Extension To Existing House

[daiashthomas]

Sorry no such thing as certifying work. The phrase is an urban myth. The only people who can third party certify are the council and I don't understand why they should be able to do it either ( mainly as once a job is finished you can hide alot and they can't inspect hidden joints etc). Since part P, its self certify if your a registered electrician or be inspected by mr council.

In my opinion electrical installation is a little underrated due to the diy culture. Its not that its complex as it isn't really, and yes all of the specs are laid out in the regs, and a competent Diyer can do a visibly good job. However most diy people don't posses the regs books,to say where and how things can be installed let alone make sure the installation they are connecting to is safe to start with. Its the little known regs and good working practices that are not in general books that any electrician regardless whether he could or couldn't certify would be hard pushed to accept on a DIY job.

As for mr council inspecting, could be a can of worms as if there is a fault on the installation you won't know whether its your work or the existing. Then you have to get someone to test to find the fault, so more cost.

In short , since the part P red tape best of getting someone in as they have the capability in tools, knowledge and sign off.

I am an electrician, but mainly test work these days ,and I only do work within my customer database, unfortunately they keep me in 52weeks of mindless monotonous work.

Plenty of good electricians about. Find a good one man band or small outfit. They are generally a bit cheaper and more competent as they are the ones examined by their institution every year. Larger firms have too many cheap young labour these days.

thanks for speedy replies guys

as for existing electrics all have been recently rewired by myself due to lead sheath cable which was paper-insulated with soldered joints even the old shed had electrics cables run underground in some sort of wooden trunking with glue and cloth in it. no earth bonding or much earthing of any kind and an old wooden dis board with no branding should have taken pictures of it lol. got a 12-way split load which i put in myself

got it tested by electrician (about 7months ago) who has now emigrated as i found out 4 weeks ago. otherwise i'd be asking him as he was a tidy guy and was reasonably priced.

so was just testing the water lol

[JohnCunningham]

thanks for speedy replies guys

as for existing electrics all have been recently rewired by myself due to lead sheath cable which was paper-insulated with soldered joints even the old shed had electrics cables run underground in some sort of wooden trunking with glue and cloth in it. no earth bonding or much earthing of any kind and an old wooden dis board with no branding should have taken pictures of it lol. got a 12-way split load which i put in myself

got it tested by electrician (about 7months ago) who has now emigrated as i found out 4 weeks ago. otherwise i'd be asking him as he was a tidy guy and was reasonably priced.

so was just testing the water lol

Obviously you do know that the work you have done recently had to be registered with the council. The only way a electrician can certify it for you is to say that he has done the work and register it for you. Which is a big call for personal liability issues and illegal. It is also wrong to perform an inspection report on a system you know to be a new installation. That breaks all the rules

Anyway just to remind you that part P is law now and can be upto

[Guest anguscanplay]

Obviously you do know that the work you have done recently had to be registered with the council. The only way a electrician can certify it for you is to say that he has done the work and register it for you.

unless your a subby for the said electritian perhaps ?

[JohnCunningham]

unless your a subby for the said electritian perhaps ?

eye, under NIC rules you can sub out 25% (i think) of your work. Not sure of the requirements, don't know whether you can only sub to 16th ed qualified etc, not done it. Could be a way out tho, however if you were the qualified supervisor signing off a subby you would want that to be a good subby, that you know does the right work not a cold call customer you have no control over. It is the business that signs off has the legal responsibility and with the part P schemes the 6 year warrantee on workmanship. In theory if your customer sells up and moves on but a diy rewire is **** but you have signed it off you could be called back to rewire the whole thing for free for 6 years. OUCH!

Unless your mates a sparky don't know many who would put their neck out for a few hundred quid. After all its doing them out of business if you DIY.

I believe you can't sub out if your Part P registered only. They can only self certify. You would have to have full membership to one of the institutions to get a long installation certificate. All the domestic installation certs are design, build and certify by the same contractor. It is the All encompassing Electrical installation cert that has separate details for design, build and certify. In the NICEIC they are only for approved contractors not domestic installers. These guys have more rules than you can shake a stick at!! Not sure about the other institutions.

Angus, Good thought , as a builder/ landlord mate is converting a huge derelict house to a 12 bed HMO, competent electrically but not registered maybe they can sub to me for most of the donkey work and I'll inspect every day, connect up and fit the consumer units etc. He has asked me to do the job, but it is too big for me otherwise. My knees not what they used to be!

[Guest anguscanplay]

cheers Angus, Good thought , as a builder/ landlord mate is converting a huge derelict house to a 12 bed HMO, competent electrically but not registered maybe they can sub to me for most of the donkey work and I'll inspect every day, connect up and fit the consumer units etc. He has asked me to do the job, but it is too big for me otherwise. My knees not what they used to be!

think about it - it has to be allowed otherwise we`d all be sitting in dark offices and cold new builds, there simply isnt the number of "fully trained..." sparks to go round however what they didnt expect was the loophole (and I`m bloody good at finding loopholes ) been abused for domestic work. We (time served alarm engineers ) as a trade are sort of a grey area IMO - my tame sparky who gives me all his alarms would be happy to subbie me for my own extension, maybe not someone elses site, minefield isnt it

you can buy me a breakfast as commision then LOL

[JohnCunningham]

think about it - it has to be allowed otherwise we`d all be sitting in dark offices and cold new builds, there simply isnt the number of "fully trained..." sparks to go round however what they didnt expect was the loophole (and I`m bloody good at finding loopholes ) been abused for domestic work. We (time served alarm engineers ) as a trade are sort of a grey area IMO - my tame sparky who gives me all his alarms would be happy to subbie me for my own extension, maybe not someone elses site, minefield isnt it

you can buy me a breakfast as commision then LOL

It's allowed but has the full membership problems, everyone else does it off the radar. Its a bit like paying the laborer cash. Its done but can cause admin grief.

Its a trust thing. Your mate knows you do a good job, so he assesses the risk and says your a good risk and I'm sure you if you needed clarification on what he would expect to see you would ask his advise as he was signing it off. What I don't like is the cold call approach where people have just cracked on, done things non regs ways because it was easier or because they didn't have the equipment or understanding and just expect it to be good enough and pass. Saying that the worst are industrial sparks. The amount of times I have inspected houses that were lived in by british steel type sparks is amazing ( its a south wales thing). They install stuff in their own homes that you could hang a tank off but is not to domestic regs. All the time they use cable they nick from work, use the earth of twin and earth as switching lives for circuits instead of using 3 core. As I always say its not that it is hard as it isn't but you should buy the book and do it right, otherwise its just errrr wrong. You know what I mean.

My glamorous assistant mark, is an ex telecoms cabler and a perfectionist to the max and refuses to do thing he knows is wrong. He helps me with2 man jobs as I know he will do the job better than me in many ways. I would let him crack on from here to eternity, but my best mate will add a fused spur break the back box , have hole in it you could poke a finger in and it just doesn't bother him. You have to be careful, where friend and legal responsibility is concerned.

Other thing that is a worry, if you certify others work for a couple of quid you have a installation cert, part P submission saying you've done a rewire. Should you get tax inspected, they will wonder why a rewire costs