Moving Earth Rod

[Synapse]

I'm currently in the process of preparing for a new sliding folding door to be fitted at the rear of my house. The pathway at the back is to be raised up to be level with the new door and unfortunately covers an air brick which is being moved a couple of meters to the right to avoid this, out of this air brick is the main earth cable connected to a rod buried right beside the wall of the house.

So my plan was to either retrieve this earth rod and bury it in the new location (so it's still accessible) or buy a new rod then hire an earth loop induction tester to make sure it's all ok or get an electrician in to check it all out.

So I did a bit of investigative work and uncovered a bit of the earth rod, it seems to be buried and connected at it's base to some steel cabling that enters back into the house under the floor and connects to what seems to be some of the old wiring system (but I can't be sure given it's mostly obscured). Is this something that was once common? and would there be any need to replicate it at the new location?

 

[Spark123]

Call an electrician to move the rod, it is too important to get wrong.

 

[Synapse]

I assumed that would be the answer, I think I'll bury a new rod but hold off on connecting it up and leave that to the electrician to connect and test.

 

[Richard C]

I think I'll bury a new rod but hold off on connecting it up and leave that to the electrician to connect and test.

I wouldn't even do that without consulting an electrician first.

 

[RF Lighting]

How much is the path being raised by? Is the rod currently in an inspecction pit?

 

[Synapse]

No currently it isn't in an inspection pit and it pokes above ground but is seated right against the wall so no one trips over it which may make fitting an inspection pit difficult. The new path will be approximately 24cm higher. I've attached a picture which shows the earth rod and the new height of the path shown in red.

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• Synapse
• 30 Jun 2009
• 1

 

[Spark123]

 

[Richard C]

So are you saying your going to put in a path which will cover & be above both the DPC & the air brick

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The air-brick will be moved.

DPC though - that's a problem.

 

[Richard C]

The air-brick will be moved.

Ah yes so it is.

DPC though - that's a problem.

Agree.

 

[JohnD]

you might find your electricity supplier can give you a new and better earthing connection, after which you no longer need an earth rod. Occasionally it is free and sometimes it costs £50 to £100 which will be money well spent.

Send a letter to the address on your bill asking if they can provide you with a PME earth connection. Don't phone, the dummy in the call centre will not know.

If you post some pics of your meter, company fuse, consumer uinit and the various wires between them, especially any green and yellow ones, we may have more to say.

 

[Synapse]

A wall is being built parallel to the house about 10cm away and a metal grid being put over so as not to bridge the DPC, although that's primarily my fathers little project to build that up so I don't know very much about how he's going to do it exactly, all I know is that he's taken the DPC issue into account and he's working around it. It is possible that he could make a section that lifts out to allow access to the earth rod but I don't know how much space is required, for example I don't know if it would be possible to get a spanner in to get to the nut on the bracket. Typically how much space would someone need around the earth rod?

I'll be contacting my supplier to inquire about a PME earth connection (after I do a little research so I at least know what I'm talking about!) because that sounds like the best and easiest solution, especially if it's free.

I'll post some pictures later on to show the CU, meter etc. We recently had a lot of work done by the electricity supplier after they replaced an old overhead connection between adjoining houses and gave us a new underground connection, as such our meter is actually sited away from the CU, I don't know if this would be a problem or not.

Thanks for the advice so far.

 

[JohnD]

with old overhead supplies, the supplier often couldn't provide an earthing point, hence your earth rod. These days they often can, and as you have recently been changed to an underground supply there is quite a good chance. Some pics inside the meter box will give clues.

//www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:earthing_supply_types_and_bonding:earthing_arrangements

TNC-S is PME

Your old system is TT