Why isn’t there a ground on my switch that controls outlet?

Question

I have a switch in a metal box. 1 brown wire 1 red wire. It controls a receptacle in a metal box. The wires at the receptacle are 1 white 1 brown. Why? I want to change receptacle to a gfci and then add one receptacle after the gfci receptacle. There is no actual ground wire. Do I need one??? Also it is a single pole toggle switch and I want to change that to a rocker switch. 15 amp

Answer 1

If the wires are in metal conduit(not cable), the conduit can act as ground.

Some switches and receptacles are self grounding though the mounting screws.

GFCI does not require a ground to work. Quite often they are used to add safety to old ungrounded circuits.

If the circuit is grounded, the test is to use a multi-meter between the hot/live wire and the metal box. It should read the local standard voltage. If not grounded then the meter should read 0 volts.