Calling All Electricians

[Tiberius Jim]

My fiancee and I are moving into a studio apartment this week. It is a part of her parent's house that was once a garage, and then a day care center and now recently renovated to be an apartment. They just spent about $20,000 on the permits, materials and labor to get it ready. We started moving our things in when we noticed a rather serious problem: all 4 of the main outlets are the old 2-prong non-grounded type.

So I hit Google looking to find a solution. of course you find the little plug in adapters that convert the outlet by using the faceplate screw as a ground, but from my research, those are no good. I have some expensive electronics I need to power, and a half-assed solution won't cut it.

I've gotten conflicting info from various websites talking about this as well as the electrician who worked on the renovations. I have heard two main pieces of info. 1. The outlets have to be re-wired to include a ground wire, and then have the newer 3-prong outlets installed. 2. Since the outlet boxes are metal and have a scre in the back, the box is most likely already grounded, and all that needs to be done ihave a new 3 prong outlet installed with a ground wire from the outlet to the box.

Obviously #2 is ideal as it would be a quick, easy and cheap fix. However I don't have the equipment or knowhow to do event he "easy" fix. I have a few electrician friends who may be able to come out soon, but I wanted to try and get some more info beforehand so I at least seem like I know what I'm talking about.

So here's a quick run down of the situation for anyone who might have some knowledge on this. The outlets are 2-prong now. There are no other wires behind the outlets inside the box that looks like a ground wire. The boxes are metal and there is a screw in the back of each box.

Any info is greatly appreciated!

 

[Scout101]

Not sure how you ended up with 2-prong outlets if you hired electricians, got permits, etc. Wouldn't think that that matches your building codes much of anywhere, really.

As far as how to hook up what you have? If there's a screw in the back of the metal outlet box, all it should take is a length of wire. strip the coating off it, and screw one end of it down to the screw there. The other end of that goes into the ground screw (probably green) on a 3-prong outlet. Really only need a screwdriver and some wire strippers. And either luck, or the smarts to turn off the breaker first

Would think that would be sufficient, but not sure how you got into that situation in the first place, unless your future father-in-law did the work himself and didn't bring it up to code...

 

[Trekker4747]

I would think that if it was recently remodeled they'd have to comply with building codes that I'm sure would mandate three-pronged outlets. I suspect the building isn't in code.

 

[RevDMV]

No kidding, if they managed to put in these outlets I would be very concerned about what other work was done.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Yeah, regarding the points about the permits, I too am not sure how the 2-prongers got there to begin with. I know that when the place was originally turned from a garage to a day-care center years ago the work wasn't done with permits. I'm guessing the new work was done using the existing electric work and this electrician didn't take the extra work to put in a grounded outlet.

If there's a screw in the back of the metal outlet box, all it should take is a length of wire. strip the coating off it, and screw one end of it down to the screw there. The other end of that goes into the ground screw (probably green) on a 3-prong outlet.

That's what I figured as well, but then I read that that's only going to work if the metal box itself is grounded. I would have to get a tester and test the outlet after the fact to make sure it is in fact grounded.

I have a friend of a friend who is an electrician coming on this weekend to take a look and will be able to get his opinion. If it is as simple as what yous ay, I still may just have him do it and have the landlords/in-laws foot the bill. This is clearly something that any tennant would demand to have done prior to moving in, so it's not unreasonable for us to ask them to take care of it.

 

[farmkid]

I would think that if it was recently remodeled they'd have to comply with building codes that I'm sure would mandate three-pronged outlets. I suspect the building isn't in code.

I wonder where the electrician even got 2-prong outlets. I don't think I've even seen one of those for sale for a long time.

 

[Scout101]

Not exactly promising if it was used as a daycare center before this...

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Well, after actually calling an electrician, we had a guy come out today and he confirmed that there is no ground present at all on any of the 4 outlets. Looks like the asshats that did the renovation work were lazy and simply used the old, old wiring that was originally there when the place was a garage and kept the outlets as the original 2-prong groundless. The boxes are metal, but aren't hooked to any kind of ground whatsoever.

So, he's out there now running a ground wire from the water pipe to the four outlets, having already installed the new recepticals. It sort of works out; the price of the materials and labor is right around my first month's rent...so while it sucks that my mom-in-law won't be making anything back on the apartment this month, at least she's not out anything either.

The guy is a friend of a friend and came from fairly far out but isn't charging us for the visit or for testing all of the outlets, but I'll probably shoot him a few bucks for gas. Everything is running around $500. He's getting it all done in a really timely manner too; came out at 10am just to see what we were dealing with and it's now only 1pm and he's already started work.

I'm going to see if my MiL can try to get some money back from the first guy because it sounds like he royally screwed her over. What gets me is the first guy is a friend of her nephew, so you'd think he'd be a more upstanding guy and not fuck over his buddy's aunt...

 

[Saturn0660]

I just rewired the the old two-prong with a three-prong and grounded it to the box for my daughters outlet where her computer plugs in. It's fine no worries..