Help with bonding resin pool

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K

kewpie

0
Feb 19, 2017
160
Chapel Hill, NC
Hi all, I’ve shed some tears over this but I am hopeful you guys can help me with this. Pool installed 10 days ago, electrician came and installed the gfic outlets and bond the pool 2 days after. Scheduled the electrical inspection and during the first visit, he passed my bonding and outlet but couldn’t pass my final until I get him a copy of pool manual with specifications etc. I called the pool seller and she insists there is no such manual. Left the inspector multiple voicemails to clarify and he said to go ahead and schedule final inspection. Well, he came today and I showed him the pool brochure that the seller sends me. He said it’s got steel wall and insists on the manual from manufacturer. He first also wants me to move my pump and outlet but later said that is fine. I called around and tracked down the manufacturer in Canada and called to request the manual to be emailed to me. Did not get it hours later but I reached out to installer and he said there is a cd for it in the stuff he left me. So I sent that to inspector and he said the manual didn’t say specifications etc and I have to get it from manufacturer. So I called Canada again and the customer service said I have to bond at the joint, so remove the upright and do the bonding there. Meanwhile I reached out to my electrician to confirm they didn’t bond the wall and he said everything was visibly plastic and they won’t take apart anything up bond. So at this point I am in tears and not sure what to do. I told inspector everything except wall is resin and he asked me what is the conductivity of the resin. I do not have the answer except the manufacturer said to bond at seam. So now I am trying to figure out if I can remove the upright myself and what else do I need to do so that when electrician come they don’t have to take apart anything and can just do the bonding. Do I need to remove all the bolts and nuts? The electrician said he needs 4 evenly spaced location but customer service said only at the joint bar. I am at my wits end and feels like giving up on the pool (highly hormonal at 8 months preggo).

Any advise us greatly appreciated!! Thank you!!!
 
Do you still have the actual owners manual that came with the pool? It shows how to assemble it and in the manual it will talk about bonding. That is what the inspector wants to see. I just finished installing a resin pool myself and the inspector was happy with simply connecting the bond wire to one bolt at the seam then running it to all the equipment. What ever the manual says for bonding supersedes the local laws. At least in my area it does.
 
Found this in your manual online. I would recommend having the manufacturer email you stating that you only need to bond at 1 location.

11. Electrical Hazard Never touch or attempt to service electrical equipment, including the filter when your body and/ or the ground is wet. Electrocution or permanent injury due to high voltage (120V AC) could result. The pool should be bonded in accordance with Section 680-26 of the National Electical Code. For further assistance contact your dealer or a local licensed electrician. Do not use pool during electrical or rain storms.
 
How did you find the manual online? I googled and googled and only found one for steel oval pool from years ago. I did finally get my hands on the manual and it didn’t have talk about bonding. Here is what my inspector said:
The attached information gives no information related to the resins conductivity, if the manufacturer’s instructions are to bond something via email then it needs to be done.

That is in response to customer service email to me asking her about bonding.


On a resin pool for grounding we use the nuts at the wall seam to ground the pool.
The nuts are behind one upright close to skimmer...you may have to loosen up the upright to put the wire and a nut on a bolt there.

So then I forwarded to my electrician and he said this

Ok cool, please have 4 of them ready evenly spaced around pool.

So then I emailed customer service again and here is the response. I had asked if I need to remove all the bolts.

I do not recommend you removing any bolts down the wall. This could cause the pool to burst. You will have to remove one bolt at a time. And yes the pool joiner bar is behind only one post down the entire length. He can evenly spare the 4 on this joiner bar.

So now I am confused whether 1 but is enough or I need to spread 4 at the seam. The inspector seems pretty inexperienced in this so I don’t know what to do. I need to tell electrician exactly what to do otherwise I feel like it will be a mess again.

Thanks and sorry for such long post.
 
Sounds like your inspector is not understanding that the only metal spot to attach the bonding wire is at the seam. I would ask him to explain to you how to attach 4 bonding lugs to metal in evenly spaced distances when the pool frame is all resin and only the wall is metal. It is impossible to do without drilling holes in the wall, which you cannot do. I do not know what to say about the resin conductivity. Hopefully someone else with more knowledge will chime in. If worse comes to worse and he wants the resin bonded as well then you will need to attach lugs to some of the uprights and run the bonding wire all the way around the pool.
 
More questions...where should the position of the bond be on the seam? Any location on the joint? Or does it have to be high or low to ground? Hoping high is ok because I have to remove the caps and post myself and hopefully I can just pull it out a bit for access.

More dumb questions...is bonding = a wire attached to one of the bolts then where does it connect to on the other end? I already have copper wire going around and attached to pump. Does this wall wire also attach to the same place in pump? I know the electrician should know this but since he missed this part completely because everything is visibly plastic, I feel like I need to be specific.

Thanks!!
 
You should be fine with adding one bonding wire to one of the bolts on the pool seam. Use a connector like this.

I don't see any benefit in using 4 within 48" of one another, when the entire pool wall is one piece of metal.

