Replacing Galvanized

Replacing Galvanized/Grounding Implications

I'm about to replace the galvanized pipe in my 1945 house. I was up in the attic where the water heater is and noticed several ground wires that connected to the cold water supply that comes up from under the house through the wall. I was going to replace with pex but this would break that ground.

So, I'm thinking about getting an electrician to evaluate the situation but I wanted to see if anyone had this experience. The fusebox is grounded into the ground but it's the attic ground wires that concern me.

I've considered going with copper up to the water heater but have read about issues with grounding to copper on this forum.

my 3 cents

if it's light guage wire 18 or so it may be for telephone. trace it to component if you can. today we install 2 ground rods for service or a ufer ground 30 ft of heavy wire clamped onto re-bar before found. is poured.

Actually the phone is grounded to another section under the house which is a differant issue.

If I remember correctly, when the walls were open during the bathroom remodel. It was a ground coming off of the wall fixture.

wire

That was usually an indication that the wire used did not have its own ground, possibly wired with BX, which used its steel casing as a sort of ground, but was not approved for use as a "real" ground when one was required, such as in kitchens and baths.

The electrician suggested that if I replace the galvanized, I could just connect the three to a ground that goes down and connects to the water supply or the box ground on the box.

Ok, I finally did this yesterday and am very happy with the result. I can shower while the dishwasher is running, etc.

One odd thing that I am curious about though. The only two things that share a .5 inch supply line are the sink and toilet at the far end of the house. This half bath was added in a closet and I just hooked he same runs of pex into my new 3/4" pex. It is siginificantly better than before but why would the pressure in the sinks hot be affected by the flushing of the toilet when they are on seperate supplies?

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anyone?

Sounds like someone wanted to put in grounds for receptacle which originally were ungrounded. I do not believe connecting to the cold water pipe is proper for this, but it might be.

No matter, it seems that at this time you should have an electrician with a permit install some properly grounded outlets. Any outlets which cannot be properly grounded could have a GFCI installed. This provides most of the safety of a grounded outlet. It does not provide a ground for equipment which "likes" to be grounded, like computers.

actually I was referring to this:

One odd thing that I am curious about though. The only two things that share a .5 inch supply line are the sink and toilet at the far end of the house. This half bath was added in a closet and I just hooked he same runs of pex into my new 3/4" pex. It is siginificantly better than before but why would the pressure in the sinks hot be affected by the flushing of the toilet when they are on seperate supplies?

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