Electricians want to do safety check on wiring before work

littlerock

I am trying to get a relatively small electrical job done in my Victorian house. The house is well maintained and was rewired about twenty years old, professionally and to a good standard. We had a major kitchen upgrade last year including new electric hob and new lighting, a new CHB 3 years ago and a new bathroom 4 years ago, again with new lighting and an electric towel rail, all professionally installed. None of the tradesmen raised any queries about the wiring or said it needed checking for safety before they would work on it.

Yet two separate local electricians approached for the electrical job, want a large call-out fee - £65-75 - and say for that they will first have to check the house's wiring is safe. I feel a bit nervous about this. The electricians both appear to have good testimonials. One was recommended by the local lighting shop and another by a friend. But I cannot help feeling this may be a try on to get more work. Views?

JJ_Egan

They dont want your wiring to kill them .
Get other quotes.

Heedtheadvice

Part of the work they should do after the modifications is to prove they have installed correctly and safely. You should receive certification to show you have met your own legal resposibilities too! If a problem is found then it needs to be located and rectified. Now it might be a problem introduced or already in existence. If the latter (and not previously known about) there might be a little or considerable extra work required which needs paying for. That will affect their charges. It would be totally irresponsible to leave you with system that does not pass tests.

It does sound like you do not have recent test certification following the earlier works? See for certification https://www.niceic.com/find-a-contractor/electrics-explained/what-are-the-different-types-of-electrical-certifi
and assuming you are in England the regulations that have to be complied with https://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/find-an-electrician/building-regulations/england/



Far better to test prior to starting work, quantify the tasks and hopefully costs required for their quotation. You will also know where you stand. Despite having professionals do your earlier work it is not beyond the bounds of possibilities that there are issues!

The electricians are also to a certain extent protecting themselves contractually as any issues will be known about in advance about an installations that they have no knowledge of at present.

Frozen_up_north

Have tried to find a local approved electrician? Search:
https://www.niceic.com/householder/find-a-contractor

We had a free quote, £200/day plus parts

forgotmyname

Makes sense to me, they don't want to come in and find some idiot wired everything backwards. How do they know you earth wire is not actually live?

So when your house catches fire because they added a circuit wired differently to the rest of the house, they can prove it wasnt their fault.

If it was wired to the correct standards why are you so worried?

that

forgotmyname wrote: »

Makes sense to me, they don't want to come in and find some idiot wired everything backwards. How do they know you earth wire is not actually live?

Would think they put a tester on to check the live wire is live, then switch the electricity off, rather than test the whole house?

If it was wired to the correct standards why are you so worried?

Standards change. Having had council electricians around, They plugged a laptop into every plug and socket to conduct their report. Just keep searching and often, eventually, you will find something extra to add onto the bill. Think people are worried about those whom find extra work, and say the magic words 'the whole house needs a rewire', meaning redecorated too, and you get stuck between a rock and a hard place, especially in the cold and before Xmas.

littlerock

I am not worried about my house being unsafe, more that it could simply be an excuse to generate extra work. We must all know a builder sometime who looked at some job you had done and whistled, and muttered under his breath. Does not mean there is anything wrong with it.

neilmcl

[QUOTE=littlerock;75171754]I am not worried about my house being unsafe, more that it could simply be an excuse to generate extra work. We must all know a builder sometime who looked at some job you had done and whistled, and muttered under his breath. Does not mean there is anything wrong with it.[/QUOTE]Yeah, but you're not the one that would be doing the work. What exactly is the job you want doing?