My house was built in 1956 and has two prong, two wire outlets throughout.
About 10 years ago, I had the bathrooms remodeled and while doing so, installed a new 200 amp breaker box in the garage, then pulled three strands of 12/2 with ground so that each bathroom has its own breaker for outlets, while lights are on a shared circuit. Done right and to code by a licensed electrician.
While I was having the new breaker box installed and the bathroom lines pulled, I also had the electrician pull and additional four 12/2 with ground lines over top my kitchen ceiling with about 25 feet coiled so that whenever I finally do get around to doing something about remodeling the kitchen the power is there by adding breakers into the box and hooking them up.
Now, this means that the remainder of the outlets in my bedrooms, den, and living room are still 2 prong ungrounded outlets. I thought about installing GFCI outlets but there are two problems. It's very difficult to determine, for any given circuit which is the 'head' outlet, and second, my house was built with these odd, undersized electrical boxes which means the GFCI won't fit unless I replace the box.
Finally getting to the question... thank you for bearing with me. In order to get these outlets grounded, I've been toying with the idea of using a wire tape to pull a single #12 wire from the outlet into the attic. My question is this: Can I use the ground wire in the electrical wiring in the bathrooms (splice in at the junction box) to get to the ground bar in the breaker box or do I need to run a separate wire?
As I envision it, with 3 or 4 ungrounded outlets in each room, I'd tie them together in a junction box, then, run the ground wire to the bathroom wiring. I'd be surprised if this wasn't a code violation but in addition to that, is there any safety issue that arises?
TIA
About 10 years ago, I had the bathrooms remodeled and while doing so, installed a new 200 amp breaker box in the garage, then pulled three strands of 12/2 with ground so that each bathroom has its own breaker for outlets, while lights are on a shared circuit. Done right and to code by a licensed electrician.
While I was having the new breaker box installed and the bathroom lines pulled, I also had the electrician pull and additional four 12/2 with ground lines over top my kitchen ceiling with about 25 feet coiled so that whenever I finally do get around to doing something about remodeling the kitchen the power is there by adding breakers into the box and hooking them up.
Now, this means that the remainder of the outlets in my bedrooms, den, and living room are still 2 prong ungrounded outlets. I thought about installing GFCI outlets but there are two problems. It's very difficult to determine, for any given circuit which is the 'head' outlet, and second, my house was built with these odd, undersized electrical boxes which means the GFCI won't fit unless I replace the box.
Finally getting to the question... thank you for bearing with me. In order to get these outlets grounded, I've been toying with the idea of using a wire tape to pull a single #12 wire from the outlet into the attic. My question is this: Can I use the ground wire in the electrical wiring in the bathrooms (splice in at the junction box) to get to the ground bar in the breaker box or do I need to run a separate wire?
As I envision it, with 3 or 4 ungrounded outlets in each room, I'd tie them together in a junction box, then, run the ground wire to the bathroom wiring. I'd be surprised if this wasn't a code violation but in addition to that, is there any safety issue that arises?
TIA
Grounding Two Wire Outlet, Part 2
