DIY Electrical work

BIGbungle

BIGbungle

BIGbungle

Associate
Joined
10 Mar 2003
Posts
523
Location
Newcastle
Just thought id post this for people that don't know

"The Government introduced a new law in January, which demands that most electrical work in UK households is only carried out by a ‘competent' person."

Basicaly don't do any DIY electrical work get an electrician to do it. I am an electrician and posting this because ive just had sort out a DIY job someone botched up and could have set their home on fire.

For more info on this site http://www.niceic.org.uk/consumers/index.html

;)
 
another way of taxing us.. Most electrical work isn't hard or dangrouse. :mad:

Several posts have been made before. Just another thing to add to the list of nanny state rules.

They where also considering stoping people restoring and working on cars :mad:

I should be able to do what I want. Just take mickeys thread. He's praticuly built his house and sub systems.
 
BIGbungle said:
It can be dangourouse if you dont know what you are doing. Apprentice electricians don't go to college for four years for nothing.
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Can be, but most things can be done quite safley. There are enough books and other resources to get it right every time.

Its like putting a complete new break system on a car. If you don't know what you'r doing it can kill. However theres enough manuals and other infomation around taht anyone can do it and get it right first time.
 
Most things are dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing but I would expect most people to have an understanding of if they are capable of doing something and if they need to do some more reading. Of course you will get the odd idiot that doesn’t know what they are doing or are just thick but they are common with most things in life. :o

It’s the cowboys that are more of a problem than just DIY people as the cowboys only have an interest in the pay packet. :(
 
BIGbungle said:
Basicaly don't do any DIY electrical work get an electrician to do it.
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Bit of scaremongering there don't you think? That isn't at all what the new legislation says. Sounds like you're trying to coin it on the back of new legislations ;)
 
I see what your saying AcidHell2 but not everyone is that sensible and also wouldn't you want to be safe in the knowledge that when you buy a property it hasn't been wired by a moron? Say the shower for instanse would you really want to use if it wasn't wired safely.

Sure you may say that you would go round and check all the wiring but what if you didn't know anything about wiring?

I've known somebody lay a mains cable to a summer house through a conifir hedge. Later on he sold the property and the new residents didn't know about this. What happens if one day they decide to chop down the hedge? they could have a nasty surprise.

P.S After they moved in I told them about mains cable myself. Wouldn't want an accident to happen that I could have prevented.
 
nope, but the idiots are few and far between. yet again the governments regulating something where there isn't a problem to start with. I would like to see statistics of houses burning down due to electricity and what percentage of those are with in the house circuitry and how much is dodgy appliances/overloaded sockets.

I'm getting sick and tired of are society trying to remove all danger and accidental deaths. There's accidents, there's death. At some point if we carry on, you won't be able to do anything yourself and it's going to be a great shame.

Usel said:
wouldn't you want to be safe in the knowledge that when you buy a property it hasn't been wired by a moron?
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Bot really no.

Do you check a vehicle when you buy it in case it's been tampered with? A vehicle is much more dangerous than a house.
 
Changing a single socket for a double etc is what I would trust "most" DIYers to do; anything much more major and I'd want to see the qualified sparks involved.

Some people are competent and some people just think that they are; a bit like driving really ....... :D
 
BIGbungle said:
Just thought id post this for people that don't know

"The Government introduced a new law in January, which demands that most electrical work in UK households is only carried out by a ‘competent' person."

Basicaly don't do any DIY electrical work get an electrician to do it. I am an electrician and posting this because ive just had sort out a DIY job someone botched up and could have set their home on fire.

For more info on this site http://www.niceic.org.uk/consumers/index.html

;)
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or just do it yourself and get the council to inspect. :)
 
Having been in the electrical contracting and electricity distribution game for 11 years I too think this new law is a farce. I really cannot see the problem with suitably informed members of the public doing electrical work in their own home.

