Electrical outlets and code changes
Regarding the Jan. 28 Ask the Inspector response in “Older Electrical Outlets Were a Jolt”:
I don’t think that two-prong outlets are a defect that must be listed by a home inspector. In a 50-year-old home the outlets are ground-available, just much more inconveniently. If one purchases the (usually gray) adapter to plug a three-prong cord into a two-prong outlet, that little green tab is to be screwed into the same metal screw that holds the outlet cover on. This completes the grounding as long as the outlet body is screwed into the metal box, which is most likely grounded.
If there is no grounding available at each outlet box at all, then the ramifications of doing so are costly.
A host of code changes have occurred in the last 50 years. In California, the electrical code is changing frequently. I do alterations for a living and can tell when a house is built just by the wiring and the interior wall material used.
Believe me, 50 years isn’t all that old for a house. These buyers should have bought a new house if they wanted new code standards.
MIKE RENO
Hemet
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