Wiring Regs: France

[Lurch]

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 22:41:11 GMT, "BigWallop" strung together this:

You're not a sparky then?! The particular installation that I was thinking of while typing was supposedly carried out and tested by an NICEIC registered contractor only weeks before. I'm sure plenty of other qualified electrical contractors have the same thing day in, day out.

Pardon? Are you saying it's ok to bodge it together as long as the customer knows it's a bodge?

The problem is that doesn't work, as I've said many times before. I come across plenty of downright dangerous and incompetent people who are fully qualified sparks enrolled in the NICEIC.

All well and good, but you never know who you're following and what they're like. As I've mentioned, a sticker that says the installation was installed and tested by an NICEIC contractor doesn't always fill me with joy!

You want to wait until you hear my rants. I only keep 'em short on here because I get fed up of typing, and the keyboards a bit wanky from when it got wanged in a puddle by one of the kids!

[BigWallop]

But don't you think proper regulation of the registered contractors should come into force ? As with the National Security Inspectorate NACOSS, they come into the workshop and look through your books and invoices to choose the customers they want to speak to about your installations.

They don't take your word for it, they have one of their people choose customers at random from the books, and then they arrange with that customer to look around and see what you've done and how the customer feels with the installation.

It should be the same for NICEIC registered companies as well, because it keeps contractors on their toes knowing that someone is looking over their shoulder and slapping wrists where necessary or praising when the jobs a good un'.

So, to bring in some over all standard like that is a good thing, and it could be started tomorrow if the so called inspectors would get off their fat asses and do their jobs properly instead of sitting in a room and thinking up stupid changes to keep them in work.

Don't you think that everyone who has passed their tests, and then had their teachers or companies legally register them with the appropriate regulators on passing those tests, and that legal requirement of that registration then qualifies that person as a competent and qualified contractor to carry out the work they've been trained for, isn't a good thing ? It should be made to happen in all service and construction schemes.

The useless ones that don't carry out proper installations would fall by the wayside if the inspectors found that the work they done was of a consistently poor quality. The people who take pride in their work would then be able to assure that they are following proper laid down requirements, and they wouldn't have to worry about checking other peoples work because all the jobs would follow a recognised standard that everyone trained in the work knew. You'd soon spot a dodgy installation that wasn't up to scratch and you know was done by a fly by night who didn't know their Red, Yellow, Blue's.

[Lurch]

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 03:07:35 GMT, "BigWallop" strung together this:

That's what happens with the NICEIC, but it doesn't work. That's why I won't join because it it isn't doing anything. NACOSS is just as bad, they wouldn't let me join, but are quite happy for several useless alarm companies I know of, and have worked with, to bear the NACOSS logos. If the trade bodies actually managed to set up an inspectorate that worked then I would gladly join and would be happy to see the cowboys fall by the wayside, but there isn't one that actually works yet.

[BigWallop]

That's why we need standardisation then. And we also needs folks in the overlookers positions that know where, what and how these types of things should work. Maybe we should start an inspectorate of our own and call it the UK.DIYer's cowboy rustlers association (UDCRA). Got a nice ring to it, don't ya thinks ? Or is it to close to one of those para-military things for comfort ?

[Lurch]

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 05:05:49 GMT, "BigWallop" strung together this:

The problem is the people that are running these bodies at the moment are meant to be these people, but I think everyone gets tied up in that much red tape that it stops working properly.

Sounds a good idea, there's plenty of competent and knowledgable diy'ers on this group, many of them easily outshining a lot of the so called qualified tradespeople I've worked with in the past.

Nope, it needs a weighty sounding official name, maybe the inspections should be carried out by armed personnel!

[BigWallop]

Now that last paragraph is a great idea. The best I've heard so far. :-)) LOL

[Andrew Gabriel]

The consultation paper included an estimate of trade body membership which was less than half IIRC. I also saw an estimate in the trade press that only about 1/3rd of electricians are trade body members.

As I've posted before, at a previous employer, we had to change the company rules about using NICEIC contractors to using qualified contractors instead. That actually pretty much rulled out all the local NICEIC contractors we could find at the time, as we couldn't find any who could send us out qualified electricians (some had only one on the staff, others had none, and none of them had any PAT test qualified staff). We also found we got a better quality of work from one or two man bands than we did from the larger NICEIC companies. This was outer north London area. Things may have changed a bit now.