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ISUzj · 10-14-2010, 06:52 AM

Just bought fixer upper to live in/ first house, and had quite a few years experience in the romodel/home repair.

We have outlets throughout the house that are just 2 prong, and want to upgrade most of them. 85% of the wire in the house is through conduit. It is a mixture of 12-2 and the old black coated with paper? insulation and 2 wire. not sure when the house was wired. It has a Pushmatic breaker box.

My question is, can I just swap out outlets and ground them to the conduit, or should I take the time to run new wire from the box to the outlets?

I know the best awnser is run new wire, just exploring my options.

Thanks

**kok328** · 10-14-2010, 09:10 AM

If your just looking to ground the outlets, then yes you can use the conduit.
You must make sure there are no breaks in the conduit, that all coupler set screws are tight and make sure there are no non-metalic junctions that would break the ground (plastic J-boxes, seal-tight runs, etc...).
However, as you have already stated; to run a ground wire is the best way to go.

ISUzj · 10-14-2010, 10:19 AM

Thanks for the reply!!!

Now that wire, the older stuff, what gauge is it and is it pretty reliable?

**kok328** · 10-14-2010, 10:36 AM

The older wire would most likely be 14 AWG. I don't go back far enough to know about it's reliability. However, you'll have to pulled THNN wire not romex if running it through conduit.

ISUzj · 10-14-2010, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kok328

The older wire would most likely be 14 AWG. I don't go back far enough to know about it's reliability. However, you'll have to pulled THNN wire not romex if running it through conduit.

not sure if I know what THNN wire is, can you explain?

**kok328** · 10-14-2010, 06:46 PM

Single conductor wire (stranded or solid core) PVC coated.
Google it and you'll see what I'm talking about.

louvain · 10-19-2010, 02:16 AM

Thanks kok328 for a brief explanation and such as a helpful ideas.

ISUzj · 10-19-2010, 08:50 AM

With the need in our city to pull a permit to do major electrical changes. I may just try to see if I can feed some 12 gauge single wire throguout most of the house and ground the outlets that way, espcially if there is conduit, I may be lucky enough to feed it easily.

There are a couple of spots where I am going to re-route wires in the wall, while I have it opened up. It is a 5-8 foot peice of wire and I am just going to replace the old... I really shouldn't have to get a permit for that should I?

I really don't want to pay an electcian 120 bucks to feed 8 feet of wire and replace an outlet..