Electrical Rewiring

sdave32

Hello,

I'm in the process of gathering 2-3 quotes from local electricians to rewire my home as the wiring is dated.

Just wondering if anyone out there can give me any helpful tips, things to look out for, recommend any good electricians in the HA2 area?

thank you in advance.

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD

anyone out there can give me any helpful tips,


Include Smoke alarms / Carbon monoxide detector

Consider=

Burglar alarm

Outside lighting

T.V. / satellite cabling

sdave32

anyone used http://www.ratedtradesmen.com before? good/bad?

jamesEngineer

I guess always look for NEC EIC registration, thats the National Inspection Council. http://www.niceicgroup.com
There are a more similar bodies now too. Most importantly an electrician MUST have a Part P Certificate in order to work on a house, make sure that he has it.
As Professional Landlord has suggested look at adding outside lights and may be data points for computers. Smoke alarms and Carbon Monoxide alarms are essential.
It may help the cost if you suggested buying the materials and then shopped around, for Smoke Alarms I would recommend https://www.rapidsensors.co.uk
- good prices and good online help.

baldelectrician

try the competent persons register

You should use a competent person for the work, links below

In Scotland:
Individuals regitered;
http://www.sbsa.gov.uk/register/ListAC.asp
Companies
http://www.sbsa.gov.uk/register/SearchCo.asp?T=Construction&ID=2

In England and Wales:
http://www.competentperson.co.uk

make sure certification is included in the price

xtcnrg

As jamesengineer says, you must check out contractor on NICEIC website to confirm they have Part P status (basically allows them to self certify their completed work and register their test results and most importantly completion cert with building control) Also make sure you get a copy of the test results and completion cert (you will need it if you ever sell up).

Ask the contractor what he intends to do with earth bonding as this is one thing that some of them "miss" / "overlook" - esp. in the bathroom.

Aside from the things others have already metnioned, also:-

Socket outlet heights disability discrimination act
Mains powered (with battery backup) smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
Triplex TV/FM/SAT outlets
Energy saving lights internally
Smoke/fire resistant hoods over any small downlights you may have cut into ceilings
Outside lights (can only be 150W max each)
Outside socket (with RCD) for garden/car wash etc (MK Masterseal is best range, but a bit pricey)
If you have a shed/garage - an individual circuit from your consumer unit to a smaller consumer unit or similar in the garage is useful
Burglar alarm & maybe small CCTV


(Beware buying own materials - usually cheaper but can provide the contractor with a "grey" area if any faults develop in warranty period)

Good luck,

jamesEngineer

Ian raises the point that persons including diy, can actually work on domestic electrics without Part P, but cannot self certify.
He is right, a competent person can work but would have to have his work inspected at each stage. Thanks Ian for your note.
More info on this can be obtained from the IEE website. http://www.iee.org/Publish/WireRegs/BR-PartP-dwellings.cfm#Q4

baldelectrician

the reason for the link to the compotent persons register is these people can self certify.

Go for full scope people, they will have had a more rigorous inspection (less likely to be a 5 day wonder course person)

Personally I think Part P is a good idea, but complete waste of time.
How can the government justify rating someone as compotent after sitting a 3 day course?

Part P brought electrical work (in dwellings) under building regs. The Scottish building standards system has had this in place for several decades. And now it is even more strict.

The Part P scenario is all wrong- jo bloggs does DIY, notifies the council, and the council HAVE to pay to have DIY inspected- at tax payers expense.

In Scotland the home owner can still DIY, still pays the council fee, but the homeowner has to pay for someomne (deemed compotent under Scottish regs) to inspect and test it. Otherwise they will have problems selling their house.

Rant over

vaio

baldelectrician wrote: »

……..Go for full scope people, they will have had a more rigorous inspection (less likely to be a 5 day wonder course person)………

I’d agree, (but then we are full scope!), they will have more in depth knowledge. Then again house bashing isn’t rocket science (even if it is sometimes hard) so maybe the in depth knowledge is an expensive luxury.

baldelectrician wrote: »

……..The Part P scenario is all wrong- jo bloggs does DIY, notifies the council, and the council HAVE to pay to have DIY inspected- at tax payers expense. In Scotland the home owner can still DIY, still pays the council fee, but the homeowner has to pay for someone (deemed competent under Scottish regs) to inspect and test it………

We don’t do domestic but I was sure the councils charge the DIYer for the inspection

ianeverton

I was also under the impression that a diyer had to pay for an inspection.

But since the change to the ill conceived and executed regs for part P that a "competent person" may be inspected but at the councils expense.

I think this is probably the best way of doing this as someone who has been a spark for 30 years with all up to date quals is still not qualified to carry out domestic work if they are not prepared to pay a ridiculous amount of money to be "Part P".

If the Government was really worried about peoples safety they would insist on RCD's in all property's.

Again rant over but i could go on forever.

baldelectrician

RCD's will become more or less mandatory in the new IEE regs.
Due out next year.

Quite a lot of changes.