Hiring an Electrician for Re-Wiring

I've just moved into a new house & the building survey suggested that the electrics upstairs were pretty old. I had an electrician round who had a quick (eg 20 min) look & agreed with this & said that re-wiring would be needed in the next few years.

Having moved in a couple of weeks ago we've found a few other things we'd like done, so I'm going to get the electrician back to take a closer look at the niggles & the re-wiring.

The electrician is a friend of a friend so I'm not really worried about him ripping us off. However I've never hired an electrician to do anything significant before so I'm not sure how to find out how whether he's any good or not (I know that he worked for BT for years until last year).

Does anyone have any suggestions for intelligent questions to ask or ways of finding out whether he's recommending us a good solution?

Thanks,

Michael

Reply to
michaeld121
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Just ask him if he can do the work correectly in accordance with part P of the building regulations; he'll probably run a mile ;)

Reply to
Tim Morley

You could ask to see his Earth Loop & PSC tester. Any pukka pro will have one.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote: The electrician is a friend of a friend so I'm not really worried

Just be careful as sometimes using a friend of a friend can have its own problems - such as when you DO think he's ripping you off, or the work is sub-standard and you want to withhold payment until everything's sorted (more likely on larger building work). Can get difficult when you try getting your friend to help, or your friend puts pressure on you saying his mate is out of pocket and can't afford to feed his kids etc.

D
Reply to
David Hearn

Im not convinced about the logic behind that either.

There is the question of what you want, what level of quality, budget job, part p paperwork, etc.

If you ask him what CU arrangement he's quoting you for you can assess the quality of the design. If you ask which type of earthing system you'll get you can assess whether he has basic competence.

And asking these 2 lets him know you're not going in blind, so he wont get away with funny business. Rather offputting to cowboys.

NT

Reply to
bigcat

You could ask him where he buys his spurs from. :-)

Reply to
BigWallop

[...]

I think you've already asked it. You asked if the work pointed out in the building survey needed doing, and he said "not yet". IMO, either that means it's really nasty work he doesn't want or, probably more likely in your case, he doesn't want to "rip you off" by suggesting that you have loads of expensive work done as soon as possible.

If you ask any more questions as suggested by others in this thread, let us know the answers and you might get a bit more detailed opinion. The only thing I find odd is that the survey just said the *upstairs* electrics were old. Has the house had a partial rewire? What sort of house is it, where?

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove

The work would be even more expensive in a couple of years after all the rooms have been decorated and the new carpets/laminate/tiles have been laid.

Have a look around your new house. Are there enough sockets for modern day use and are the sockets where you want/need them to be? If not then is could be worth having a rewire (or sockets only rewire) done for that reason alone.

Adam

Reply to
ARWadsworth

Good point, but I didn't read the original question that way. The way I understood it, the survey said the electrics upstairs were "pretty old", and the electrician agreed but said, effectively, "They are not dangerous. There's no need to shell out thousand pounds now for a rewire, leave it a bit and get one done when you can afford it." He might even have added (had he thought similar to you), "Live in the house for a while and learn where you are going to want to put things. This'll make a rewire more useful."

You are quite right though; people often go at these things the wrong way around. I had a lady the other day ask me to quote for moving a cooker point and adding a couple of sockets in the kitchen, "but I've only recently decorated so I don't want lots of mess". As a result she's going to end up with trunking half way around the kitchen from the existing cooker switch to the place she wants the new outlet :-/

I still think it's a good rule of thumb though; I'd be more inclined to trust a tradesman who doesn't suggest lots of extra work when I call him to look at one specific project.

As for other questions specific to electrics, I'd have thought a good one to ask would be how long the testing is going to take, and what procedures are in place for notifying Building Control.

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove

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