Periodic Inspection Report

[Grovis]

Hi. Does anyone know the going rate for a periodic inspection report? I have seen prices for around £220.

I have a 3 bedroom house (1969/70 build) with an old Wylex fuse box (plastic box with 6 black dominoe like fuses installed). When we had the basic survey done before purchasing the house, it was flagged that we should look at replacing it with a modern rcb consumer unit.

Indeed a part qualified electrician advised similar when I was having some building work done.

The reason I am interested in the PIR is that my neighbour recently sold his house (same build year) and the new occupiers were advised to re-wire on the basis of "green gunge". Ideally I would like to just replace the fuse box with a new CU but figure it would be prudent to get a PIR done before getting quotes from electricians. I am hoping a PIR would give me a detailed assessment of the state of the electrics in my home, therefore giving me a good idea when he came to quotes for the new CU.

If anyone has any experience or comments please let me know. Thanks

 

[rjm2k]

I was quoted £150 + VAT for an EICR or whatever the PIR is now called for a 4 bed with detached Garage electrics, near Leeds taking half a day (4-5 hrs).

The guy mentioned that some places do them for £50 in an hour but they aren't worth the paper they are written on.

Make sure they are qualified and listed on competentperson for the job.

 

[Taylortwocities]

£220 about right for property that size. As pointed out, avoid cheap/
re

Make sure they are qualified and listed on competentperson for the job.

www.competentperson.co.uk provides a list of electricians who have gotten themselves onto one of the "Part P registration" organisations.
Experience can range from passing a 5-day wonder course through to 30-year time served electrcicians.
You need a sparky with a Test and Inspection qualification
City and Guilds 2391 is what to look/ask for.
NAPIT - the national association of professional inspectors and testers - do (or used) to require this as a condition of Full SCope membership so maybe http://www.napit.org.uk/ is as good a place as any.

re

The reason I am interested in the PIR is that my neighbour recently sold his house (same build year) and the new occupiers were advised to re-wire on the basis of "green gunge".

At about the time that your house was built, some of the PVC cables suffered from the green gunge problem and it does not go away.
It does not appear to affect the installation itself but it can be a real pain as the green slime can really mess up your walls etc.

I did a rewire on a flat recently who had green goo

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• Taylortwocities
• 2 Apr 2010
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• Taylortwocities
• 2 Apr 2010
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• Taylortwocities
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There are a number of threads on this topic.
here's your starter //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=577198

 

[rjm2k]

It amazes me the number of "Professional Bodies" out there, how is the consumer supposed to be able to wade through all the different qualifications/affiliations etc and acually find someone who at the end of the day can really do the job? The place I found is an NICEIC installer, produces a computerised NICEI EICR and is listed on competentperson and has "Trust Mark"but not on NAPIT so does that mean that they aren't really qualified to do the work? They also told me that C Curve MCBs are ok on a domestic install as long as the Earth Loop impedence is correct, though on here I've been told they are not ok.

:-S

 

[STI]

I agree re the 2391 qualification as a good start point. i also agree that the competant scheme lists are not necessarily a good place to go. An example from yesterday.

I went to a property to carry out PAT certification. The property had had an EICR carried out last month by a registered electrician. No work had been done on the property since that time.
My PAT tester carries out a diagnostic check of the supply before allowing me to do any tests. I plugged this into the outlet socket which was in a kitchen unit supplying the dishwasher. Guess what, the polarity was incorrect.

Now this raises several questions in my mind, the obvious why wasnt this picked up in the continuity checks, but how did the electrician carry out the IR tests. Did he/she disconnect all the appliances as he should do, did he or she just switch off at the switched spur and test to there, how did he do his outlet count, what other short cuts did they take.

Will their scheme pick it up, i doubt it. Will the spark take them to this site for their annual assesment i doubt it

There is no easy answer to getting a good workman even recomendation isnt fool proof. People who do the recomending dont know if the jobs been done correctly or not.

One final point, although i know it is said to try and be helpfull but unless the rules have changed you dont need to be on the competent list to carry out a EICR, In fact i dont think you even need the 2391. Some insurance companies insist it is carried out by a registered electrician but thats the insurance company covering its rrrrs They dont ask for the 2391 and as previously stated you can register without a 2391 for a period of time.

 

[Grovis]

Many thanks for the comments, they have proved useful and I have shortlisted a couple of firms to speak to now.

@Taylortwocities. Thanks for the pics and link around the green gunge. I have wired & replaced a few light switches and plug sockets and have yet to see any signs of it on the cable in the house so fingers crossed !

 

[SimonH2]

My PAT tester carries out a diagnostic check of the supply before allowing me to do any tests. I plugged this into the outlet socket which was in a kitchen unit supplying the dishwasher. Guess what, the polarity was incorrect.

Now this raises several questions in my mind, the obvious why wasnt this picked up in the continuity checks, but how did the electrician carry out the IR tests. Did he/she disconnect all the appliances as he should do, did he or she just switch off at the switched spur and test to there, how did he do his outlet count, what other short cuts did they take.

Why "must" it have been picked up if the EICR was done by someone more competent ? If it's just a case of that single socket having L-N reversed then it would only be detected if that socket happened to be one of the ones selected in the subset to be tested.

So sparky unplugs stuff, checks behind a few sockets (but not this one), does loop resistance tests (all OK), does paperwork. Unless you insist on testing 100% of the sockets then things like this can be missed.

 

[securespark]

Agreed.

If all you want to do is find out if you have green goo, then switch off your main switch and go round looking behind all switches, sockets and rose covers.

If you find it, rewire, if you don't you should be OK for a few more years, assuming you have no other problems.