Handling Ungrounded Outlets in a 1950s Ranch

[Kevin Polite]

I'm looking at a 1950s brick ranch with the original ungrounded wiring. Instead of doing a full rewire or opening up plaster walls, I'm considering installing GFCI breakers only on the circuits that require it today—kitchen, bath, exterior, and laundry—and then replacing the remaining bedroom and living room outlets with 3-prong receptacles labeled “No Equipment Ground.” Another option would be installing a single GFCI at the first outlet of each branch circuit to provide added protection without having to run new grounded wiring or replace the panel. Curious if anyone has done something similar or sees any issues with this approach.

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Kevin Polite, a couple thoughts:

1. The outlets may be ungrounded, but the SYSTEM may be grounded! 

Many systems from that era use a BX style wiring aka a metal shielded cable where there is a strip in the shielding that acts as a ground. All the boxes are metal and bonded to that grounded shielding So, all the boxes themselves are grounded. 

If you have a system like this you can often bond a ground wire to the metal outlet box and catch ground that way OR use a self-grounding outlet that does that for you by having a metal portion that contacts the box. 

Note: That you may come across situations where even with this system that work done since then has broken the connection to ground. Often times people did work at a junction box and failed to bond ground to that box disrupting the ground connection. So, you may need to chase these down. 

2. With a ranch, you often have access from a basement below and/or an attic above. So, running new wiring really isn't so terrible. If I am doing a substantial rehab, I would rewire a lot of that because it can be done without breaking open walls too much that need to be patched. 

3. The solution you describe is considered proper, but FEW people will realize that and the perception of it will be poor. So, I would use it as a last resort. For example, in #1 where you cannot track down where ground was interrupted and where you need an outlet in that location. For a one-off outlet I think its ok, but I think you'll have a negative perception especially when you sell if you do a whole house like that.