Upgrading 1950's House to 200 amp Service

[DAVID PATRICK]

I am upgrading my mother's house from 60 amp to 200 amp service. The circuit breaker panel was already changed to 200 amp. The house has two prong ungrounded outlets. I am not replacing the wires to the receptacles. The house originally had the service entrance wires attached at the facia board. I have a new 200 amp meter can and will be installing a 200 amp disconnect below the meter can. I'm running 4/0 alum 4 conductor EU from the disconnect into the attic then to the circuit breaker panel which is about 25 feet into the house. I am replacing all the ungrounded outlets with grounded outlets, marking them with "No equipment ground" and protecting them with GFI breakers. The house has one bare copper ground running to the plumbing. I am installing a new 8 ft ground rod to supplement the existing ground. I am installing a weather head using 2" galvanized 20 inches above the roof.
I did read through the 2008 NEC and I was hoping someone would give me some advice and let me know if I am heading in the right direction. I am an aircraft electrician but have never worked on residential service. Thanks for the help.

[Jack Feldmann]

Why not go to the local building dept. and ask them, since they are the ones that would need to approve the work?

[DAVID PATRICK]

They wont answer questions. They want me to hire someone. I wish it was that easy.

[Bruce King]

The power company needs to install new underground service and a new meter base. The overhead service needs to go and probably has smaller cables. They may want to see a permit before connecting to a new panel or feeder. You may be leaving the insurance company a way to deny coverage in the event of any type fire on the property. Most of these upgrades are done incorrectly where the old panel is turned into a 3-wire fed subpanel.

[Bob Elliott]

Most of us have no idea what your local codes are however if you need to come here for advice than doing it yourself may not be a good option.

Speak with a local guy(Electrician) and get permits if required.

Not sure you should have supplemental ground rods as I seem to recall that may not be allowed within a certain distance of each other..

[DAVID PATRICK]

Thanks for the advise. The power company is going to replace the service wire from the pole with larger wire. The old wire from the pole was already removed. You're absolutly correct, the old wire was very small. They do not want it run underground because of the power pole's location. I did check with them before hand and that is when I found out that a weather head above the roof was required. Asking advice is a good thing. Most of the threads on this site have highly qualified inspectors asking questions. That is what it is all about. It is impossible to know everything. I appreciate any advice.

[John Kogel]

In my area when a homeowner does a service install, an electrical inspector comes out to check the work before the approval for hookup.
Using the old plumbing for your ground may not be the best, because in a lot of cases, the pipe is being cut and replaced with plastic. I would check into that.

[Robert Ernst]

I would ground a few of those plugs at least on interior walls. Since the disconnect is outside and the panel inside you should still have a disconnect at the panel. Also the bedrooms are going to need AFCI and not GFCI. The water line needs bonding but I would do that and place the proper grounding rod.

[James Duffin]

It sounds like you have a good plan in place. Your water pipe connection has to be connected within 5' where it enters the crawl space if the pipe is metal. I would check to make sure that any plastic pipe that has been installed and breaks the continuity of the metal pipe have jumpers installed around the plastic section.