power to a summer house

[cliffG]

Hi everyone my first post here, hope you can help.
I have had a quote for adding power to my summer house, I thought this a little expensive at £611. I was not impressed at the electrician he wanted to take the power up the the first floor and then under the floorboards and out and down to the garden etc...

Sounded very long winded to me, I am considering doing the job myself but would like some advice before I decide. Although I am not an electrician I wondered how I stand with building control. Am I allowed to do this, I am happy paying an electrician to do the final wire up and check if needed. Would an electrician tell me where to go if I asked or is this a normal request.

What was in the quote was :
1/. Supply & fit 1x 32amp RCBO to existing Fuseboard.
2/. Supply & fit 4mm three core SWA cable from House to Summerhouse to supply Pond spur, Dual socket & light point with pendant.
3/. NICEIC Certification & Building Control Notification.
This work is expected to take 1 ½ Days.

I thought about using conduit as I just think it will be straighter and a neater finish rather than clipping cable to the fence. If I do use conduit do I still need to use SWA cable. The only thing the quote does not say is the garden is 120 ft long as I know the current drop needs to be taken into account. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cliff

 

[electronicsuk]

I'd say, if anything, the quote you got is erring on the low side. If you were to get further quotes, which in any case would be a wise idea, you may find that they are higher than the one you already have. That said, you shouldn't choose an electrician based solely on price - if you do not feel confident about his abilities, you should find someone else.

Re running the cable under the upstairs floor, why do you think this is a bad idea? If the CU that'll be feeding this new submain is at the other side of the house, would you really rather have SWA clipped right the way round the outside instead of neatly installed inside the house and out of sight?

If you must do the work yourself then you would need to notify building control before you start, and pay them a fee of around £200 (which is already 1/3 of your existing quote), and they would then perform a visual inspection at first fix and full installation test after second fix. Whether or not your LABC work this way is another matter, as they each seem to have their own ideas about how the procedure should work.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

If you don't have any knowledge of electrical installation and design, inspection and testing. I would leave it to the man who does.
Not putting you off DIYing it because you can.
As the work will be deemed part p compliable, it will need to be notified prior to the work starting and an application fee will be charged by building controls, in some areas this could £200 plus.
Not a lot of electricians like to sign other peoples work off and it should not really be done, unless the electrician signing it off has overseen the installation.

 

[cliffG]

thanks for the reply, fair point I will leave it to the pros, but maybe not the one who came around.

Thanks Again

 

[big-all]

offer to do the donkey work [digging drilling floor boards ect] and save some money

 

[mfarrow]

What was in the quote was :
1/. Supply & fit 1x 32amp RCBO to existing Fuseboard.

Why put the RCD protection remote to where the power will be utilised? Anyway, I would strongly commend the comment that you do some donkey work beforehand.

How far away is the summer house? How good are you at digging trenches?

 

[Chri5]

the garden is 120 ft long as I know the current drop needs to be taken into account. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cliff