Home DIY

For the EICR? replacing the consumer unit, which has seen better days. But if I’m going to do that, best to get wiring checked out, 8 circuits total.

So I’m thinking circa £300 for the ECIR hopefully nothing major comes up.

Consumer Board, labour, testing circa £100

I'm loving it, you're my new favourite idiot and I can't see that changing ever. Were a bigger idiot to come along I'd expect them to be a national one. I have plenty more of this material.

Cheers

I have plenty more of this material.

100% killer, zero filler.

They say never punch down but it's too easy.

float like a dead rat, sting like a sponge.

@stevo_com - I've only used an ecobase for a small storage shed, but they are meant to be able to hold 300 tonnes per m².

You've got a similar amount of prep as with a slab, but laying them is a piece of piss. Possibly useful for you is that the job can be broken down into small as and when jobs. Where with a slab you've got a lot of intensive work if you do it yourself.

I honestly can't tell if that's photoshopped or not haha.

Usually distribution board installation includes proper testing of all the circuits and provision of paperwork. The first EICR is often the most expensive as it's considered good practice to remove and check all sockets and switches. After that it's normal to carry out a smaller inspection to check deterioration.

put a curtain in between old and new mass at the weekend - made a night and day difference to the cosyness already. get the air leaks resolved around the new doors and think I'll be sorted. whew

I can’t remember the exact process for replacing a board but keeping existing wiring. You’d need to do a full series of testing on all the circuits when the new board is installed anyway. People recommend getting an EICR beforehand to help with an idea of the condition of the installation, but my main concern is how variable EICRs can be - the way many of them are carried out, I’d be amazed if they find any faults at all (other than the absolutely glaringly obvious), and any faults should be found during the initial verification when installing the new board anyway.

I guess the EICR prevents the situation where you have a spark come to do the board change and they point out it’s not possible because of whatever reason, but that’s reliant on the person doing the EICR actually doing meaningful investigation and some testing and finding a fault.

As @Airhead pointed out, all the sockets should be inspected, but regularly aren’t on cheap EICRs. Personally I reckon it’d be a good time to swap old sockets for new - but how necessary that is depends on the current install.

I don't think it is? What is it for? I want a giant screw now...

@Kurai
Lol, it’s not a ‘shop. They’re a real thing used instead of concrete foundations for garden rooms etc.
https://www.groundscrewcentre.co.uk/

I'm with Nef on this. If you're having the board replaced and the electrician comes round to quote. He'll know pretty quickly if you've got 60's aluminium wiring or damaged looking accessories or insufficient earthing from the gas/water entry point. If they find out later that you've got a shared neutral in the hallway then that will need to be rectified.

Some of the things an EICR shows up are the kinds of problems that only workplaces or tenants would live with anyway, broken switches or sockets, dangerous wiring etc.

The earthing and shared neutral I've mentioned come up for quite a few board changes. The earthing is easy to spot for the visiting electrician, the shared neutral can be painful but most jobbing sparks will have a method to find it.

The other thing that might come up is nuisance tripping, if you;re changing to RCBO's and you should be, it's more common in commercial settings though, due to the number of leaky power supplies in computers.

Maybe post a pic of your consumer unit. I have seen some really old dodgy ones so you might have something like that.

do the electricity companies not fix shared neutrals for free ? pretty sure we have one of those, and scottish power are coming (tomorrow in fact) to fix it gratis, so we can put a smart meter in.

Not sure, I've never heard of it. Maybe just in Scotland. Yet another reason to move there.

Although that might a be a shared neutral at the point where two flats split their supply I guess. A common problem is in hallways with 2 or three way switching, people take the neutral from the ground floor and then one from an upper floor and they're on different circuits. It's not terribly dangerous but it's not something you can leave if you're installing a new consumer unit.

Taking it to another level of guessing I don't know how many people on the forum have more than a couple of stories.

When looking in North London, was coming it at £400+vat with no issues. More if issues as would be going to rcbo.

EDIT this was part of a quote to re wire kitchen due to works.

And believe, I'm not going anywhere and I've only just started.

Who knew a couple of doors would cause such a stir. Jesus, chill out lads.

No point trying to shut the stable doors now, the horse has already bolted.

That's if the stable doors were warped or bowed and not constructed with the requisite skills

Lol. Would rep

Would now be a good time to say I have built doors, for a garage..

Now I'm looking at building a gate.

So far I spent more time deciding on what would and trying to find places to buy the wood other than DIY places.

If you fuck up making a garage door, you can have a big bonfire and try again or get someone else to do it

Lovely commitment to sustainability!

Buy a man a garage door and keep the damp out, or let a man try and build them himself and fuel a fire for decades to come.

Or something.

Door won't keep the damp out...