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Thursday, May 19, 2022
Question:
Good Afternoon,
During a recent inspection of our building under construction, the inspector said that the building steel had to be bonded. Our question is in wood-framed buildings with metal studs used inside the building and/or isolated metal studs or steel beams, does the steel need to bonded and grounded?
Robert Miller
A
Answer:
Hello Robert.
Thanks for the question. First, the authority having jurisdiction has the interpretation and approving responsibility as indicated in Section 90.4. That said, based on the information in the question, we offer the following response. There are no requirements in the NEC to bond metal studs or remote steel materials to the electric supply source. Section 250.4(A)(4) requires electrically conductive materials that are likely to become energized to be connected together and to the electric supply source in a manner that establishes an effective ground-fault current path. Unless there is some substantiation that these metal materials are likely to become energized it is not necessary to connect them to establish an effective ground-fault path. The requirement for bonding exposed metal building framing applies when interconnected metal framing and structural metal are bonded together to form an entire building frame as indicated in 250.104(C).