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The house DH & I bought last year is 1950s also and had all of the two prong outlets. We paid for rewiring ourselves and got grounded (up to code) outlets in the kitchen and bathrooms.
Just leave it up to the buyer, but expect the buyer to possibly factor in the cost of the upgrade to the electric when making an offer.
Good luck!
Thanks for the reality check. I'm thinking the time to upgrade would have been when I bought the house nine years ago. Then I would have at least gotten some benefit from it.
The answer really depends on your market. Is there an expectation from buyers in your market to have grounded outlets?
Also, a GFCI at the service panel won't work if you don't have ground wires running to the outlets. In any event, I'd change the outlets back to two-prong if they aren't grounded. No need confusing someone who might think an outlet is grounded.
The house DH & I bought last year is 1950s also and had all of the two prong outlets. We paid for rewiring ourselves and got grounded (up to code) outlets in the kitchen and bathrooms.
Just leave it up to the buyer, but expect the buyer to possibly factor in the cost of the upgrade to the electric when making an offer.
Good luck!
I agree. Let the buyer decide their course of action.
That won't work. You need a ground wire in order for a GFCI outlet to work.
Just to be clear...
The GFI *on the first device* allows you to keep the 3 prong outlets already installed.
The "trick" to make this all code is to then paste one of the little warning labels on each of those outlets.
That saves a LOT of duplicating work and expense.
Last edited by MrRational; 05-19-2013 at 10:38 AM..
You'd be surprised what buyers (and even inspectors) overlook, so I'd never bother with any expense fixes to put a house on the market if you're already losing on it. The last two houses I sold had weird things I was prepared for the buyer's inspector to bring up (no I didn't lie on the disclosure) and in both cases I didn't get a single question I anticipated.
Same with stylistic issues. I put my mother's house on the market in a very difficult-sell neighborhood awhile back. When I interviewed potential listing agents, I had one tell me he would only list if I agreed to lower the price I wanted because the kitchen had a blue color scheme, including the cabinets, which had a blue glaze. He said blue kitchens were a no-go in the market and the house would never sell at the price I thought was fair. I believed his premise, but the kitchen was in excellent condition and everything was in working order. I ignored his advice and went with a Realtor willing to list at a higher price. The house was sold to the third person who looked at it and she offered full asking price. Why? She "LOVED!!!" the blue kitchen. That first time buyer also signed WITHOUT an inspection (and her Realtor let her) "because my father can fix anything that's wrong." Go figure.
I'm with MrRational: "Limit your yardwork to what you can do with the mower, rake and weedwacker you already have. Limit your inside to the time and sweat work. 1) fix what's not right 2) clean EVERYTHING and 3) neutralize." Unless it's blue. Don't bother neutralizing that.
Are you suggesting fraud? You can put all the stickers on that you want, but without an actual ground wire in the system, it won't work as designed.
Old thread, but wanted to address this incorrect statement for others that read the thread.:
GFCI does not need a ground to work, and is code legal without a ground for the circuit. The ungrounded outlets just need to be labeled as noted a few messages above. One $15 GFCI outlet (the first in a circuit) can be wired to protect all the following outlets on the same circuit.
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