They would have been better off introducing more stringent inspection and testing laws of installations (like MOT’s for cars). A compulsory inspection and test say every 3 years or so, after any alteration of the installation and before the sale of a property would be better. The testing work should be done by independent and state licensed electrical testing firms and not contractors and for a set price. Hopefully this would stop the condemnation of installations solely on the basis of gaining work.
 
Seems a bit uncalled for to me. The UK electrical system is very good and safe as it is.

I think most people who attempt wiring here will be confident in what they're doing. I never very much like the idea of electric showers myself, but changing sockets, adding sockets, lights etc isn't dangerous for most people to do.

I see part of the new law is about fire prevention, and this is potentially more relevant. People may be unaware of the current capacity of cables needed and not realise that they can overheat.
 
I could spend ages outlining my views on this subject, but suffice to say its summed up very nicely here in the comment posted by 'mapj1' http://www.boris-johnson.com/archives/2004/12/windowsdoorsbuildings_regulati_1.php

The skills to do electrics arn't beyond the reach of a DIY person, but most would do well to realise that there is probably much more to it than you realise.

And BTW it wasn't Jan 06 that part P was added to the building regs, it was Jan 05 (although it was admended in Apr 06), and electrical work always needed to be done my a 'competant person' if you wanted to comply BS7671 (which isn't the only way of complying with part p, however in most cases its the only reasonably practicle one), as said you DO NOT need to be a memeber of a competant person scheme, you can notify the LABC directly without involving any of the schemes)

Adam (Competant Electrical DIYer, trainee electrician, and has read the relevant SI in full ;) )
 
Arsey said:
So does this mean we can't change a fuse or lightbulb anymore?
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No, you may still do those tasks yourself without telling anyone, you can even rewire your house yourself, but you would have to tell buildings control at the council beforehand, and pay the fee! (like you would if you changed a window or installed a new toilet)
 
gc123, for an electricion you also make a good fibber.

Think about it, if I couldn't change a double gang and had to wait for a leccy it would never get done. There wouldn't be enough leccys out there to do everything.

What it is actually about is:

Changes To Building Regulations:

Changes only apply to England and Wales.

You don't need to be a qualified electricion to make changes to your home's electrical system, but the work must be done in accordance with the standards in the Regulations, which is just common sense anyways. Ie normal joe who knows what he is doing can do what he wants.

Although, any of the following:

adding new circuits to your existing installation
any work where the room has water (lolololololol?)
outdoor work (again, lolololololol?)

you must notify your local Building control dept. They will test and inspect.


What gc123 should be saying is, if you get a qualified electrician to do the work they can self certificate the job.

I'm glad I live in Scotland so don't have to put up with this rubbish. I do take offence to the fact that normal people apparently are not trusted to do simple wiring jobs. I've re-run and channeled cables along my wall, demolished a wall and had to carefully get the cable runs in there out and re positioned.. installed a powershower, hooked it up to a free breaker on the board, run them under the crawl space and its worked fine for 3 and a half years.... installed my cooker blah blah its childsplay. Many moons ago when I was a student I activily stole my electricity supply :o

its not rocket science, its simple wiring. But if they say we can't do it, then heck we must be dumb.... :p
 
wolvotim said:
nice :rolleyes:
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well I am being honest. I was young, my pre-payment meter ran out and was not going to get money for nearly two weeks, and the food I had to last me was going to go off. Don't have any family in this country to ask for a len, and I sure as hell wasn't not going to wash or sit in darkness all that time, with no heating in the winter. Circumstances my friend

I'm not recommending it to anyone, but when there is a need.. I have no quams about it that year I had probably spent 500-600 quid with them as that flat had storage heaters. So a couple of weeks free was fine by me.

and yeah, **** *** with your :rolleyes:
 
AcidHell2 said:
Bot really no.

Do you check a vehicle when you buy it in case it's been tampered with? A vehicle is much more dangerous than a house.
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I usually get an MOT done when buying a fresh car irrispective of it's next due MOT.

I do agree with you though on the whole but there has recently (last 10 years) been a boom in DIY and I guess the government are just trying to make it safe.

I've met a lot of different people and some shouldn't even use a hammer let alone a screw driver.
 
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