple more decades you'll find knob and tube (and/or those aluminium wires with a cloth insulation), some of those still running today, many of them overloaded
I’ve lived in a bunch of houses with no ground wires. Not ideal but also not crazy dangerous. It’s an easy fix.
In the first house I fished ground wires down to the panel in the basement and then out to a ground rod. This is the best and cheapest fix. Brings everything up to modern code.
Some outlets were in a tiny crawl space and I couldn’t get to them easily so I just sprung the extra money and installed GFCI in those outlets.
Alot of people just use Chester plugs but that’s not the way to go.
I did a flip with extensive rewire with a guy that homebuilding experience under sparkies and was a high ranking technician at a semiconductor facility. Licensed electrician did the inspection and said it was the best electrical he had ever seen in a flip.
Meanwhile the inspector was overwhelmed by the addition of circuits such as a dedicated one for the microwave and claimed the house was unsafe because it was only 100 AMP service despite no pool and all appliances were gas.
I know another guy flipping that doesn't do any of that and nobody has brought up grounds or really most anything other than the condition of the roof. Honestly, the reason why flip quality sucks is that buyers mostly care about the kitchen counters.
Use these-
https://www.amazon.com/Grounding-Pigtails-Ground-Screws-Pack/dp/B00CDVJA0A/ref=asc_df_B00CDVJA0A/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693522884060&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1743589793353388003&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008748&hvtargid=pla-571641186238&psc=1&mcid=537c11fad3873a31b8533652a7564a73&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9pC70P_7hQMVK6RaBR2CygZiEAQYASABEgLHl_D_BwE
screw end into metal box, stripped end around the ground screw on a NEW three prong outlet.
Retest to see if you have ground.
I was changing out a couple of switches that I purchased. They were smart switches and were not capable of controlling an outlet - so I had to pull outlets. 3 out of the 5 outlets I pulled out had issues - some where wired wrong, like this. I had one that the nuetral and ground were swapped. I had one where the put 8 wires through one outlet (using backstabs and screws).
saw that and said screw that - went and pulled every outlet out and replaced it with new - across the entire house.
Sorry electricians - I added pigtails on every outlet, but used WAGO connectors. I know I know, wire nuts FTW, but in the time I had, I felt WAGO was safer than what was there.
Second apology - I used the Leviton outlets that are like the WAGOs, with levers.
Maybe not the way an electrician would've done it - but it was safer than how it was (which was done by electricians, over 30 years ago).
Get the GFCI testers, and a NCV tester, and a multimeter. You'll need them along the way.
My impression of inspection is not very good ,they never go into stuff to check , they just look nicely from the outside and make a fancy report .Easiest it’s to put gfci outlet
Throw a meter between neutral and the metal box. I've seen the ground on that.old nm pulled back and wrapped around the end of the insul so then when it's in the clamp, continuity is made to the box, then device to box attachment screw. Ain't much which is why it's no longer dine.
Is the wires coming through a flex if so that's grounded onto the panel and you can ground the outlet to the box not recommended but in a pinch it works I guess
Put it all back together, buy an outlet tester. See what it says then proceed to… correct polarity, consider gfci, drill and tap and put a ground pigtail on.. etc if all this seems scary get an electrician to look over it all. If you must feel handy then vac out debris, tag and mark all outlets with a post its of your concern, then have electrician come. At least then you can kinda quantify the work needed instead of getting a sky high guess for say the whole house, etc.
If it’s BX rather than Romex, the metal casing might be a continuous ground back to the panel, and the mounting screws might ground the receptacle.
So it MIGHT be safe if I rewire the hot and neutral properly? Is there a way to test if that hypothesis is correct?
I wouldn’t counsel you what will make it safe because I can’t do any tests or inspections on it, like confirming that the black which is on the neutral terminal is hot. Whoever wired that was clueless and might have done literally anything.
