Shed Electrics for the stupid

[Damo1176]

I have a standard twin core armoured cable that runs into my shed. At present I have a an old RCD that does no trip , a fuse box, a double power socket and a light. Now I need to strip right back to the armoured cable. What do I need to safely guide power from there to the light and double power socket. I need this real basic, what I need and a step by step, then an electrician wil lcome and check it and certify it.

I am thiking I need some sort of gland kit to put it into a steel mounting box,I need a metal clad RCD, and I need a some way of taking the power down from the doulce power socket to the light.

Can someone please piece by piece describe what I need and how to put this together as the electrician is quoting a heck of a lot for it...over £100 for the job and parts supply.

 

[Spark123]

Stick with the electrician, that price ain't bad considering overheads etc.

 

[breezer]

i agree with spark123, you want to become an "instant electricain" to save £100?

 

[andy]

part p certification will prob costnear £100 if you DIY. go with the electrician. he knows what he is doin

 

[Damo1176]

As he has done the rest of our house lighting circuits etc he's here to certify the work he has already done so that won't cost extra, basically he said if I or someone else did it he would check it and sign it off when he returns to finish a few other bits. I know the metal rcd will be £40 roughly and parts maybe another £50 so the real saving is only £50 but I am a tight wad northerner and feel occasionally that tradesmen get more than they should but if you all agree its a fair price then I wil stick weith him doing it and save myself the hassle.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

he said if I or someone else did it he would check it and sign it off

That's naughty of him.

I wil stick weith him doing it and save myself the hassle.

To say nothing of safety. An installation like that is not the sort of thing you should be attempting on an "electrics-by-numbers" basis, with no background understanding of what you're doing and why....

 

[andy]

the real saving is only £50 but I am a tight wad northerner

so, for £50 youd rather DIY and risk it being done wrong, and worst case is someone could die thru your money savin ideas.

 

[Damo1176]

the real saving is only £50 but I am a tight wad northerner

so, for £50 youd rather DIY and risk it being done wrong, and worst case is someone could die thru your money savin ideas.

I am a tight northern git, my poiint is he's coming back anyway sdI do it myself and he before actovate it checks it and says yeah or neh...so not killing anyone for £50....lets cut the drama. I have an aversion to trademen generally with part p and the likes they are in the main throwing loads more onto bills and for a job taking him in total 1/2 an hour if that I thought £50 labour was a bit much....christ I did IT for a big company where all the money is meant to be and I got £12.50 an hour.

 

[pdcelec]

1/2 hour sounds a bit of a short time to travel to your house, complete the job, fill in the certificates, travel home. And what about the overheads of fuel, use of £1000 worth of test equipment, discussing the job with you, phone bills, signing off a job for which he takes responsibility for the next ten years, etc.? £50 sounds reasonable to me for all that.

 

[Nijinski001]

Damo

I was in IT as well recently and if you were getting £12.50 an hour you were either being robbed, in the wrong company or 'in IT' meant replacing the fuses in the plugs.

Believe me £50 if this job is done properly is not being ripped off by a qualified tradesman. My van has just cost £500 to get through the MOT. Who pays for that?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Nijinski - you should take note of paulh53's signature....

 

[handyme]

take no notice of ban the shed head..................lol

 

[Hallsy]

part p certification will prob costnear £100 if you DIY. go with the electrician. he knows what he is doin

Would Part P be an issue though as he is only modifying or repairing an existing circuit?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

But he's not "only modifying or repairing an existing circuit", he's stripping it all out back to the point where the SWA enters the shed and starting again.

First of all Part P applies to the work, as it does to all "domestic" work. From Statutory Instrument 2004 No. 3210 The Building (Amendment) (No.3) Regulations 2004
[code:1](2) The requirements of Part P of Schedule 1 apply to -

(a) any greenhouse;

(b) any small detached building falling within class VI in Schedule 2; and

(c) any extension of a building falling within class VII in Schedule 2,

which in any case receives its electricity from a source shared with or located inside a dwelling.[/code:1].
And Class VI in Schedule 2 of the Building Act includes:
[code:1]1. A detached single storey building, having a floor area which does not exceed 30m2, which
contains no sleeping accommodation and is a building:
(a) No point of which is less than one metre from the boundary of its curtilage; or
(b) Which is constructed substantially of non-combustible material.[/code:1]
e.g. a garden shed.

The $64,000 question is whether the work is notifiable. I would say it is, not because it's a garden shed - I think it would be easy to claim that it is not "a garden lighting or electric power installation", and therefore not excluded from the list of exempt work in the SI, but because, if you look at Schedule 2B in the SI, you'll see that it's adding things to existing circuits that is exempt, or replacing a damaged cable for a single circuit, or "re-fixing or replacing enclosures of existing installation components, where the circuit protective measures are unaffected". So replacing the shed CU and all of the circuits out there is definitely notifiable.

 

[Hallsy]

Good point, I would still think that you could argue that you were replacing damaged cables or accessories on a circuit, who would be to know whether it was the same as what was there before.