Use the mechanical bonding lug on the wall, attach #8 (or #6 if in Canada) solid bare copper wire to that, then use a copper direct bury split bolt like this, and attach to the copper bond wire that connects to all of your equipment.
 

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nick_wa said:
You should be fine with adding one bonding wire to one of the bolts on the pool seam. Use a connector like this.

I don't see any benefit in using 4 within 48" of one another, when the entire pool wall is one piece of metal.

Use the mechanical bonding lug on the wall, attach #8 (or #6 if in Canada) solid bare copper wire to that, then use a copper direct bury split bolt like this, and attach to the copper bond wire that connects to all of your equipment.
Click to expand...


Ok can I buy all this at Lowe’s? What is mechanical bonding lug? Also, will these things go behind the post? Where does it come out from the post? Is it visible from outside?

Thx!
 
The installer said I need to remove the cap then lift the 2 things on top then sorta peel the post towards me to expose the seam? Or something like that... but I cannot envision where the wire will be sticking out from the upright....he said to best not remove the entire upright coz might be v difficult to put back.
 
Ok help!
I have read a few posts where people say to ask the inspector about what is required etc. so I flat out asked and here is his response. Am I unreasonable to think that he could have been more helpful? I am at the point that I want to cry when thinking if dealing with him and never getting over this nightmare. What would be the most conservative thing I can ask the electrician to do at this point? Bond at 4 places on the joint? Note that the electrician at this point is annoyed with me also. I just want to put this behind me and can see no end in sight.



I understand you may feel that way however, the requirements come from the manufacturer and the electrical code. My job is to verify work performed is done to the minimum code standards adopted by North Carolina. I can't apply any of my beliefs of what needs / should be done.
I've attached a snapshot of a code sections and that's why I keep referring to the conductivity of the material. Defining that is not something I can do, the manufacturers need to do that or the electrician via onsite testing. If that can't be done the only thing I can do is side on safety and require it all to be bonded.
 
It seems you may have a difficult inspector there or something is missing from the story, I would expect the inspector to talk to the electrician on this. All metallic parts would only be your pool wall at this point which is why 1 should suffice. I would get it to that point, with all the equipment and water bonded properly and then see where it goes. As far as where the wire would come out of from the upright, could it snake out from the overlapping clasps on the top? I am only looking at pictures online though so it may look different in person.

Here is another thread that talks about the bonding issue, although the pics no longer work.

How to bond a resin pool?

Hey folks...I hope to get pictures posted soon, but we just had our pool installed over the weekend (24' AGP). The pool has all resin uprights, pool wall guides, and topseats...only the pool wall is steel. My electrician took a peek at it and seems it does not have to be bonded. Anyone here...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
My electrician has not been helpful in this matter. They didn’t bond the wall the first time and this is the response when I asked why. (They did do the gfic outlets correctly and the copper wire around the whole pool correctly).

“Yeah, sorry but we don't take pools apart and then put them back together. Too much liability. When I spoke to Tyler, he said everything visible was plastic or vinyl”

I don’t expect much out of him, which is why I am trying so hard to get a clear cut answer from the inspector so that I can let electrician know and get it done correctly this time and be done. I basically practiced tonight how to remove the cover and loosen the bolt so that electrician doesn’t have to do it tomorrow. I have been extremely patient with the inspector but this is really pushing it. The electrician is coming tomorrow so I will tell him to bond at 4 spots on the joint bar but I can almost 100% guarantee that inspector will fail because the 4 spots won’t be evenly spaced. The bolts on the joint bar are not evenly spaced. I would like to do just one spot but I have a strong feeling he will fail me for not doing 4. Is there any documentation that only 1 spot is needed? Or do the 4 spots have to be exactly evenly spaced? I still cannot believe the inspector’s response, that he cannot tell me what he is looking for, then how would he know to pass or fail? I am completely baffled. I forwarded his email to my husband and asked if I was overreacting, he agreed that the inspector was not being helpful. At this point, I don’t know which way to go tomorrow; take the risk and do one bolt or do 4 unequal bolts. Thoughts?
 
badams said:
It seems you may have a difficult inspector there or something is missing from the story, I would expect the inspector to talk to the electrician on this. All metallic parts would only be your pool wall at this point which is why 1 should suffice. I would get it to that point, with all the equipment and water bonded properly and then see where it goes. As far as where the wire would come out of from the upright, could it snake out from the overlapping clasps on the top? I am only looking at pictures online though so it may look different in person.

Here is another thread that talks about the bonding issue, although the pics no longer work.

How to bond a resin pool?

Hey folks...I hope to get pictures posted soon, but we just had our pool installed over the weekend (24' AGP). The pool has all resin uprights, pool wall guides, and topseats...only the pool wall is steel. My electrician took a peek at it and seems it does not have to be bonded. Anyone here...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Click to expand...


Thanks for this link! I have read it multiple times but have no access to see the pics (private album). All these folks seem to pass inspection with one bolt bonding, but I have a feeling my inspector won’t be that easy. What do I do if he disagree? Show him these posts? I doubt that would work...the manufacturer is no longer replying to my email. The last email said to ask the town. I did and didn’t get a helpful answer.....
 

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