Discuss Various bits of work needed... Various questions! in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

Was offered a place a Guys Hospital dental school to be a dentist. Messed my A levels up as I spent too much time studying beer, girls and playing squash. In some ways I’m glad I haven’t spent 30 years looking in people’s mouths or though I suppose £70 for 10mins descaling May change ones view.
Must be better than crawling through a loft with a fat gut and 1980's itchy insulation, you could have retired by now with perfect teeth to the Algarve.....
 
Was offered a place a Guys Hospital dental school to be a dentist. Messed my A levels up as I spent too much time studying beer, girls and playing squash. In some ways I’m glad I haven’t spent 30 years looking in people’s mouths or though I suppose £70 for 10mins descaling May change ones view.

Do you mind me asking if you are really a fat Alan?
 
Do the chasing in yourself it isn't hard but it is time consuming and will run up.yout bill just get the spark to mark the wall where he wants it cut, And leave the rest to him. Cheapest quote is very rarely best and don't compromise your safety to save a few quid!
 
Do the chasing in yourself it isn't hard but it is time consuming and will run up.yout bill just get the spark to mark the wall where he wants it cut, And leave the rest to him. Cheapest quote is very rarely best and don't compromise your safety to save a few quid!

What an excellent suggestion, and maybe the op might even pay the lucky spark who gets this job in magic beans.
 
Very good Devonchris :)

Forgetting my OP for a moment, I am interested to know as electricians at what point you begin to think DIYers should down their tools and butt out? Like I asked a few posts ago, do you think DIYers should go no further than changing a light bulb? I'm not challenging that idea, I'm just curious.
 
Will you be paying your electrician on a quotation basis or will he be on day rates? (day rates best for him in this instance)
I think the best option would be to do the whole job with him, working as his labourer/mate...
This way everything will be overseen by a qualified spark and you will also gain lots of knowledge along the way
 
Will you be paying your electrician on a quotation basis or will he be on day rates? (day rates best for him in this instance)
I think the best option would be to do the whole job with him, working as his labourer/mate...
This way everything will be overseen by a qualified spark and you will also gain lots of knowledge along the way

Charlie, firstly many congratulations on being the top poster of the month.

I personally wouldn't ever agree to a job where the customer wants to be my labourer.
 
Charlie, firstly many congratulations on being the top poster of the month.

I personally wouldn't ever agree to a job where the customer wants to be my labourer.
I know what you’re saying Pete. You’d certainly not want to make it common practice. It raises the whole issue over mates and apprentices and how much time supervision detracts from you doing the job and the relative costs involved. In the long run if a DIY’er wants to assist it could cost them just as much if not more as you’d have to slow down in order to check the standard of work.
 
I can appreciate that, but where would you draw the line? Sounds like somewhere between changing a light bulb and changing a wall socket?

what point you begin to think DIYers should down their tools and butt out
Ok I'll bite. So the thing is we work within a statutory and regulation type framework. It is clear that only a person who is skilled and trained should be doing electrics from that framework. That excludes you doing electrical work. When I take on a job the responsibility for the safety of the building and persons around that installation becomes my sole responsibility. Hence I would not have you doing work on my installation. It is very much a matter of the constraints of the law and regulations this mindset comes from. Personally I take that responsibility seriously and as much as I can sympathise with your "...its only a couple of wires how difficult can it be?..." approach it is not quite so simple. As stated you are jeopardising yourself, future sale of your house and compromising your insurance. Leave it to the professionals is my advice when it comes to potentially onerous consequences. That way you deal with a set of problems that apparently the average diyer is oblivious to.
 
I have had my customers get involved many times..
If they want to do all the chasing out, drilling holes, sweeping up, pulling cables then brilliant, bring it on.
Better than a snotty nosed little kid that just wants to mess about with his phone.
Customer also gets to see how amazing we are and best of all endless supplies of food and drink
 
I have had my customers get involved many times..
If they want to do all the chasing out, drilling holes, sweeping up, pulling cables then brilliant, bring it on.
Better than a snotty nosed little kid that just wants to mess about with his phone.
Customer also gets to see how amazing we are and best of all endless supplies of food and drink

I feel bad disagreeing with the poster of the month, but I'm happy for the customer to insist on clearing up after me, but that's as far as it goes.

I had a guy last year called me and offered to work with me for free to gain some experience, apart from the fact he wouldn't learn much from me, as FatAlan mentioned, it just slows everything down, and it can take longer to do plus I don't want all the small talk (call me miserable).

Each to their own, but if a customer said they would be my labourer to save on the cost I wouldn't even quote for the job.
 
The guy who was on here the other day needing to sink an SWA from house to shed would have loved it if the customer had dug the trench through the chalk rock under the grass for him!
 
It is a difficult one & there is no one size fits all answer. I am more than happy to get the customer to help by doing chases, lifting floor boards etc. If fact even running cables & mounting back boxes, as long as everything is to regs & what I have asked, also I can see everything before anything is closed or buried.

I have cone across many situations when householders have had work done by trusted electricians & never received certificates or BC notification. They were none the wiser until they come to sell their house & as lay people why should they be, therefore 2 or 3 quotes off recommended electricians is always a good idea.
 
legally you can do everything if you notify it to the local building control (however they would want it all checked by someone with the qualifications so you're no better off cost wise)
if you don't want to notify, you can still do a lot - everything except new circuits, and alterations in bath/shower rooms (replacement is allowed) However even then, all work must effectively comply with the regs in order to be within the law. That would at a minimum include the correct testing on top of the actual installation work, even if no documentation needed.
Hope that's useful and objective enough...from one DIY to another.
 

Reply to Various bits of work needed... Various questions! in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

Electrical Forum

Welcome to the Electrical Forum at ElectriciansForums.net. The friendliest electrical forum online. General electrical questions and answers can be found in the electrical forum.
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock