Pool light old wiring help!

[jmastron]

I need advice on our pool light. This pool was built in the late 50s/early 60s, with a light fed from a metal junction box under the diving board, maybe 18” from the edge of the pool. It does (well did) have a cover marked “suitable for wet locations) with a gasket. From that box, the wire (old NM cable, I believe) goes through a conduit back to the equipment pad, about 10 feet away and to a junction box about 2 feet high. I know that doesn’t meet current code, and as a first step I put the light wiring after a GFCI.

But then I made the mistake of wanting to look in the box on the deck, and sure enough created 2 more problems -- both of the screws holding the lid in place broke off below the surface of the box, and the box itself appears to have corroded away at the bottom; it’s just loose with the conduits to the light and the pad not actually secured. Pictures:

Junction box at the pad. I don’t know where the other conduit going into the ground goes (there is a switch for it, perhaps now-defunct landscape lighting?).

Junction box on the deck

Opened up

And lifted out :-( The black wire out the bottom is to the light; the white wire to the side goes to the pad.

What’s the best way to fix this mess? Can it be fixed without trenching the concrete to run new conduit? If I get a new low voltage LED light with long cord that can go all the way to the pad, can it be fed through the 2 conduits? If there’s no splice, can I either put a new box (feedthrough) under the diving board, or otherwise bridge the two? I would also want to replace the box at the pad with a listed junction box, right -- anything else?

Or is it time to call in an electrician and have the whole thing redone/retrenched to current code?

 

[gwegan]

Does the light work? if so you could just cover the whole deck mess with epoxy and put a box on top of it.

But I wouldn't do that. I'd fix it correctly -- here is why: You have an old pool its probably not properly electrically bonded if its bonded at all. So an electrical fault could be a serious problem.

You didn't include an overall photo of your pool so I don't know if this will work. I would have an electrician see about digging down outside the concrete deck and drilling through the soil to the lights and installing new conduit and a junction box, If you cant and you still want lights I would cut some concrete.

Pool lights and pool bonding are complex so either study up on it yourself or have a electrician who has done pool work do the work. There are plenty in Sacramento. In addition to the light issues i would look at installing or upgrading the pool electrical bonding at the same time.

 

[Charlie_R]

Hire the electrician. Period. You and your family's safety is paramount. You really don't want to give Murphy a chance to work his magic in this case.