Plumber or electrician? Or both?

Maz

Hi everyone, just looking for a bit of advice please.

I want to install an electric shower as at the moment, we have an aged mixer taps shower combo which is not really much good.

OK, so I've bought the electric shower and the cable from the airing cupboard is already threaded behind the plasterwork to the fuse box donwnstairs. (It's not connected but just in place).

My question is - do I need to get both a plumber and electrician for the job or can one or the other do the whole lot?

Thanks in advance

macman

You need a plumber to route the cold feed to the shower location, he may or may not require an electrcian to connect the power depending if he is qualified, but if he does then he can normally subcontract this part of the job.
But why have you already run the cable though-the electrician will need to specify the cabling and route required, and it will need an RCD and a pull cord isolator installing if not in place.
Not sure of the relevance of the airing cupboard?

Maz

Thanks for that macman.
The cabling was put there a few years ago by my (now ex) son in law as my original plan was to install an electric shower but all good plans etc. Sure if it's the wrong cabling the electrician/plumber will sort that bit out.

Airing cupboard in the bathroom isn't relevant really except that it's where I discovered the cabling! Don't know why I mentioned it!

I guess I'm sort of hoping that an electrician can do the lot as I want to put an electric wall heater in at the same time.

macman

The cabling (especially if old) may be entirely inadequate to carry the load of your new shower. What's the shower rating?
A shower needs it's own dedicated circuit from the consumer unit.
No responsible electrician will connect up a circuit and sign it off if he hasn't run the cable himself or can at least see what has been run and where. If it's already plastered in, that is not possible.
Normally the cabling will be run from the CU into the loft and then down into the pull-cord isolator.

Maz

No, it's not plastered in, it's just....well, lying there I suppose in readiness for the shower that I bought at the time! (flogged on ebay as I didn't think I'd use it at that time) Shower rating is 9.5khw.

macman

9.5kW shower will require a 45A RCD and a minimum 10mm cable. Your electrician will advise.

27col

macman wrote: »

You need a plumber to route the cold feed to the shower location, he may or may not require an electrcian to connect the power depending if he is qualified, but if he does then he can normally subcontract this part of the job.
But why have you already run the cable though-the electrician will need to specify the cabling and route required, and it will need an RCD and a pull cord isolator installing if not in place.
Not sure of the relevance of the airing cupboard?

Not sure why you think that a plumber is needed to run in a cold water pipe. Any competent handyman could do it. I suspect that the electrician could do it if he had the time. When I was doing electrics it would not have occurred to me to use a plumber for something as simple as a cold water pipe run.