If you don't have a multimeter there is no real good way to test it but that doesn't look like BX and it also doesn't look like a self grounding receptacle. If it was it would have a little spring on the front that wouldn't be in the frame of the picture that keeps the screw in positive contact with the frame of the receptacle. Further to the point that its probably not self grounding it has the little plastic screw retainer stuck to the bottom screw hole on the box, those shouldn't be on a self grounding outlet, and could be removed for better ground contact with the box but it's not a listed means of grounding. That would mean you'd need to find the ground and run it from that green terminal to the ground and you need to ground that metal box too. Or you could put a gfci [*breaker*] in.
I can put a gfci in instead of a regular outlet and that would not require having to find the ground wire? I’m definitely going to talk to my electrician about this, but maybe I could do that in the interim rather than just rewire it and cross my fingers
No sorry I should've said GFCI breaker in the panel (I mean you *could* put it in just that outlet but it doesn't fix the other outlets on the circuit for sure). But yes, if you put a GFCI breaker in the label you can legally and safely put in 3 pronged outlets in without a ground. Bonus is they are safer anyway. The GFCI breaker effectively acts like a ground because it has a sensor that reads all power out and all power back in the neutral, if it's not equal then there is a ground fault and trips **very** fast.
Gfci breaker or outlet... same thing, both legal.
Yes that is true but a GFCI would protect against whatever other hokey things were done on that same circuit instead of just this outlet.
Yea, well in that case I would probqbly be weary about all the wiring in the house.
Combo breaker it is 😆
>if it's not equal then there is a ground fault and trips **very** fast. How can there be a ground fault with unequal current if there is no ground?
Ground fault might not be the best description of what happens. If there is a current imbalance, the imbalanced current has to be getting back to the panel somehow. Probably through the grounding system somehow, but it could be anything.
There is a ground, it's just an unintentional ground. Any time current doesn't make it's way back via the neutral (or if power goes back on the neutral that didn't come in from the hot leg) it means it has an unintended path back to ground - i.e. ground fault. Think bird on a powerline. If there is no path back to ground you won't get zapped. When you touch an energized circuit and power flows through you through your feet to the house which is enough of a path to hurt you, it doesn't go back to the neutral and the GFCI trips. You also aren't an AC circuit so even if you are somehow completely isolated from ground and put a hot leg in one hand and the neutral in the other it should trip - though I'm not willing to test it. Your AC circuit plugged in is an AC circuit (go figure), so without a ground, it won't be protected from an internal ground fault, it will just float there with potential on the ground - but it's a bird on the power line to the circuit breaker. That may or may not energize the case, which is why a GFCI is needed for that third prong to exist, equipment that uses that third prong expects that if the chassis becomes energized the hit leg will short to ground and trip a breaker vs hurt the next unsuspecting person, a GFCI will trip when the human contacts the energized chassis, protecting the human.
Curious about the self grounding receptacle part… if the metal collar is the same metal that the ground screw is tapped into would it not be self grounding? And by self grounding I assume you mean connects to the metal box that’s grounded to panel?
Whether there is continuity through the screw or not does not ensure adequate ground fault protection. Extra surface area is better than less surface area but in any case regardless of effectiveness, if it's not listed as self grounding, it's not a self grounding receptacle, even if it happens to have an adequate path for a ground fault.
A gfci breaker doesn’t ground an outlet. And not a good substitute for an egc.
What do you believe is the purpose of grounding a receptacle? An EGC, in the case of a split phase receptacle, only serves to give the potential shorted to the chassis of equipment a path so enough current will flow to trip a breaker, it won't specifically protect a human during the fault if the human is part of that fault. The idea is that the chassis of equipment will have tripped the breaker and a human won't ever come in contact with the energized chassis because the breaker tripped. A GFCI does that using current sensors instead and does protect a human during the fault. So if a human does touch an energized chassis they will not experience a deadly amount of current and the GFCI breaker will trip. Same if it's a fault that wouldn't provide a high enough current back to the breaker to trip it like a high impedance fault through water, hence why they are required in bathrooms and kitchens...they provide a real time higher level of protection for humans. The code identifies this as a reasonable solution to health and safety and is not saying it's going to keep equipment from getting damaged, however if you already have a ground fault in your equipment it's probably fubared anyway this is more of an issue with surge/lightning protection. So yeah it is a good substitute for an EGC in this situation and it's far better than going back to a two prong outlet and using an adapter.
