Ground removed from water service pipe and lost all circuits?

Question

when installing sprinkler system contractor lifted ground wire from water service pipe and smoked all surge protectors and all GFI's popped. All circuits were dead and lights just barely glowed. Is my house neutral open ? the ground wire was HOT (electrically) and when I re-terminated to water service it arced pretty good and then all was back to normal. before I call Xcel (local power co.) should I put a ground bar in the soil outside the load center and re-terminate ground to it?

Answer 1

GFIs could pop when the ground is removed or shorted, being that it is a ground fault interrupter. By what you describe, you could have a short, but hard to say without seeing the whole thing. You might want to have a qualified electrcian check it out.

Answer 2

It does appear that your neutral is not properly connected.

The most you should have seen when the ground was disconnected is less than 25 volts (more likely less than 5 volts), and no significant energy behind it.  The neutral should have continued to carry the circuit load back to the service transformer.

The fact that you lost voltage at the loads (dim lights) indicates that the ground connection was carrying some significant portion of the load current was flowing through the ground, instead of through the neutral.

Get this fixed quickly!

It may be as simple as one or more loads that crossed neutral & ground, but it sounds much more serious...

As for Xcel, they will only diagnose the problem up to your meter, not the wiring in your house.

Call an electrician...ASAP.

Answer 3

This happened to a rental property I have in TX,the bar in the ground will work as a temp fix,you should have it repaired to the way it was originally. Static electricity can still wreak havoc on your electrical. Also look for that story about a homeowner that didn't have a ground stake and when he was washing dishes,turned on the faucet just as lightning hit a block away and got quite a shock. Good luck.