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I would really appreciate some advice here please. 12 months ago we did a first fix of a complete rewire on a large terraced house complete with cellar and attic conversion. The customer was completely renovating the property ready to move his family into. There was a lot of work in not very...

Went to price up some bathroom work where the room had been gutted. Going up the centre of the wall (previously tiled) was some capping with a rawlplug right through the middle, behind the capping was 1 x 2.5 and 2 x 1.5 so it must have been a tight fit getting them all in there in the first...

A customer had an office built in his garden and converted his old indoor office into a bedroom. I did the electrics for the new office and whilst there he asked if I did phones as he wanted a phone line for his fax and, telephone. I am not an expert but have done extensions at home and knew...

Being relatively new to the trade I kept my prices low to try and build up a customer base, this seemed to work as I most work I get seems to be through recommendations. However, the last 2 quotes I gave have not been followed up despite me still thinking it was a reasonable price. The last one...

I installed a new kitchen ring about 3 weeks ago ready for a new kitchen to be installed, the customer wanted a grid switch arrangement to isolate the dishwasher, washing machine and fridge. They called me last week to say that the main switch RCD suddenly started tripping on a regular basis...

I was asked to have a look at the electrics in a house which a customer has just had an offer accepted on. The house is 38 years old. When I got there the customer showed me the survey results. There wasn't much on the electrics but it did say: - The consumer unit needed replacing. - The...

If you are installing new cables across joists and the old cables are situated in notches, should you utilise these notches (with added protection) or should you drill new holes? I ask the question because I was asked this question for my 16th edition exam and I said the latter (based on the...

I have been asked to put in some outside lights for my neighbour. They are to go in the borders (2 on each side and 2 at the back). The side ones are the spotlights on spikes and the 2 at the back will be floodlights pointing upwards at the bushes. There is easy access to power from the side of...

Hello everyone, My elderly parents have just had central heating fitted in their 3 bed semi. The installer put the thermostat in the lounge. Also in the lounge is a large radiator with no thermostat (all the other radiators have themrostats). The problem is that the lounge (and kitchen)...

I was asked to give a quote for remedial work on a PIR in a terraced house. One of the observations was "No Home Office Skirt in bathroom". I have to be honest and admit I had never heard of 'Home Office Skirt' but a quick google search soon cleared that up. In the bathroom is a standard...

I was asked to give some advice today by a neighbour who wanted to install an Extractor fan in a new ensuite bathroom (which used to be a small office). The room is going to have a bath but no shower, a toilet and a sink. There is no void over the ceiling as it is an extension built into...

My grandad wants me to put power into his summerhouse. It is 25m from the garage where the (RCD Protected with spare way) consumer unit is situated. He just wants a couple of double sockets in the summer house for a computer (and periphials) and a table lamp. Apart from a small section under a...

Being relatively new, the biggest problem I have is lack of experience when it comes to deciding the easiest/quickest/cheapest/best way of doing an installation. I have been asked to install a new power circuit in a new kitchen extension. In the diagram below you can see the left wall, the...

I was asked by my elderly neighbour to investigate a clunking/wirring noise coming from her understairs cupboard. On investigation I noticed the noise was coming from this : This controls 6 panel heaters - 3 upstairs (RH Timer) 3 Downstairs (LH timer). All the heaters have their own...

Being fairly new to the profession and struggling finding work I teamed up with a friendly local Electrician to 'help' change a consumer unit. It was a straightforward change (2 Lights, 1 Ring, 1 Cooker) and all the test results were fine. However when doing the functional test at the end when...

I want to add two sockets to a ring main. Because of accessibility problems I intend to cut into a leg of the existing ring, join a length of 2.5 to each cut end and take both legs to a new socket, then spur off that socket to the other socket. My question is, As the joins will be under the...

I was working with an electrician with 30 years experience today. We came across a cooker switch which was fed from the cu with 6mm t&e. From the switch there was a 2.5 t&e to the 5kw electric oven and a 6mm t&e to the 6kw electric hob. By my calculation there would be a total of 48 amps but...

I have a 3 gang switch on a partition wall in my kitchen which I want to knock down. I want to move the switch a couple of metres to a different wall. The 3 switches are: back outside light, front outside light, utility room light. The front outside light is a two way switch with a switch at...

How do you actually test supplementary bonding. Do you just connect your LRO from pipe to pipe and if its a low reading they must be bonded. Do you not have to test back to the MET to prove the pipe bonding is connected to some electrical apparatus in the zone? Or is it just a visual check?

I was told by an experienced electrician that : a) You need to bond a radiator in the bathroom even though the radiator pipes are bonded (and all the connections are metal). b) Supplementary bonding of pipes can/should go straight to the MET, I thought this was a no no.