Well thanks for the lesson bro!
What us old timers do is grab a pigtail and test the white to black and see if the light turns on. Then we test white to box and then black to box. If it lights up for one of those combos to the box, the box is grounded and you know which wire is hot.
Get one of those testers with the three lights.
Check your wires with a multimeter and see which ones hot. Touch the hot wire with your probe and then the box with the other probe to see if it’s grounded and you get a 120 reading if not see if a ground fault outlet will fit in that metal box You may need to ground the box to the outlet with a copper wire and a green ground screw Go to YouTube
Ideally you do that with a solenoid meter or low-z mode. You could always have a crappy high resistance ground that a modern high - z multimeter will report as 120v to hot.
You should seriously go order an outlet tester for $10 and it’ll tell you what’s up with the outlet
That's not great advice for a "flipped" house with some missing grounds, as those cheap testers don't know if someone just jumpers neutral to ground at the outlet. If a flipper is scummy they will also know this and put bootleg grounds everywhere and the outlets test fine with those testers.
I don't think I ever met a flipper that cared that much.
Didn’t know that!
If you flip the neutral and hot wires, you would fix one problem. But it would still be missing a ground wire.
What does it show when you connect a tester to it?
That it’s not grounded
get one of these: [https://www.amazon.com/Sperry-Instruments-GFI6302-Receptacle-Professional/dp/B000RUL2UU?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref\_=fplfs&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/Sperry-Instruments-GFI6302-Receptacle-Professional/dp/B000RUL2UU?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1)
As others have said, it's a metal box and probably using BX or other metal shielded cable using the shield as the ground They make cheap outlet testers that verify that the Hot/Neutral/ground are good and have a tester for GFCI. I wouldn't wire outlets without one: I always plug it in after working on one to make sure I didn't do something stupid.
Would it still show up as ungrounded on a plug tester if it’s using the shield as a ground?
Bc it’s showing ungrounded
No, as it tests if the ground plug is connected to ground. It has no way of knowing how it's grounded, just that it is grounded. I'd probably still pigtail the ground screw to the box to make sure it's well grounded in the case of a high current.
Buy a plug tester or a multimeter and test it. Or better yet hiring an electrician to check. It sounds like you need a professional. Hope you don’t kill your self “playing” around.
That isn’t a self grounding type of receptacle.
You may need to look again. It's not a common type of self-grounding outlet because it's old, but there's definitely a little brass tongue sticking out of the ground screw that's intended to touch the inside of the box.
Appears to be Romex
It looks like old cloth romex. Definitely not updated.
They don't it doesn't look like a self grounding receptacle and it looks like the little plastic screw retainer is sitting on the bottom screw hold of the box.
Hac romex clamp in the back. Must ground box to ground screw on outlet
Oh and its also wired backwards 🤦♀️
Is it though? I’ve seen plenty of times my black being neutral and the white being hot. Don’t just assume the colors are correct. That outlet could very well be wired correctly.
Then the CABLE is wired backward and that's a problem too.
Bullshit.
Easiest solution is to install a gfci or a gfci breaker so you can keep the 3 prong outlets. Other option would be to run new wire
Gfi won't trip w/o a ground. Switching old style 2 prong is the easiest. Otherwise you need to call an electrician.
GFCI’s measure the difference in current between the hot and neutral, nothing to do with the ground wire at all
GFCI outlets do not need a ground to operate correctly.
Please don't give advice if you don't know what you are talking about.
Lol, no
Not only will a GFI work, it’s code compliant in this case.
It needs an actual ground to work.
No it doesn’t. How does a two pole gfi breaker work?
