I just had an inspection done on my older 1950's home in Atlanta Ga. The inspector said that I have open grounds on most outlets in the home and they must all me fixed.

They have one black wire, one white wire, and no ground wire.

Is there a way I can make them up to code with out rewiring the whole home??

I was told that I can use a "jumper" from a friend of mine who is an electrician.

He said take some copper wire and attach it from the white wire to the ground screw on the side of the outlet..

What would you guys recommend I do in order to pass inspection but not replece the whole system??

If there is only two wires, then installing GFI outlets to protect ungrounded 3 wire outlets is allowed by the NEC. If you do this you will be in complete compliance with code.

Which inspector was this? Municipal inspectors as far as I know only inspect new installations, and have no jurisdiction over previous installations. If this is a city inspector, request an appeal with the state level of inspections. If it is some other entity, then how does he have any say?


Any electrician that suggests to "jump out" to the neutral should loose his license. I am so glad you are asking questions. Do not jump out like he says. Long story, take my word for it.

1-agree with TK- neutral/return should never be used as a ground. 2-as to the inspector, was this maybe a house inspector, not a code inspector? And 3-unless I'm missing something why the open grounds;more specifically, what does the inspector mean ? It sounds like the house uses conduit (unless romex was used in the 50's:confused: )--so the system should be grounded via the conduit which is connected to the load panel which in turn should be grounded via a grounding rod...