Where to start when seeking a domestic electrician?

[Flinstone]

Hi,

I'm seeking out an electrician to do some new installation work in our conservatory.

Would a member who subscribes to Elecsa and the TustMark schemes be a satisfactory starting point?

Many thanks peeps.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Using a registered electrician saves LABC hassles, but being registered is not a good enough guide on its own. As ever, personal recommendations are always the best way to find a reputable tradesman, but if you're having to go ahead without much in the way of those, or references, don't put any store by registration itself - sadly it is possible to become registered with woefully inadequate qualifications and zero practical experience. You don't have to spend long here to see people cropping up who are registered and "qualified", but who are clearly seriously incompetent in reality and who should not be charging for their services.

Whatever the work is you want him to do it may surprise and dismay you to learn that it is quite possible to become a "certified electrician" without ever having done it before, and without having acquired any of the practical skills needed to do it without half-destroying your house in the process.

It's your money and you have every right to ask prospective tradesmen what their qualifications and experience are. Just being listed here is not a good enough guide. No genuinely experienced electrician, with the "full set" of C&G qualifications will mind you asking - in fact he will wish that everyone was like you.

I feel sorry for people who have been misled by training organisations and (shamefully) the Competent Person scheme organisers into thinking that a 5-day training course, a couple of trivial examples of their work and some basic understanding of how to use test equipment will make them an electrician, but not sorry enough to agree with them trying to sell their services to Joe Public.

 

[Flinstone]

Thanks for your comments & going to the trouble to reply.

I had wondered about that aspect too so the least I shall do is act on your advice and factor in qualifications & experience.

Thanks once again,
Flinstone

 

[Adam_151]

You could ask to their JIB card.... granted not every domestic spark bothers to keep it renewed and the system does have some failings

But its an easier way to judge whether someone is suffciently qualified than the fact that they are registered to self-cert. Note however that possesion of a JIB card does not allow one to self-cert for building regualtions approval, they will have to be registered with a scheme as well

 

[JohnW2]

As ever, personal recommendations are always the best way to find a reputable tradesman....

BAS, I wonder if might be a good idea for that (along with a number of your other 'boilerplates') to be made into a 'sticky', or even put into the wiki? You've pasted that block of text into replies many times over a period of at least two years, which seems to impy that it (and some of your other standard responses) may perhaps have earnt a permanent place in the forum?

Kind Regards, John.