Electric certificate

[butterfm]

Hi,

I wonder if you can help me. I had an extension built a couple of years ago and had an electrician come and do quite a lot of work. At the end of this he told us that we could view/download the certificate for his work online, however I can't locate a hard copy of this certificate and can't remember where to get it online.

I'm now having some spotlights fitted at home and the electrician who has done the quote has questioned where the earth bonding is for the gas meter. I'm pretty sure it's under the floor in the extension near the meter however he's not happy to do the work unless I can show/prove it. This will involve ripping skirting boards off and lifting the wooden floor which i'm reluctant to do unless I really have to.

Can anyone advise where this certificate may be viewable online? I can't get in contact with the electrician who did the work.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Matt

 

[Cremeegg]

Sounds dubious to me. To my knowledge there is no central repository for certificates issued by sparks. Mine are kept on my PC - I'll send out either hard copy or email out .pdf copies depending on what the client wants. I wouldn't see the point in storing all your clients certificates on line on your company website for the whole world to access - why not give it to them traditionally or electronically in the first place?.

Your only hope is to track down the original sparks - which it appears you can't!!!.

The new sparks is quite right not to do any work without making sure the bonding/earthing is adequate - the relevant British Standard says so. He could check for its continuity without lifting the floor but needs to check its size visually.

 

[butterfm]

Thanks for the quick reply. I feared you'd say that. I'll be doing my best to track down the electrician. Is there any requirement to register electric work with the council for things such as extensions (i.e. under building regs or similar). I beleive the certificate we were issued for the new boiler and gas work came from teh council.

Ta,
Matt

 

[comms]

The electrician that you have had out to price the downlights, should be able to confirm equipotential bonding is present by undertaking a continuity test.

 

[butterfm]

Thanks Comms

 

[securespark]

But he would need to check the csa...

And the orriginal spark should not have made off the MEB where it was inaccessible.

 

[GaryMo]

The electrician that you have had out to price the downlights, should be able to confirm equipotential bonding is present by undertaking a continuity test.

Parallel earth paths? Only way to check continuity of a MEB conductor is to disconnect one end then measure resistance between that and the other end with a wander lead.

Anyway, the clamp should be assessable for inspection.

 

[butterfm]

Thanks for all your responses. I've got in contact with th ebuilder who built the extension and he's going to speak to the electrician.

The builder seems to thing that the certificate coud be downloaded from the Niceic website although I can't find anything. Also he seems to think that the Council building regs department would have wanted to see the electriians certificate before passing building regs on the extension. Does that sound correct. If so would they have a copy ? As I said previously, the council supplied me with the certificate for the installation of the new boiler.

 

[Cremeegg]

Not a NICEIC member but I doubt that you'd be able to download anything other than a blank form from their website if my schemes website is anything to go by. NICEIC forms are issued with serial numbers but so far as I'm aware NICEIC don't want a copy - all they want is your money - but that's another story!!

LABC should have seen the certificates before signing it off but I've never known on to keep copies of certs - maybe some do - if they do I wonder if they can find them two/three years later.

As I originally stated and others have confirmed the sparks will need to check the size of the bonding to see that it complies - checking the continuity is the easy bit.

Good luck

 

[experience]

The gas bonding needs to be done within 600mm of entering the building - couldnt the spark simply run a new 10mm cable from the gas meter to the board if you dont want to rip the floor up to check?

 

[butterfm]

The gas bonding is under the floor in the extension near the meter. I think the spark would still need to lift the floor up and chisel out the walls to run an new cable and that's really what I'm trying to avoid (lifting the floor).

The builder has been in touch with me and although he's not managed to speak to the electrician yet he has supplied me with an NICEIC Reference number for the work. Is that any use in getting a copy of the certificate from anywhere or do copies not actually exist? i.e. would only the electrician hold a copy ?

 

[Qedelec]

The Electrician that carried out the work is the only one who would have a copy. The number given to you by the builder is likely to be the submission number for notification of LABC under Part P of the building regulations. I am not sure if that is much use to you. Did you not receive a certificate from the Local Area Bulding Control office for the work. By law the occupier of the premises MUST receive one even if they are not the owner.

 

[butterfm]

The Building control office received a copy of the electrics certificate and passed the extension. I have a certificate from Building control passing the extension, however, although they saw the electrics certificate and confirmed they were happy with it they didn't keep a copy (I called them earlier today to check).

I never got given a copy of the certificate by the electrician myself.
Is the certificate from the building control office passing the extension (and by association the electrics) not sufficient to prove to the spark that things have been done properly. ?

I'm doing my best to hunt down the electrician in the meantime but it's not looking very promising.

Regards,
Matt

 

[Qedelec]

Not really Matt, in my experience LABC would not have sufficient knowledge to say if the readings presented to them were whithin those laid down by BS7671.
Your spark would want to know that any work he does which relies on the safety of the existing installation is not compromised by shortcuts or oversights.

 

[butterfm]

OK - thanks for the reply QEDELEC and all others who responded. You've been very helpful.

Thanks,
Matt