ᐅ New Construction: What to Do When the Grounding System Is Installed Incorrectly

Hi everyone,

Our plot was filled and compacted with soil and an 80cm (31.5 inches) layer of crushed stone on top. The surveyor has already marked the house location. Now, the slab foundation company said that we should have installed a ring ground electrode beforehand. According to their scope of work, this is usually installed in the frost protection edge beams, but these might not be necessary because of the 80cm (31.5 inches) crushed stone layer (frost depth according to the report is 80cm (31.5 inches)).

The slab company suggested it’s not a big issue; they would lay out grounding strips and these could be connected with a ground rod. What do you think about that? What should we do? The slab foundation has not been poured yet.

Thank you very much for your help.
Lennart

I would urgently recommend involving an electrician. They are responsible for proper execution, must document everything, and confirm this to the utility company when registering the house.

hanse987 schrieb:

I would urgently recommend consulting an electrician. They are responsible for proper installation, must document everything, and confirm this with the power supplier when registering the house.

Hi,

The electrician initially promised to install a rod grounding system but has now recommended a retrofitted ring grounding conductor around the house. The question is, can this be installed on gravel, or does it need to be embedded in the soil?

According to the scope of work from the foundation slab company, they normally install the ring grounding conductor in the frost protection layer. I am paying the same price even though no frost protection layer or grounding conductor is being installed. Can I insist that they at least install the ring grounding conductor?

Update: The basement contractor (slab foundation company) reluctantly installed frost skirts and embedded the ring earth electrode in them. This was included in the scope of work, at no additional cost. However, they tried to avoid responsibility until the very end, saying things like "The civil engineer should install it later, etc., etc."

So, I can only recommend to anyone facing the same issue to insist that the ring earth electrode is installed as part of the work. Best regards

The ring conductor should also have been installed in direct contact with natural soil beneath the gravel layer.