Above ground pool lightning rod - town inspector

[meishern]

Hi!

I am setting up an Intex 32x16x52 pool. My town (in North Carolina) requires a permit so an inspector came. He said I need to buy copper wire and scrape some of the coating off each of the U shaped leg supports and solder the copper wire so it forms a circle underneath the pool liner and then connect it to a lightning rod that i need to hammer into the ground 10 feet behind the pool.

I tried looking on google/youtube and cant find even one example of what to do. Is this something normal, or is the inspector just confused?

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

Really the question should be what set of building codes require what he told you and can he show you it in writing? He should be enforcing written building codes adopted by your jurisdiction and not making things up.

I have never seen a requirement the way you described.

There are requirements in some versions of the NEC for pool bonding and perimeter area bonding but not the way you described.

Electrical Bonding - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Donldson]

Welcome to TFP!

I believe you mean "ground rod", not "lightning rod". A lightning rod goes on top of structures, a ground rod gets hammered in to the ground. That confusion is probably why you aren't finding any information.

 

[meishern]

Thank you. It was the ground rod and not lightning rod that was messing my searches up. Now i found some results. Appreciate it.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Like @ajw22 , I really question the inspectors request here. Most jurisdictions have exemptions for what are called “temporary” pools such as the Intex style ones. They are rarely required to follow the same stringent guidelines as in-ground pools or larger above-ground pools. I too would want to see the code in question and then confirm that it applies to your situation. You don’t want to start scraping the powder coating off of the support legs and weld anything to them thereby possibly damaging them and causing a premature failure. At the very most, all you need is a few points of contact around the pool and some kind of compression anchor, not welding.

 

[Mdragger88]

As mentioned above bonding the pool for equipotential bonding purposes doesn’t require a ground rod. Grounding & bonding are two different animals.
In general - ground rods are added to new structures that have their own electrical panel (there’s more to this, you should refer to the National Electrical code) so unless you’re building a new structure you likely shouldn’t be adding one.
I would ask for the municipality’s specific requirements in writing.
Temporary pools,such as the one you have,are not required to be bonded by the NEC if they are using the double insulated pump / swg that is made for them (there is no bonding lug on these pumps/swgs). That said, Some Municipalities may still have the requirement for bonding them, but adding a ground rod is not generally in the mix. The inspector sounds confused.
Read the article @ajw22 posted to get a better understanding.
Once you receive the written requirements from your municipality feel free to post them & we can help you accomplish what is required.