[TowerTalk] Re: Floating Ground Steel Building?

doc kd4e at verizon.net
Fri Jul 2 14:42:37 EDT 2004


I just left a meeting with the builder of our new steel home
where I discovered something troubling -- the steel roof and
wall materials appear to be floating above ground on top of
the concrete slab!

The roof and wall are 10" x 48" wide sections bonded together
and along the bottom of the wall set into a metal channel
fastened to the concrete with embedded anchor bolts -- but
those bolts are buried in the slab, none of them are grounded.

So when I bring everything to the entry panel the only point
of ground is the three planned 20' rods -- for the entire
steel house shell as well as for the power line, phone,
tower-related cables, and well cables.

I have been counting on the steel shell wicking off lightning
energy through multiple grounding points minimizing the collection
of energy at any single point.

Should I place ground rods at the corners, and perhaps at
additional 10 or 20 foot locations around the perimeter of the
60 x 40 structure, and tie them to the base plate of the
outer metal wall?

The lightning storm that just rolled through reminded me to take seriously!

Thanks! & 73, doc kd4e


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