Over the winter (January – February) it got so cold that it looked like the liner of our pond on the deck cracked. Some how it was leaking. Luckily, the leak seemed to be in the bog and was only leaking when the pump for the pond was running.
So obviously we needed to fix this. Since it is a leak in the liner, we have to redo the entire pond. Here is a picture of the pond just after it was completely taken apart.
If you have heard stories I’ve told about this house, you probably know that the former owners did not always to the best job when getting people in to fix things. Repairs all seem to have been done a cheap as possible. The pond was no different.
As the pond was pulled apart, the leak was found. It looks like some genius decided to put the deck together with oversized screws. The screws ended up poking through the liner in the bog, basically shredding it. So when the pump ran, the pond drained itself. Great, mystery solved!
On to the electric. Here is where the genius really kicks in. The electric originally came in on the inside of the pond. At least it came up in a conduit into a box. Of course the box was an interior box, not an exterior box. From there, 2 wires (one white one black) ran into an outlet. Another interior box and an interior outlet. No ground wire. I guess they thought the box was grounded by being attached to the pond. this outlet ran the pump for the bog.
Also coming out of the main box was another wire that went through the frame to the outside of the pond and into 3 (again interior) boxes. The center box was all the connections. One hot (they used white, not black) ran into the box on the right and connected to a light switch. That’s it. Nothing else. Guess it was for future expansion.
The wires then went into the box on the left and another switch, which then ran along the rim of the pond to the fountain.
All of this was done with interior boxes, switches and covers. But hey, the put silicone on the top to keep the water out. Yeah, that will work….
The wires that ran to the fountain on the outside of the pond, were then pulled back into the pond to connect the fountain. Again an interior box. But rather then putting in a plug, they hard wired to fountain in. They decided to use exterior low voltage lighting wire for the run from the switch to the fountain. Not the best choice, they did use a heaver gage, so the wires probably would not melt. But lighting wire does not include a ground wire.
So, how did they ground the fountain you may be asking. They connected the ground from the fountain directly to the box. Technically, the box was touching the rocks in the fountain, but they were inside the rubber liner, so no real ground!
God these people are dumb!
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