Home DIY

Yes, I was reading up on that as two of the electricians weren't going to do it. Are you an electrician by any chance? Thanks for the advice.

I am an electrician, but have only been working as one for a year or so. I think there's also some weird technicality about giving advice as an electrician - essentially I should be telling you straight up to get an electrician and any advice I give out I am liable for etc - so ignore everything I say and get an electrician of course.

My issues would be that you'd have a load of sockets on a single 13a fuse - which most likely would be fine - but it's just a bit crap. I really don't understand why you wouldn't put a small shed DB in, with an RCD, a 6a lighting circuit and a 16a socket circuit. You could in theory have the lights on a 3a fused connection and the sockets on a 13a one, so if the sockets fuse blows, the lights don't go out etc. But honestly it's £30-50 for a 2 circuit board with RCD and it isn't really any more work than using FCUs.

Edit: I also haven't seen your shed, so maybe my mental image of the install is greater than the reality.

I used some of this to insulate a pump box. It was fully fire resistant and designed for motor boxes or pumps. The price was the same as marine based stuff. If you search for motor box insulation it should throw up some results.

Thanks.

I am careful to not do any notifiable work when I shouldn't and I read the regulations carefully to make sure I don't, even with plumbing and other building work I have done myself, so ideally I would have installed a CU if the wording in Part P didn't include installation of a CU!

Two of the three wouldn't bother with a CU in the shed, opting for a beefy fused spur (like you get for cookers), and no one was willing to bury the cable, saying they'd pass it on the floor behind some planters

This sounds an awful lot like something you could replicate with a £20 extension lead.

Actually I don't quite see how you could run a light switch off a 40A spur without something functionally equivalent to a fuse box in the shed.

Yes, struggling to understand how they are getting to £2000 for what has been described to me by themselves as a relatively straight forward job.

Any of your electricians friendly enough just to do the final bits - i.e., you lay all the cable and the faffy stuff and they rock up to do the important but less faffy bits and testing?

Edit: i'm lucky enough to have a friend of a friend electrician who does this for me - made a full rewire a lot cheaper.

Thanks. Will ask them and see if/what they quote.

I mean, a fused connection unit is almost literally a fuse box (it’s a fuse in a box, innit). Bang a 3a fuse in there and you can run 1.5mm cable out for your lighting. Again, not my style, but technically ok (although I’d need to double check the wiring regs).

Also remember that it’s not just Part P that you need to comply to but also BS 7671 - the wiring regulations.

Legally speaking Part P only says that electrical installations need to be reasonably safe.

All of the specifics that follow (including BS 7671) are essentially hints and tips on how that might be achieved, but strictly speaking none of it is required. A bit like the Highway Code.

ETA: The definition of notifiable work is also legally binding.

Could have lights on 13a plugs with inline switches...

I'd probably make up an armoured extension lead and use an outdoor socket with an RCD. Not an electrician though!

essentially hints and tips

While non-statutory, I would definitely say that the wiring regs are regarded a bit stronger than “hints and tips” lol.

It's like asking yourself why a dentist charges £x for a crown or a lawyer charges £y for 6 minutes.

It doesn't surprise me in the current market. I've had a lot of requests for garden work this year but I'm not registered so I can't do it. Same sort of thing happened when Part P was introduced, couldn't get electrical work done for a while or it was crazy expensive.

@Airhead sorry can you remind me / us what your recommendation is for external woodwork paint + primer ?

I think it should be a case of caveat emptor. Reviews, personal recommendations to find the most skilled people. But regulating who can and cannot do certain skilled tasks always pushes the prices sky high. Even for those other roles you mention.

If you feel strongly that you are capable of doing it yourself and dislike the regulatory frameworks so much, why respect them? Just DIY it and deal with any consequences.

If you get it wrong and someone dies you pay a fine. If I do it and someone dies I go to prison. That's the difference between trained and untrained.

If you have been trained you're less likely to disagree with the regulations as part of the training is understanding what the possible problems are. I don't think the regulations are there to create a cartel. They are there to protect people who don't understand the risks.

Regarding competitive pricing, I think that's what you're seeing already. There has to be some standard for electrical work, you wouldn't want shoddy, potentially dangerous work done on your property. The cost to the registered electrician of doing that work is not negligible.

I'm all for electricians charging these sorts of amounts (of course, I am one!), homeowners regularly underestimate work and a tradesman saying it's a small job doesn't mean it's a nothing job. It just means it's not going to take weeks and cost tens of thousands of pounds.

At the moment my experience is there are a lot of big jobs around which trades usually prefer so the smaller jobs are getting high quotes.

I'm all for DIY electrics but after years of winging it I did the course for installation and testing and part p and it was well worth it. At least I learnt my limits :)

Have you asked them to break it down into materials and labour? You’re entitled to ask and it will give you some transparency.

The other thing is there's regulation everywhere. Window manufacture and fitting is regulated. Insulation fitting etc. etc. With electrics the skills required are commonly underestimated. If it was easier there wouldn't be a shortage.

It's also pretty clear that you're not considering all the problems with providing a caveat emptor service. If I meet you down the pub and agree to do your electrics then 2 years later your child dies because of a fault in the installation, am I going to get implicated?

No electrician wants to be lying in bed at night worrying about the dodgy wiring they've installed to save you some money that could bite them in the ass. Believe me when I tell you there is already plenty of pressure in the commercial market to cut corners.

And yet they have a clear conscience charging £2k to stick an extension lead behind some plant pots.

If they were saying “we’re going to do this job properly or not at all” you’d have a point, but it sounds a lot like they want to do a half-arsed job and charge full rate. That doesn’t indicate a healthy situation to me.

And yet they have a clear conscience charging £2k to stick an extension lead behind some plant pots.

I mean, it’s definitely more than that. Speaking to the sparks at work everyone pretty much agreed that it was a weird and lazy dodge to not put a shed DB in.

@Airhead has given it a fair rundown IMO. The problem with electrical work is there are a million ways to make things work, and a handful of ways to do the job properly.

FWIW I did a cabin install in PVC conduit, 2 rooms with lights, and an outside light with outside switch, and an extra outside socket. Can’t remember the exact cost but it was in the region of £1200-1400. Up north that was seen on the steep side. They’d had their garage done for £600, but everything had been completely thrown in, no paperwork, cables lazily squashed into PVC trunking with no fire clips, lots of bare twin and earth cable etc.
I’m still not totally sure I didn’t overcharge (but I struggle with pricing and probably always will).

I’ve attached some pictures of the cabin install to give you an idea what was involved.

NB - the overloaded double socket was in the £600 garage install. Surely it wouldn’t have been a problem to add another couple double sockets in the places where lots of stuff gets plugged in. But £600 is £600 - I think they got exactly what they paid for.

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Yikes at image number (edit) 5!

Tidy work on image 1, that's pretty much what I'm after for my cellar (once I've done the rest) and would be happy to pay 1200-1400 for that level of work

If you’re referring to the death ladder covered in paint, I can safely say that I had absolutely nothing to do with it!