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Had a day last month where every single outlet I opened had a bootleg ground, three in a row.
It was a 1950s house in Elmwood, and after the third one I just started warning people before I even opened the cover, has anyone else hit a streak like that where you just know the whole house is gonna be a nightmare?
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the_leo3h agoTop Commenter
Man, that is a brutal streak. I gotta ask, though: were these on different circuits, or all on the same one? Because if it's three outlets on the same line (like a kitchen or a living room), then you're probably looking at a bigger problem. Like, a hidden junction box buried in a wall with a failing wire nut, not just a bad outlet. I had a 1950s place once where every outlet on the first floor was backwards, hot and neutral swapped, because someone in the 70s just flipped the whole panel without checking. Makes you wonder what other surprises are hiding in the walls, you know?
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grant.kevin8m ago
Yeah, the hidden junction box thing is real. I helped a buddy chase a problem like that in his basement once, turned out to be a wire nut melted inside a wall someone had drywalled over. If it's all on one circuit, you're better off just pulling new wire from the last good outlet than trying to find that mess.
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