# House wired with 2 wire romex



## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

kpler said:


> I have come across a house thats wired with 2 wire cloth romex. Obviously no grounds at all the metal boxes. Is there a way to ground everything without rewiring the whole house? Gfi breaker perhahaps or gfis at all the rececptacles? However that wouldnt cover all the lighting. Anyone come across this? Your input will be appreciated. Thanks


Why do you need to rewire? Is the wiring failing?


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

I live in an area where the vast majority of houses are wired with 2-wire NM, K&T and old BX cable. We generally don't do whole house rewires solely because of ungrounded wiring. We bring stuff up to code with major remodels or to remove K&T, but otherwise there is really no need to rewire non-grounded 2-wire NM cable.


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## kpler (Aug 29, 2012)

so leave all the receptacles 2 prong? You would have to with no ground at the boxes. Just trying to update the home without a total rewire of everything. Thanks


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

kpler said:


> so leave all the receptacles 2 prong? You would have to with no ground at the boxes. Just trying to update the home without a total rewire of everything. Thanks


That's what we do, new 2-wire receptacles in areas that don't need grounding (bedrooms, living room, den, etc) and run new dedicated circuits as needed where grounding is important (a/c, fridge, micro, dw, outside, garage, etc.) But if you feel compelled to rewire and customer is willing to pay, go for it. That's generally almost never the case though.


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

kpler said:


> so leave all the receptacles 2 prong? You would have to with no ground at the boxes. Just trying to update the home without a total rewire of everything. Thanks


Come July first you will have to arcfault those receptacle replacements. Then they will be three prong. We just put a ground fault in the first receptacle now.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

backstay said:


> Come July first you will have to arcfault those receptacle replacements. Then they will be three prong. We just put a ground fault in the first receptacle now.



Not us, we can't be bothered with that nonsense. :no:


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

MTW said:


> Not us, we can't be bothered with that nonsense. :no:


Lucky you, now our bathrooms are arcfaulted(after 7-1-17)


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## kpler (Aug 29, 2012)

Ok Thanks for the help. I just looked i have been a member since 2012 and usually just read here and dont post anything. Maybe ill be here a bit more and help some people out too. Thanks again


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

backstay said:


> Lucky you, now our bathrooms are arcfaulted(after 7-1-17)


We're required to use them as well, we just choose not to. :icon_wink:

Why do you AFCI protect bathroom circuits? :001_huh:


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

MTW said:


> That's what we do, new 2-wire receptacles in areas that don't need grounding (bedrooms, living room, den, etc) and run new dedicated circuits as needed where grounding is important (a/c, fridge, micro, dw, outside, garage, etc.) But if you feel compelled to rewire and customer is willing to pay, go for it. That's generally almost never the case though.


You really install 2 prong receptacles?? I didn't think anyone did that.

I figured when there's 2-wire cable installed everyone installed 3 prong and GFCI protected it.

Or in the case of the old BX, 3 prong without GFCI's since (altho not an official EGC) the metal cladding worked well enough as a ground.


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## kpler (Aug 29, 2012)

well then my question would be could you put a gfci breaker in the panel where the circuit starts and consider those all grounded?


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

kpler said:


> well then my question would be could you put a gfci breaker in the panel where the circuit starts and consider those all grounded?


You can put a GFCI breaker in and then replace all the receptacles with 3 prong. That is code compliant. 

But they wouldn't be considered grounded. There is a sticker that comes with GFCI receptacles that I believe you are supposed to put on all the receptacles that says there is no ground. But again it is compliant since the GFCI is protecting the circuit from ground faults.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

HackWork said:


> You really install 2 prong receptacles?? I didn't think anyone did that.
> 
> I figured when there's 2-wire cable installed everyone installed 3 prong and GFCI protected it.


If it's a simple receptacle replacement, yes.

Oh sorry, I mean I install a dual AFCI/GFCI receptacle as the code requires. :icon_wink:


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

kpler said:


> so leave all the receptacles 2 prong? You would have to with no ground at the boxes. Just trying to update the home without a total rewire of everything. Thanks


First of all welcome aboard! 

As for the rest of that, if it ain't broke don't fix it.


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

MTW said:


> We're required to use them as well, we just choose not to. :icon_wink:
> 
> Why do you AFCI protect bathroom circuits? :001_huh:


My bad, it's dormitory bathrooms that got included.


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## Drsparky14 (Oct 22, 2016)

backstay said:


> Come July first you will have to arcfault those receptacle replacements. Then they will be three prong. We just put a ground fault in the first receptacle now.




Put in an afgf breaker and call it good


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

Drsparky14 said:


> Put in an afgf breaker and call it good
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yeah, right.


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## RePhase277 (Feb 5, 2008)

backstay said:


> Yeah, right.


Looky there! A fuse panel that isn't just full of 30 amp fuses! Don't see many of those.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

Drsparky14 said:


> Put in an afgf breaker and call it good


Don't put in any AFCI protection and call it good. :thumbsup:


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## Drsparky14 (Oct 22, 2016)

backstay said:


> Yeah, right.




You can still put a couple afgf devices in a 3 gang box next to the panel. 


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

Drsparky14 said:


> You can still put a couple afgf devices in a 3 gang box next to the panel.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


You need to read the OP again



kpler said:


> I have come across a house thats wired with 2 wire cloth romex. Obviously no grounds at all the metal boxes. Is there a way to ground everything without rewiring the whole house? Gfi breaker perhahaps or gfis at all the rececptacles? However that wouldnt cover all the lighting. Anyone come across this? Your input will be appreciated. Thanks


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## Drsparky14 (Oct 22, 2016)

backstay said:


> You need to read the OP again




No, you must at minimum run a ground wire to everything. But to be honest; if you are going that route you might as well just run new romex to everything. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

Drsparky14 said:


> No, you must at minimum run a ground wire to everything. But to be honest; if you are going that route you might as well just run new romex to everything.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


You are incorrect.


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