New Kitchen install

[eagle8]

Hi there,

I'm having a new kitchen done by a friend of mine, which is basically swapping like for like and am having very little done on the electrical side of things, infact just a couple of extra sockets and some under unit lighting.

Now when i called in an electrician to give me a price he said that as the main bonding wasn't done he would have to do this to both the water and gas pipes. So first question is does he really have to do this as all he is doing is installing a few extra sockets and some under unit lighting or is he trying o make extra work for himself?

Then he also said that i had something called an elcb and this would need upgrading to an rcd as they no longer met regulations. Again is he right in what he's saying.

Any help would be much appreciated, also please note the onlt reason i know the technical names of things is because i s was writng down what he said.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm having a new kitchen done by a friend of mine, which is basically swapping like for like and am having very little done on the electrical side of things, infact just a couple of extra sockets and some under unit lighting.

1) If you're in England or Wales, this work is notifiable.

2) The fact that your friend didn't spot all the other things that need resolving calls into question his competence.

Now when i called in an electrician to give me a price he said that as the main bonding wasn't done he would have to do this to both the water and gas pipes. So first question is does he really have to do this as all he is doing is installing a few extra sockets and some under unit lighting

Yes.

or is he trying o make extra work for himself?

No.

Then he also said that i had something called an elcb and this would need upgrading to an rcd as they no longer met regulations. Again is he right in what he's saying.

If it's an old voltage-operated one then yes, he's right. Post a photo, or describe it (including button colours) if you want confirmation that it is, but basically there's no indication that the electrician is taking you for a ride, and every indication that your friend is probably not the best person to have do this work for you.

 

[eagle8]

Sorry misunderstanding my friend is installing the new kitchen work tops and cupboards and i have called in an electrician to do the electrical work.

Thank you for your reply perhaps i should learn to trust the electrician more, when you say:

2) The fact that your friend didn't spot all the other things that need resolving calls into question his competence.

do you mean the things i went onto mention later in my first post or our there things that my electrician has not picked up on.

Again any help would be appreciated.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Sorry - I thought your friend was possibly going to do the electrical work too, and my comments were all about that. It doesn't sound as if the electrician has missed anything.

 

[eagle8]

Sorry - I thought your friend was possibly going to do the electrical work too, and my comments were all about that. It doesn't sound as if the electrician has missed anything.

Its ok i should've explained better thank you for your help.

Just one last question regarding the bonding. Am i right in assuming then that for any electrical work to be carried out in a house, no matter how small it is then the main bonding must be up to current regulations?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Yes, if you want the new work done to comply with the Wiring Regulations. It's one of the few (the only??) instances of the current regulations being retroactive.

The same requirement was in the previous version of the Wiring Regulations, so the principle has been around for nearly 20 years. Possibly longer - some of the historians here can tell us when it first appeared, but I can see the sense of it - it probably arrived at the same time lighting circuits without cpcs, and the use of the water pipe as an earth, were dropped, and it would have been done to ensure that such systems were weeded out as time went by.

 

[ricicle]

The same requirement was in the previous version of the Wiring Regulations, so the principle has been around for nearly 20 years. Possibly longer - some of the historians here can tell us when it first appeared, but I can see the sense of it - it probably arrived at the same time lighting circuits without cpcs, and the use of the water pipe as an earth, were dropped, and it would have been done to ensure that such systems were weeded out as time went by.

Circa. 1966

 

[ban-all-sheds]

14th.