DIY house rewire in stages & planning

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Hi,

I'm slowly refurbing our house, pretty much a room at a time. I think I have thought of every eventuallity and therefore come up with the plan for which room and in which order.

The next main task is installing a new bathroom however before I can do the electrical work I need to replace the consumer unit as the existing one does not have RCD protection and as I understand it, the new bathroom will require RCD protection.

Each room is going to be rewired as we go so I need to inform LBC of the rewire as well as the installation of new bathroom.

I have been studying the IET Wiring Regs and looking at getting qualified to BS7671.

As part of the Wiring Regs I have to plan the rewire. What is the best way of documenting what I plan to do to ensure that I can demonstrate compliance and satisfy the Building Control Officer?

I am confident that I can design the electrical system correctly (I have put notes on the CAD plans in respect to bathroom zones and shaver sockets etc to hopeful demonstrate my understanding of the regs)

What would the BCO expect to see?

Tom
 
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This needs to be asked in the electricians forum.

Building control are not interested in Cad drawings or layouts for electrics. It comes down to what is seen on site
 
You need to ask Building Control what they will accept. Many will expect a full certificate signed by a NICEIC (etc) registered contractor and will not be used to dealing with DIY installations. Some councils will want their own electrician to inspect and test the installation (and will try to charge you extra for this).

In many cases it can be useful to install the new CU and get it tested and certified without any circuits attached (or with a token 1 socket). (**) The old CU can then be supplied from a 40A RCBO on the new unit, if any cooker and shower circuits are moved to the new CU and tested individually. Replacement circuits as installed can then be put onto the new CU, and the old CU removed once redundant.

You are, of course, from the point of (**) onwards, only replacing existing wiring, and your new CU has already been certified, and the work of replacing existing circuits is not notifiable.
 
You need to ask Building Control what they will accept.

They have to accept what Part P tells them to accept.

Either the whole installation is installed and self certified by a registered person under a relevant scheme.

Or, the installation is done by 'competent' person to a recognised standard (currently 17th edition IEE) and then checked by the council. In this case they may want to see evidence of competency - a suitable qualification or demonstration of experience or even just a periodic test. However the actual standard of the installation is the crucial thing.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

On the building control notice it specifically asks if the works will be carried out by:
  • Competent person
    Qualified electrician
    DIY

Therefore, they are expecting that it may be performed by a 'DIYer'. At the time of the notice and possibly the completion, I won't have completed the BS7671 qualification so cannot sign it off as such, however if all they are looking for is compliance with the regs could I just document everything I do and perform the inspection and testing to 7671?

From my conversation with them a few weeks ago, they would inspect at 1st fix and then again at completion, however my problem is going to be that I am doing a room at a time so therefore there's going to be a 1st fix and completion per room.

I'll give them a call next week and see what they say, ideally it would be good if they accept that I photograph each stage so that I can get on with completion and then get them to inspect/test once all works are complete.

Tom
 

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