Part P certification

[Midge]

Yet another query to do with my house sun-room extension and cabling requirements I'm afraid! As per previous postings, I've put a pair of cables in for a new ring main as far as my dining room ready for when the extension to it is fully built and the wall knocked through + a separate feed for the air-con. As I'm likely to be re-fitting my bathroom soon, I've taken the opportunity whilst I've had floor boards up all over the place, to put a cable in ready for an electric shower, and a separate one ready for a spa-bath.

I've just got a local electrician in to swap out the old 6way fuse box for a

12 way split load board - and he will self-certify that part of the work and has terminated my cables too ready for when I finish my bit.

The extension is subject to building control checks of course, and I

*assume* they will want to see certs against any of the electrical work so little scope for bending the rules I guess. As I understand it my options are probably:

1. Completing the work myself and putting it through building control and having their approved subcontractor check it.

2. Completing the work myself and finding a NAPIT approved inspector to check and certify it.

1. Talk nicely to the electrician I used and ask him to take over where I've got to and complete the straightforward work in the extension when built - assuming he's happy with what has been done so far by me.

The only reason I've installed the cables myself so far was the cable run is right the way across the house spanning four rooms and I wanted to make sure the job was done with as little mess and board chopping as possible + I knew from fitting my wired alarm the best way to do it.

My questions are:

If I go for options 1 or 2, what level of inspection is done and when, and roughly what will it cost? i.e. will they want to check sections of the cable run (boards back up!) to make sure it's adequately secured etc. OR do they just stick their tester on the end and write out the cert?

There are two short but very awkward to get to sections of the run where I've fished the cables across the ceiling parallel to roof joists but haven't yet worked out how I can secure them as I'd want to. Is here anything in the regs these days which actually mandates this? The rest of the run is fine as that goes through joists or has been easy enough to get to to cleat in place.

TIA, Midge.

[tinnews]

They *provide* the certificates surely!

That's the *only* way if you do it yourself, how they certify it is entirely up to them, if they believe you are competant then they can simply believe you and approve it on that basis.

Can't do that, self certification only applies to work actually done by the contractor.

That might be OK on the basis that your electrician self certifies it as if he had done it all himself.

For 1 the cost should be included in the total building control cost, there isn't any extra cost to you. If the council tries it on come back here (or to uk.d-i-y) and you will be given chapter and verse of the rules that says they can't charge extra.

The level of inspection is up to Building Control, ask them.

[Andrew Gabriel]

LA's are mostly either so clueless about this, or so happy to just wash their hands of it (they regard it as just as much a waste of time as you do), that they would likely just accept your electrician's test report without even noticing or caring that it's for something else.

[Midge]

Thanks for the postings so far.

As it happens, the building inspector dropped in to check on extension progress half an hour ago, and he confirmed there would be no additional charge to check the electrical work associated with the extension - and they would probably want to do so when the cabling was run through the extension and before plastering etc was done so it could be visually checked too. He wasn't sure if his electrical inspector would want to see the bit I'd done within the house (note to self - in future, take photos of work just in case!).

They WOULD sting me the extra for checking the two cables to the bathroom though as that isn't part of the extension. Nice!

Midge.

[Andrew Gabriel]

That was done (or at least connected up) by your electrician. You don't need a building notice for that -- he will have self-certified it.

[ARWadworth]

So do not tell them about the bathroom.

Adam