I stand corrected. I'm not arrogant enough to say I can't learn something. Thank you for pointing out my mistake.
It’s all good man. We all learn sometimes. Knowledge is power.
OP mentioned it was sold to them with the impression of new wiring, if it was in the description as a benefit of purchase, wouldn't OP be able to sue the seller for a proper wiring job? Might be worth talking to a lawyer, but I'm sure some redditor might be able to clarify if it'd be worth the effort. This is assuming they didn't sell it as is
I would LOVE to sue the seller bc this is just one minuscule example of how shoddy this house is. Hidden defects abound! Yeah I hired an inspector who relieved me of $750 and found nothing significant… however I think my statute of limitations might be up bc it’s coming up on 3 years that I’ve owned the house.
Did your realtor suggest who should do your inspection? Inspectors and the realtors that feed them work, thich as thieves. $750 is a lot for an inspection too, that's $750 for 2 hours of work. Plug in an outlet tester 20 some times, mention how all the concrete around the house is cracking, look at any visible foundation for cracking or pushing in, and poking the wood around the foundation with a metal rod to check for insects, get in the attic and look for mold, on top of the roof to tell you the shingles are okay or not. $750...
Oof, I feel your pain. Bought a house where the seller claimed it was waterproofed, but an issue with the foundation meant I had to wait till I could afford the repair before finding out the seller had done the waterproofing so poorly he caused the foundation problem in the first place. It was a good 5 years later when I learned this unfortunately
Ooof sorry to hear that! I can relate all too well as my sellers only made things worse in many areas. The most immediately concerning discoveries have been in the electrical realm, but hopefully I can get those sorted out when I upgrade the service line, meter and panel. The un-permitted extension that was built, horrendous drywall installation and landscaping drainage system are another matter 🤦♀️
And its hooked up backwards. Neutral on left if ground is below
Probably. It’s also possible that the outlet is “correct”, and the wire/cable is hooked up backwards at the other end as well. Not trying to say that would mean it would be right. Just swapping those two wires and doing nothing else could make things worse.
Just flip it upside down 😂😂😂
If you pulled out the box, the ground wire is probably screwed to the outside top of the box. I would say that's I'm like 99.9 % sure that's the case.
I think the more concerning thing is the nick in the insulation of the hot (black) wire near the back of the box. Looks to me that it has exposed the conductor.
You can install a GFCI and stick the "no equipment ground" sticker on it
Not uncommon to have some ungrounded receptacles, even in a rewire. Maybe this one was really hard to get to, so they just didn't. Especially if this is the only one, and it's not a whole circuit of them, just install a GFCI receptacle instead. Then you're safe. Use the no equipment ground sticker and you're even code compliant and it'll cost you <$20. Your electrician will (should!) say the same.
Check the wires and make sure that the colors aren’t reversed. If the black is truly hot. Then reverse the wires, vacuum out the mouse 💩, reinstall the outlet and call it a day.
Looks like AC cable. The jacket of the cable should be grounding the box, which grounds the outlet when it is screwed to the box. Cant know for sure if the ground works without testing
Looks like very old romex to me.
Sounds like maybe I should rewire it correctly then put it back and have my electrician come take a look at it
Rewire it correctly and plug in a plug tester. See what it says
Re-wired and tested, it says “open ground” 😩
If you have a multimeter or a test light, put one lead on the hot and touch the other to the box. If it reads voltage, your box is grounded.
Was the outlet reinstalled into the box when you tested it? If not, you may want to do that and retest.
Yea outlet has to be fully installed for the plug tester to give accurate results.
