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Ran wire from an existing outlet that has nothing else on the circuit, to feed two new outlets. The existing outlet had a gfi installed for whatever reason. I wired the outlets upstairs then came down to finish the original outlet. I wired both sets to each terminal and ram a pigtail for the ground. After turning circuit on all outlets showed power. But I had a gut feeling and I tested all outlets with my plug in tester which showed open ground? All ground wires are secured??

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  • 5
    Pictures of the wiring would help. Does the original GFCI receptacle show a good ground?
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Jul 5 at 1:53
  • 6
    If the existing outlet was ungrounded then all 3 outlets will show open ground after extending the circuit.
    – Robert Chapin
    Commented Jul 5 at 2:58
  • Wired correctly to LINE and LOAD?
    – Huesmann
    Commented Jul 5 at 12:09
  • Ok so originally the customer wants two new outlets on the first floor above the garage which is where the GFI is located. Since the customer said he never had any issues with the outlet (he used it because it was by his work bench) I didn’t test it prior to the work. The GFI was the only outlet on the circuit and the panel was 15’ away. I assumed the person who installed the outlet had the GFI laying around and used it for that reason alone. I ran 12/2 wire from the GFI box up to the ceiling and across to the first spot to be fed thru the ceiling and into the first box. Continue next post
    – Spencer Ruch
    Commented Jul 6 at 2:43
  • 1
    I’m voting to close this question because it's not home improvement. The OP is doing it for a customer.
    – JACK
    Commented Jul 6 at 11:38

1 Answer 1

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Because your original outlet, the one with the GFCI, does not have any ground back to the panel.

It is a code violation to extend a circuit which does not have ground. In fact, you have created an "island of grounds" in your extension. Normally if an appliance without a proper ground has a ground fault, it energizes the chassis of the appliance. However, in an "island of grounds", it energizes the chassis of all the appliances in the island! Greaaaaaat.

Fortunately, NEC gives us a cure to this problem, in NEC 250.130(C). It allows retrofitting of ground by running "just a ground wire" to any of a list of places which are actually grounded. The ground wire at that place must run back to the same panel and be large enough. (e.g. can't ground a 10 AWG dryer to the 12 AWG washer right next to it).

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