Bonding thoughts

[Juggernaut1103]

So i posted a year ago about the bonding of my 70's pool. I'm back at it this year trying to determine if its worth the extra work to add more bonding. All metal, ladder anchors, light jbox, light niche and fence are all bonded together, im already running a line from the fence wire to the pool equipment because it wasn't previously bonded.

I do not believe there is a bonding wire around the pool under the bluestone patio. the wire at the anchors that goes to the light niche and everything else, looks to be stranded 14 gauge that makes it the size of 8 in some weird cloth insulation (its odd looking to be honest), and the fence is a solid #8 with green insulation (definitely hooked up after pool was installed). I tested everything around the pool per mike holts video and everything was bonded. the return line into the pool is super old and made of metal, im not sure if the piping connected to it is also metal, but i have no way to tell if its bonded. I'm getting ready to poly sand the blue stone and would prefer to do this before rather than be totally frustrated after or down the line. Im not 100% sure when the pool was built, i believe it was the 70's (hence the existing bonding being stranded and not solid #8, like the one that was added later to the fence). The town has not gotten back to me after several attempts to look up the permit and find the builder to contact, if they are even around anymore, and lets be honest, bonding code has changed a lot over the years, and a wire under the patio surrounding the pool was not always needed. Wanted everyone's thoughts on if i should just keep everything as is and hookup the equipment pad only? or if i should spend the hours on hours lifting stones and laying a wire around the pool?

Sorry for the ramble, i'm kind of all over the place redoing all the equipment and everything else.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Can you post a pic of the pavers?

Since you're redoing the joint treatment and everything else is bonded, I'd go to the trouble of laying the bond loop around the pool. IF there's enough gap between the pavers, I may consider just routing the wiring along the gap and forcing it into the ground with a thin flat metal tool. It would cost you a little more wire, but you wouldn't have to lift and replace the pavers.

 

[Juggernaut1103]

i don't have any good pictures, but there's no real running joints, so it would be difficult to do it that way. I may just lift the side of each and put it underneath, is it important for it to be buried underground? also, no way i can connect it in 4 spots to the rebar or anything, it would literally be a ring around the pool and then all the equipment basically connected to to it acting as a grid.

 

[Bama Rambler]

The important part is that the wire is in good contact with the soil.
Since you can't bond to the rebar, at least get a good water bond device and put in the plumbing.

 

[borjis]

I had a pool once that was constructed in 1970, it had a solid copper bare #8 wire bonded to the light
niche and the rebar. So they were doing that back in the day, but maybe the code
was different in your area at the time.

It's important that the bond wires under the dirt are bare and thus able to absorb stray current, as Bama Rambler pointed out.

Is the metal ladder going into the pool water? If the anchors are connected to the bond wire and the ladder is submerged
that will suffice for the area of coverage needed to bond the water.

I went through this on my own pool 2 years ago. A certain amount of square inches of metallic surface has to be in contact with the
water to bond it properly.

 

[Juggernaut1103]

The metal ladder acts as the water bond, i guess i have some more work to do, just had all them up to relevel and didn't even cross my mind to do the wire at the same time. i guess ill try to bury it 3-4 inches under, and pray this doesn't take hours on end to do. I just wish i could find the builder and confirm their practices back then, there was no sign or a bare wire when i dug down and found the wires connected to the anchors, it may be there, i'm just not sure. Maybe ill pull some stones and dig down a bit, just hard to know where it might be or how far down.

 

[Juggernaut1103]

I'm going to run the wire around the pool, and then just connect it to the wires connected to the pool ladder, and then run it down to the equipment, its a lot of extra work. i feel like i should be fine without it; there have been no issues with the pool in the past, but it gives me piece of mind. not excited to spend half my day lifting stone digging up a section, and laying the wire. im just going to put it under the stones right up against the outside wall. i think its suppose to be 18 from the inside wall, but that will make things even hard because then ill have to dig in the middle of where each stone lays and then thats hours more of re leveling, at least this way i can just dig from the edge and its easier to relevel. Thanks for all the help, if you have any other suggestions, let me know, im starting this all tomorrow i believe.

 

[Juggernaut1103]

If i cant bond to the rebar, does it really make much sense to go through the hassle of laying 150ft of bare wire under all the stone?

 

[Bama Rambler]

It kinda does. If you think about it, both concrete and soil are conductive, so the wire will help keep away any voltage potential because the soil is in contact with the concrete. While it's not as good as connecting to the rebar, it's a lot better than nothing.

 

[Juggernaut1103]

Makes sense. Thanks for the help. One of the wires there may actually be connected to rebar too, who knows. im not going to dig up everywhere to find out though, i guess run the line and hook all the wires i see up to it and be good.