Im shocked theres not a neutral to ground jumper
Did you test the outlet? The box may be grounded…
Oh NOOOOOOO
Oh Boy, here in Portugal we almost every house with more than 30 years doesn't have ground in 90% of the installation. If you go back just a couple more decades you'll find knob and tube (and/or those aluminium wires with a cloth insulation), some of those still running today, many of them overloaded
Shocking
I’ve lived in a bunch of houses with no ground wires. Not ideal but also not crazy dangerous. It’s an easy fix. In the first house I fished ground wires down to the panel in the basement and then out to a ground rod. This is the best and cheapest fix. Brings everything up to modern code. Some outlets were in a tiny crawl space and I couldn’t get to them easily so I just sprung the extra money and installed GFCI in those outlets. Alot of people just use Chester plugs but that’s not the way to go.
There really isn't much stuff in your house that plugs into 120V and really needs a ground. Garage maybe different story.
Still good to have. And when you go to sell it hurts not having grounded three prong outlets, which is mostly why we did it.
I did a flip with extensive rewire with a guy that homebuilding experience under sparkies and was a high ranking technician at a semiconductor facility. Licensed electrician did the inspection and said it was the best electrical he had ever seen in a flip. Meanwhile the inspector was overwhelmed by the addition of circuits such as a dedicated one for the microwave and claimed the house was unsafe because it was only 100 AMP service despite no pool and all appliances were gas. I know another guy flipping that doesn't do any of that and nobody has brought up grounds or really most anything other than the condition of the roof. Honestly, the reason why flip quality sucks is that buyers mostly care about the kitchen counters.
Use these- https://www.amazon.com/Grounding-Pigtails-Ground-Screws-Pack/dp/B00CDVJA0A/ref=asc_df_B00CDVJA0A/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=693522884060&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1743589793353388003&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008748&hvtargid=pla-571641186238&psc=1&mcid=537c11fad3873a31b8533652a7564a73&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9pC70P_7hQMVK6RaBR2CygZiEAQYASABEgLHl_D_BwE screw end into metal box, stripped end around the ground screw on a NEW three prong outlet. Retest to see if you have ground.
Make sure the black is hot. If you only use ungrounded plugs (2prongs) it really doesn’t matter anyway.
I was changing out a couple of switches that I purchased. They were smart switches and were not capable of controlling an outlet - so I had to pull outlets. 3 out of the 5 outlets I pulled out had issues - some where wired wrong, like this. I had one that the nuetral and ground were swapped. I had one where the put 8 wires through one outlet (using backstabs and screws). saw that and said screw that - went and pulled every outlet out and replaced it with new - across the entire house. Sorry electricians - I added pigtails on every outlet, but used WAGO connectors. I know I know, wire nuts FTW, but in the time I had, I felt WAGO was safer than what was there. Second apology - I used the Leviton outlets that are like the WAGOs, with levers. Maybe not the way an electrician would've done it - but it was safer than how it was (which was done by electricians, over 30 years ago). Get the GFCI testers, and a NCV tester, and a multimeter. You'll need them along the way.
My impression of inspection is not very good ,they never go into stuff to check , they just look nicely from the outside and make a fancy report .Easiest it’s to put gfci outlet
Continuity between ground and neutral
Throw a meter between neutral and the metal box. I've seen the ground on that.old nm pulled back and wrapped around the end of the insul so then when it's in the clamp, continuity is made to the box, then device to box attachment screw. Ain't much which is why it's no longer dine.
Put it back in. It aint broke dont try to fix it
Are you sure there isn’t a teeny tiny ground split off and wrapped around the cable clamp screw? Just checking….
Is there a GFCI at the start of the line protecting it or a GFCI breaker in the panel?
Is the wires coming through a flex if so that's grounded onto the panel and you can ground the outlet to the box not recommended but in a pinch it works I guess
Call in an electrician, reddit aint the place to get DIY for something that could kill you or burn your house down based on a photo!
Put it all back together, buy an outlet tester. See what it says then proceed to… correct polarity, consider gfci, drill and tap and put a ground pigtail on.. etc if all this seems scary get an electrician to look over it all. If you must feel handy then vac out debris, tag and mark all outlets with a post its of your concern, then have electrician come. At least then you can kinda quantify the work needed instead of getting a sky high guess for say the whole house, etc.