Renovating a house and the guy doing the electrical rewire for me isn't an electrician (he's a builder) so I've had to get the local building control office involved who charged me £59.99 and said that they employ a local firm of electricians to do the inspections for them.
I was told that they need to inspect it when the first fix is complete, which it now is, and they're coming to see it at 9.00am on Friday. My question is, what will they be inspecting and looking for?
TIA,
Dave.
I've never done it this way around as I only test my own work, but the aim is to end up with several bits of paper describing the installation in detail. I suspect that your electricians are probably going to have to come back when second fix is done, as some of the tests can't be completed until everything is connected up. How thorough they are will be interesting - *please* report back when they've been.
On first fix there is a lot that can be done. The main issues are (OnSite Guide section 9) to "verify that equipment is correctly selected and erected in accordance with BS7671... [and] not visibly damaged or defective..."
So at first fix they will be looking to make sure that cables are properly identified, are routed sensibly and in safe zones or otherwise mechanically protected, are selected correctly with respect to the circuit design load etc, that fire barriers which may have been breached have been made good, and so on and so on. They will also need to be sure that your plan for the installation is sensible, so will need to be shown details of the proposed circuits, calculations for design loads and so on. If you haven't such details then they *should* generate them themselves, given information from you, but...
Most of the "testing" that has to be done before sign-off can't really be carried out completely until second fix. The exception is probably testing on the incoming supply to determine supply impedance, maximum fault current and earthing arrangements.
After second fix, and *before* the circuits are energised, each circuit and the complete installation will need to be checked for (OSG 9.3 &
10.2) [except the bits in square brackets]i) continuity of protective conductors (including main and supplementary equipotential bonding conductors)
ii) continuity of ring final circuit conductors...
iii) insulation resistance (between live conductors and between each live conductor and earth) ["live" and "neutral" are both "live conductors" in this context]
iv) polarity; this includes checks that single-pole control and protective devices (e.g. switches, circuit-breakers, fuses) are connected in the phase conductor only, that bayonet and Edison-screw lampholders... have their outer contacts connected to the neutral conductor and that wiring has been correctly connected to socket-outlets and other accessories.
v) earth electrode resistance [if applicable & depends on test method]
Only after this point can the installation be energised. Thereafter,
vi) second check of polarity
vii) earth electrode resistance [if applicable]
viii) earth fault loop impedance
ix) prospective fault current...
x) functional test.
And for all that testing, which might take quite some time if the electrician hasn't done the installation himself, you usually end up with at most a half a dozen pieces of paper.
It is much easier for an electrician to certify his own work than anyone else's as most of the checks mentioned above can be carried out as you go along. Certainly things like the polarity checks. In order to thoroughly check someone else's work you should be inspecting every single connection/accessory and while there are "shortcut" methods to do this with sockets, there aren't any easy ways to do it with things like FCUs and light switches.
Hope this helps. Please do let us know what happens on Friday, and if (when) they do make a second visit, please report back again.
Hwyl!
M.
Circuit topology, Cable sizing Installation methods Routing of cables Bonding as applicable ...
Is this £60 for all visits? If you do a re-wire yourself, then this £60 is well worth it. As building control are involved that means you can do all the work, CU and even in all the wet rooms.
I can't believe they will do anything very substantial for their share of the £59.99, including two site visits.
When you consider it cost about £60 a year for landlord's certificate every year, that is not that bad.
Thanks to all who replied and I will certainly let the group know what goes on on Friday.
With respect to the cost, there is significant upheaval going on in the building control offices at the moment and I may have got the application in just in time, because it looks like charges will be rocketing very soon. Apparently, the council charges the public £59.99 but is then in turn charged £200 by the firm of local electricians!!!
The council is now looking towards perhaps using their own workforce of electricians, whether an inspection at first fix is really necessary or if just a "final" inspection before the house is powered up will suffice etc., etc. I'm just grateful I put in the application when I did and got it for £59.99 :o)
Dave.
The ODPM caps the Part P price (although I thought it was nearer £100), and expects the BCO's to do the inspections, just as they do for other building work. When I spoke to my BCO before Part P came in, they were expecting to have to get trained in doing it themselves (no idea if they were). There's no requirement that the councils use Part P certified electricians to do the inspections. As has been noted here in the past, at least some BCO's are happy to accept the DIY'ers certification of the installation (but presumably only after deciding that particular DIY'er knows what they're talking about).
A really thorough inspection on a new installation could easily take two half days (first fix/second fix). AIUI (though I've not had cause to be on the receiving end myself) there is a maximum that Building Control can charge the owner, but that says nothing about how much it costs BC to subcontract the service.
With other items they charge a sliding scale depending on the value of the work undertaken. Does the same thing apply to electrical work?
Hwyl!
M.
Sounds about right for two solid half days as I just posted (note to self: should read the whole thread before posting :-)
I don't know how they'd get away without an inspection at first fix. After all, BS7671 is quite adamant about things like routing of cables (see OSG sec. 7.3) and anyone signing off the work will want to know that cables have been installed correctly in protected zones or are otherwise mechanically protected. Also there is some (usually ignored) advice about where you can and can't drill holes in joists. What I want to know is, why is it ok for a plumber to make a messy notch in a joist big enough for two 28mm pipes a few inches from the end of a joist, yet the IEE get all worked up about circular holes and insist that they should only be within the area between 0.25 and 0.4 of the joist span?
Hwyl!
M.
SNIP
. Also there is some (usually ignored)
Any Structural Engineers care to comment? (Especially about the closeness to the end of said joist)
application in
I was talking to a selfbuilder who had the BCO himself pass his self installed electrical system just after Part P was introduced. He also passed the unvented cylinder. The BCO knew the man after a year of visits and knew he would do everything by the book and cut no corners. If he didn't know something he would make sure he did by getting the books and manuals, questioning many of the BCOs directions. I lot of what a BCO pass is related to their confidence in the builder.
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