Wood Patio Cover Post Grounding

27268 Views 10 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Stubbie, Jul 4, 2009

Madracki

Discussion Starter · Jun 27, 2009

My local building inspector (Yorba Linda, California) tells me I need to ground all 3 of the wooden post footing brackets to a ground rod with #8 wire. I've never heard of anything like this, he wants a 3ft ground rod pounded into the soil and the wires run from it to all 3 of the footing brackets that are set into 2ft deep holes w/conrete. He says it's for lightning protection. I can't find anything is the state building code about this. He also mentioned in passing that the pool rail for my swimming pool should also have the same grounding. Any thoughts on this?

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Stubbie

· #4 · Jun 28, 2009

If he is saying that all three need to be bonded to the pool equipotential grid as 220/221 mentioned he is correct if they are within the required minimums of the waters edge.

3' ground rods would be ridiculous in your soil out there and what exactly is he trying to protect from lightning....the post??? Maybe he is worried the footing will crack if hit by lightning......

IMO he is wanting the posts bonded because of the pool and that is why he is saying use #8 awg copper to bond them. That is the required size for pool bonding of the equipotential grid.

What is puzzling is the ground rods. If you do not extend the #8 to the other bonded metal around the pool he is actually making things less safe in the event of an unwanted voltage gradient passing through the soil from an external electrical fault to earth such as lightning brief as it may be.

The ground rods IMO are not needed and I've never heard of them being required on any post brackets for protection from lightning. If he can't show you why these ground rods are required I would defer to the local AHJ for a ruling on installing them. For the life of me I can't understand their purpose as you are being instructed to do.

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Stubbie

· #8 · Jun 29, 2009

That inspector is really being silly, if you can't get a bonding wire to the pool pump bonding lug or some other point on the equipotential grid of the pool you are accomplishing nothing. I'm starting to think he thinks you are grounding the metal brackets to earth and this is doing the same thing as the pool equipotential grid. If you cannot bond all the metal around the pool together you will have a difference of potential existing and will have done all that silliness with the ground rods for no gain in safety.

I like 220/221's suggestion about making the metal brackets unaccessible to human touch and see if the guy will accept that.

Any way to go up the posts and get to the pool pump bonding lug with a #8 and make it look good??

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Stubbie

· #10 · Jul 4, 2009

What the code is really wanting is bonding of all metal within 5' of the waters edge, this happens to include the pool equipment. Those metal brackets on the posts technically are required to be bonded to the pool equipotential grid if within 5 feet. The whole idea is if you were to touch two metal objects the bonding has brought both pieces to the same potential and without a difference of potential (voltage) current cannot flow and you will not receive a shock or worse.

Anyway glad your problem is resolved. I would still do as 220/221 suggested and cover the metal so that they cannot come in contact with people.

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Stubbie

· #11 · Jul 4, 2009

What the code is really wanting is bonding of all metal within 5' of the waters edge, this happens to include the pool equipment. Those metal brackets on the posts technically are required to be bonded to the pool equipotential grid if within 5 feet. The whole idea is if you were to touch two metal objects the bonding has brought both pieces to the same potential and without a difference of potential (voltage) current cannot flow and you will not receive a shock or worse.

Anyway glad your problem is resolved. I would still do as 220/221 suggested and cover the metal brackets so that they cannot come in contact with people.

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