TOPIC: Stick 'Em Up!

The electrical system of houses needs to be grounded.  Not in the psychological sense, but literally connected to the ground.

There are other things on a house that need grounding too.  The phone or cable system, satellite dish, the occasional TV antenna and even the aluminum siding, for example.  Without sufficient grounding these things can become real house zappers.  Or get zapped!

This homeowner decided to pour a new expanded, concrete driveway.  And, not knowing what he was doing, he simply poured it.  All the way to the back of the house.

The grounding rod you see here was in the way.  Not realizing that it extends 8 or 10' into the ground, I think he tried to bend the pesky little bugger to either get it out of the way or break it.  That not working, he poured around it!

You understand - spare the rod, spoil the driveway.

Or something like that...

And you can see the former ground line laying there beside the rod.  Who knows what it used to do, but it does nothing now!

Another problem here is that a concrete driveway should not be poured right next to a foundation wall.  It can do two things - 1.  put pressure on the wall, pushing it in and  2.  direct water toward and hold moisture against the foundation wall.

Such was the case in this house, with the basement wall beneath this photo holding a hefty 28% moisture.  Recently painted, it was hard to determine just how much mold they were covering up, but it sure smelled nice down there!  Real nice.

My recommendation:  If something doesn't look right, it probably isn't!  But check with your home inspector - that will likely be a good source of information!