Fit earth bonding to gas and other improvements

TheCyclingProgrammer

We are in the process of buying a house. As well as a survey, we had an electrical inspection condition report done today too.

Overall I'm happy with the results although it was technically a fail due to one C2 fault. It's a 1930s house and the report identified the current wiring as approx 30 years old.

The electrician said it was in good condition for its age and the installation was neat, as was some more recent work done in the kitchen, but there were some improvements to be made, some of which probably stem from some dodgy DIY.

The C2 failure was lack of earth bonding to the gas supply. Along with that, the following issues were found:

CPCs are grouped together behind socket outlets
Broken socket in living room
Socket under stairs held up by sticky tape
Socket on landing loose
No isolator local to boiler under the stairs
Exposed copper at terminations behind switch in the hall
Back box lug broken behind switch in bedroom three
Hole in grommit at front outside light (IP rating)
Lampshade on light near back door is resting on the lamp
No earth bonding to incoming gas pipe
Earth bonding to incoming water wrong side of stop
No warning label present (two versions of BS7671)
Pump by conservatory no longer used but still connected
Switch on outside of garage is no longer IP rated
Switch in living room partially covered by a wall
Circuits in fuseboard labelled incorrectly
Sleeving missing at some light switches

The electrician has given me an itemised quote but the bottom line was that it was £160+VAT for the earth bonding only, or £462 (including VAT) total for the bonding plus rectifying all of the above points.

This seems reasonable to me and whilst some of the issues above seem quite minor (and I could probably fix a few of them myself) it seems like having this work done would be worthwhile.

I intend to have the earth bonding to the gas supply done at least. We can get all of this sorted out when we move in and I can get some other quotes then although I was very happy with the efficiency and communication of the guy that did the report.

Any thoughts on this?

Alias_Omega

Most probably could be done yourself, some probably dont need doing...

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

CPCs are grouped together behind socket outlets

This means that the earths are in the same earth sleeving.

Broken socket in living room

Well that needs changing..

Socket under stairs held up by sticky tape

Needs to be resecured

Socket on landing loose

Needs to be resecured

No isolator local to boiler under the stairs

Define local? Does it need to be local? What rule/regulation? Worst case, its an extension of the supply and a new switch next to it.

Exposed copper at terminations behind switch in the hall

Switch needs re-terminating…loosen and push in further or trim and push in further..

Back box lug broken behind switch in bedroom three

New back box….

Hole in grommit at front outside light (IP rating)

Remove or replace the outside light

Lampshade on light near back door is resting on the lamp

Remove the lampshade…

No earth bonding to incoming gas pipe

Bond incoming gas pipe.. 10mm earth

Earth bonding to incoming water wrong side of stop

Remove and earth on the right side of the stop

No warning label present (two versions of BS7671)

A stick on the fuse box to say that two types of cables are used.. Red & Black, Brown and Blue.

Pump by conservatory no longer used but still connected

What pump? Unplug it?

Switch on outside of garage is no longer IP rated

Replace light switch..

Switch in living room partially covered by a wall

Move switch..

Circuits in fuseboard labelled incorrectly

Re-label

Sleeving missing at some light switches

Apply sleeving… I am assuming its red sleeving..

TheCyclingProgrammer

Alias_Omega - that's brilliant, thanks for clarifying those as some of them I wasn't sure of.

Like you say, I'm confident I can fix most of those. I'm fairly handy at DIY.

From the above, the only one's I'd say are worth getting him in to do are:

* Earth bonding to gas supply - quoted £160
* Move bonding on water supply to right side of stopcock (may as well do this at the same time as above) - quoted £17.50
* Possibly the isolation switch near the boiler - quoted £20
* Move living room switch - as well as being too close to/covered by the wall its actually in an awkward place and I've asked him for a quote to re-route the wiring and convert the dining room switch near the door to a 2-gang switch. He's given me an estimate of £160 + VAT for this (will require some floorboard lifting and chasing). Reasonable?

So in total I'd be looking at about £357.50 + VAT and saving about £200 on the rest of the work by doing it myself.

I assume the sleeving at the light switches is red sleeving on the switch live?

Everything else I can do myself (apart from the CPCs which he said was a was a very minor deviation)

Thanks!

pitkin2020

it'll be brown sleeving at the switches, red is the old colour.

As for the other bits most of it you should be able to do yourself but you'll also need to spend a bit on parts as most of the broken items could actually be broken and need replacing rather than fixing.
You may find if they are re-testing after doing the repairs that fee may go up as they will need to check the work you carried out rather than knowing its all been done when they did it.

TheCyclingProgrammer

No need for another test for most of the items I plan to do, if there's testing to be done relating to the work I'm paying for I will make sure it's included in the price, as I would expect it to be.

Buying parts isn't a problem, I know how to fit a back box or socket.

And yes, brown sleeving of course.

pitkin2020

the point i was making if the re test was included there would be no need for him to go around removing faceplates to check for the unseen issue as he would be putting them right at the time. Where as if you are fixing most of those issues yourself now he will actually have to spend additional time removing the face plates to check they have ACTUALLY been done, he isn't not going to check because you say youve done it. More time would now be required on the testing so the test fee is going to go up inline with the labour.

Obviously doing the work yourself is still going to be cheaper but the difference is not going to be what is listed above.

and yes obviously brown sleeving but some maybe red already which is acceptable.

dave030445

How far away is the gas meter from the incoming mains?
£17.50 to move earthing to other side of stop !!!! he is having a laugh a 5min job, if he is there doing the gas i would of thought he would of done that within the price of the gas earthing. None of what was stated needs repairing now/ dangerous. so just plod along and do it yourself

TheCyclingProgrammer

As I said before, we won't be having another test, why would we? We got the inspection to check the wiring is in good condition and generally, it is. He won't need to check my work.

When we complete, I'll make the repairs in my own time and get some other quotes for the other work as I do think some of his quotes for the smaller jobs are a bit much, as pointed out above. If I'm getting him to do various jobs, I'd certainly expect him to do something like put a warning sticker on the CU for no more than the cost of the sticker (can't be more than 50p).