question about house grounding wire

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk

What kind of foundation is commonly used up there? Piers? Slab on piers? Crawlspace?

All of the above and some more...shall we say...creative interpretations of those. Cedar log piers, creosote railroad ties, poured slab. Around Homer you hear people discussing the need to jack up their house to replace 50+ year old wooden pilings. As for insulation, people think they are just insulating the house from the ground...if there's permafrost (there are different types; some thaw more easily than others), it also insulates the ground from the house. If you don't, you can end up with a major mess. No permafrost this far south, just seasonal freezing. My new garage will have a poured concrete pad, but there is 6" of rigid foam insulation underneath to minimize frost heaving.

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by Bamaman1

Just go to the hardware or big box store and get a grounding clamp to go on the top of the grounding rod. Forget hammering it down farther, they're often put in using a water jet--too difficult to ram in with a hammer.

No water jets in use here! No public water or well on site. The house runs off a 1000 gal cistern. I debated putting in a well, but they are pretty hit or miss here and can need serious filtering/iron removal/conditioning. Half my neighbors have wells, half cisterns. Many wells here are becoming less reliable or going dry as winters warm, snowpack declines, soil percolation and recharge drops. My previous house a few miles away has a well but it is probably doomed.

Now that I know where the rod is its easy enough to avoid it, but I'll mark it anyway. With my luck I'll trip over the thing and fall flat on my face once too often!