29 GFCI Outlets for an Older Vancouver Home Without Grounds

This older Vancouver home still had its original two-wire wiring. That means no ground at the outlets. Ryan and the crew swapped 29 outlets for GFCIs and worked through a short list of other fixes.

Why GFCIs on ungrounded outlets

Rewiring a house to add grounds means opening walls. When that’s not in the budget, the electrical code allows a GFCI outlet in place of an ungrounded one (NEC 406.4(D)(2)). The GFCI shuts off power if current starts leaking somewhere it shouldn’t, which protects people even without a ground wire. The code also calls for a “No Equipment Ground” label on each one so the next person knows what’s behind it.

Every outlet we put in was tamper-resistant, with shutters that keep things out of the slots. Our post on how GFCI and AFCI protection differ explains both.

What we found in the walls

Some of the cable was the old cloth-covered kind, and the outer jacket was falling apart where we handled it. If a house has a lot of that cable, a rewire is worth thinking about down the road.

The rest of the list

• Bathroom fan: the old one was caked with grime. We pulled it and put in a Panasonic WhisperFan with a light.
• Arc-fault breakers: we put a 20-amp combination arc-fault breaker and a 15-amp arc-fault breaker in the Square D QO panel.
• Kitchen: added a dimmer.
• Back porch: a new GFCI with a clear in-use cover.
• Front porch light: we checked the switch and wiring. The fixture itself was bad.

Got an older home full of two-prong outlets? Our outlet replacement and GFCI work page has the details. Call 360-828-7143 or send us a count of your outlets.