Another tired Grounding question

[Roadwarrior]

I couldn't find anything on this, but, in all honesty, I didn't look very hard.
I've rolled on more than a few jobs that were grounded from the attic.(Ground block mounted in attic, and ground wire ran from attic to exterior ground source, or actually grounded to something in the attic) Also, I have seen the coax ran through the attic to the other side of the house before it is grounded.

My question is, is this not a fire hazard? If there is a surge, is there not a possibility that it could "pop" in the attic? This issue is a vague one, I'm hoping somebody can give me a definitive answer on this, or maybe give me a link to a post that actually covers it.

thanks.

 

[dalejr08]

first off the system should be grounded no more then 3 feet from entry of the home. second the ground wire should be no longer then 20' from the grounding block. it is never a good idea to have the system grounded in an attic.

 

[Liquidforce88]

Depending on where you are located alot of homes have the service in the attic. Many area's don't have basements. Code is still ground block located within 3' of entry point and less than 25' of 10 ga solid copper to ground point.

 

[commquest]

where can you find these codes?

 

[Roadwarrior]

Ok, this is what I thought. I have done installs where the utilites were actually inside the house in a utility room. I had no choice but to run the coax and messenger through the attic and drop it down there, but if your ground source is on the outside, it should always be grounded there before anything enters the attic, regardless of customer preference.

Since we are on the subject(again) if no bonded ground is to be found within 25 feet of the only LOS, (i'm assuming none of us are allowed to drive our own ground rods these days), am I supposed to just run the coax 25 feet before I even enter the house? Sometimes that would require "wrapping" the house in coax before entering the attic, or crawl space. Whats the point?

 

[Roadwarrior]

Alright, no replies on this one. As I suspected it's probably because people are sick of the subject. The reason for the post is I got QC'd on a job the other day, and the only thing wrong with it was the fact that it wasnt grounded. I didnt ground it for the reasons stated above. There was one place on the house that I found a no-hassle indefinite line of site, and the only way to ground it was to run the coax through the attic to the other side or wrap the house in cable. I made a judgement call. The customer wouldnt have appreciated the cable wrapping and I figured if the cable is going in the attic anyway, grounding wouldn't do any good. So I left a couple of extra loops at the dish and just ran it straight. Some tell me it shouldnt have gone in, others say i should have grounded it however I could. Bleh Bleh Bleh....

It was a good,clean install and I stand behind it. Screw em.

 

[cablewithaview]

why not install a 8 foot ground rod?

 

[webbydude]

why not install a 8 foot ground rod?

Even if you do that, you still have to go thru the extra effort of bonding that groundrod to household electric. It's just simply not a matter of pounding it in the ground and call it grounded.

 

[Roadwarrior]

Exactly. I'm not a licensed electrician. We(techs in my office) were informed a couple of years ago that Dish installers were no longer allowed to install their own ground. The only way we can pass a QC is to be grounded to an existing bonded ground.

 

[rich88]

Alright, no replies on this one. As I suspected it's probably because people are sick of the subject. The reason for the post is I got QC'd on a job the other day, and the only thing wrong with it was the fact that it wasnt grounded. I didnt ground it for the reasons stated above. There was one place on the house that I found a no-hassle indefinite line of site, and the only way to ground it was to run the coax through the attic to the other side or wrap the house in cable. I made a judgement call. The customer wouldnt have appreciated the cable wrapping and I figured if the cable is going in the attic anyway, grounding wouldn't do any good. So I left a couple of extra loops at the dish and just ran it straight. Some tell me it shouldnt have gone in, others say i should have grounded it however I could. Bleh Bleh Bleh....

It was a good,clean install and I stand behind it. Screw em.

As a fellow tech, I sometimes feel that we need to be trained more and better on grounding to ALTERNATE sources.

Been there, done that when it comes to a job where the ground-rod is on one side of the house and the only LOS is on the opposite side of the house.

 

[webbydude]

Yes, I hear and feel for Roadwarrior. In order to get the install done, you sometimes have to gamble and not ground the damn thing. I won't even get into my personal feelings about grounding. The fact of the matter is, we get paid to ground...whether the reasons are correct or not.

 

[ZandarKoad]

In no-ground-available situations, I at least make an effort to make the QC guy think that the system is properly grounded...

<cough>

 

[dirkleearm]

It must be nice being a QC guy, just look for grounding etc and "fail" the job. Who cares that to do it "properly" would require running cable all the way around a house to power then back to tv locations. And of course I'm sure the owner wouldn't even mind that you made his house look like **** to do the job "properly". Common sense is not in their vocabulary.

 

[cablewithaview]

It must be nice being a QC guy, just look for grounding etc and "fail" the job. Who cares that to do it "properly" would require running cable all the way around a house to power then back to tv locations. And of course I'm sure the owner wouldn't even mind that you made his house look like **** to do the job "properly". Common sense is not in their vocabulary.

If I came in from the other side with cable, I will run it under the house to the meter, ground and back to the tv. I always grab a ground and going under the house (or attic), the install shouldn't look like crap.

 

[Roadwarrior]

well, thats what i'm asking. Should'nt the system be grounded before anything enters the house? (including the attic) If grounding is just a way for us to cover our ass from insurance companies in case of fire, would running ungrounded coax through the attic just to ground it on the other side just negate the whole thing? Any surge could exit from the cable in the attic. As far as going under the house, this one was on a slab.

 

[ZandarKoad]

well, thats what i'm asking. Should'nt the system be grounded before anything enters the house? (including the attic) If grounding is just a way for us to cover our ass from insurance companies in case of fire, would running ungrounded coax through the attic just to ground it on the other side just negate the whole thing? Any surge could exit from the cable in the attic. As far as going under the house, this one was on a slab.

What, you afraid to get the job done BOY!? If the house is on a slab, YOU TUNNEL!

 

[Roadwarrior]

I'm ashamed of my laziness.
I'll do better next time.