Electrical Installation in Manchester
From new build wiring to commercial fit-outs, our qualified electricians deliver safe, certified electrical installations across Greater Manchester.
What counts as notifiable work
Under Part P of the Building Regulations in England, some domestic electrical work has to be notified to building control before it is carried out. The notifiable categories are a new circuit, a replacement consumer unit, and any addition or alteration to a circuit in a special location - which means a room containing a bath or shower.
Plenty of work is not notifiable: adding a socket to an existing circuit outside a special location, replacing a light fitting, or repairing a damaged accessory. Non-notifiable does not mean unregulated, though. All of it still has to comply with BS 7671, and any work we carry out is tested and certificated whether it needed notifying or not.
The consumer unit usually decides the shape of the job
Before anything else, the board tells you what is realistic. The questions are whether there is a spare way for a new circuit, whether the existing circuits have RCD protection, whether the board is a modern metal-clad unit or an older plastic one, and whether there is room for surge protection. A board with no spare ways and no RCD protection turns a simple addition into a consumer unit replacement, which is notifiable work in its own right.
The other thing worth checking early is main protective bonding to the incoming gas and water services. It is frequently missing or undersized in older properties, and it is a straightforward thing to put right while the board is being worked on rather than as a separate visit later.
Special locations: bathrooms, kitchens and outdoors
Bathrooms are classed as special locations because water and earthed metalwork make an electric shock far more likely to be fatal. The regulations divide the room into zones based on distance from the bath or shower, and each zone sets a minimum IP rating for anything installed in it. Supplementary bonding may also be required depending on the earthing arrangement and the RCD protection present.
Outdoors the constraint is different: the enemy is water ingress and mechanical damage rather than proximity to a bath. Anything outside needs a suitably rated enclosure, RCD protection, and cable that is either armoured or run in conduit where it can be damaged. Buried cable in particular is worth doing properly the first time, because putting it right means lifting the ground again.
What drives the cost of a first fix
The single biggest factor is access. Running cable in a property that is stripped back, or where floors lift and there is a loft above, is a fraction of the work of the same circuit in a finished house with solid floors and plastered walls. Chasing into masonry and making good afterwards frequently costs more than the electrical work itself.
The other real variables are the distance from the board to where the power is needed, whether the existing board can take the circuit, and whether the property is old enough that what is found behind the plaster changes the plan. We would always rather look first and quote on what is actually there than give a number over the phone and revise it on day two.
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