UKC

I've just sacked an electrician who was doing a ground floor rewire. He's been 28 hours on site in 19 days since the start date. Not happy with the standard of his work. I had to crawl in the void beneath the floorboards to thread wires through for him and I cut the five holes in the floor for him.
What I would like to know is , can I get someone else to finish and sign off the work? I phoned ELECSA who this guy is listed with, they said I must give him time to put things right and he must sign off the work himself! We don't want him back in the house...he reduced my wife to tears with the mess he has left and the stand up barney we had this evening.First time in 40 years of home ownership I have had to do this. Any good news for me? Thanks for reading my rant.

In reply to john spence: . Any good news for me?

yes. now he has gone you can put the floor back
and
you can put it down to experience, next time find a electrician with more than a part P

I note you have stated you installed some of the cabling that had limited aces . this leaves me to wonder how Mr part P was going to know it was installed to bs 7671 as he has little idea of its routing.

In reply to Name Changed 34:

He was with me when I pushed and pulled the cables through following his instructions....he was a bit too chunky for some of the crawls.

In reply to john spence:

If all the cabling etc done so far is accessible for inspection (eg no cables plastered into walls), you may well find someone to take it on. It will require full testing on completion, regardless of who did installation.

In reply to Lusk:

Some wiring is plastered over, under cupboard lights and extractor fan. May have to have it done again...resigned to the fact that I may end up paying more, just dont want to pay the donkey any more money. Thanks for reply.

In reply to john spence:
Depends on how much work he's actually done. Sometimes its just easier and simpler to start afreash TBH. Trying to trace wires,not knowing where they go to or from can be time consuming. If its part of a ring main, you may never know if he's wired it correctly or not if he's "spured" off somewhere.

I'd try another sparky and see, you can always just get someone to part P test it separately when its finished.

In reply to arch:

Got one coming Sat'. Hope he has good news. Thanks for reply.

In reply to john spence:

Hope everything turnsout OK. I've been in a similar situation once or twice whilst first fixing houses on a sink estate. We'd finish the fix on a Friday, and come back to an half fix on the Monday. We,d just rip the rest of it out and start all over again. Just easier. Hopefully, you won't have to do that.

In reply to Lusk:

Nice delete..........

In reply to arch:

Part P, what a load of bollocks that is!

In reply to Lusk:

Correct!!




.......I may be wrong here, but I don't think the Electrician has to be part P registered. But the "notifiable" part/s of an installation does have to be part P tested.

In reply to john spence:

Hi John

Sorry you've had a poor time regarding your refit.

Personally, I would not pay any money to this person. I would make it very clear to them in writing what your issues are, and give them time to fix it. If this fails to talk to citizen advice re a settlement.

do not accept rubbish service.

davey

In reply to john spence:

Where in the world are are located?

In reply to Mountain Llama:

Have paid £500 deposit, he has supplied new consumer unit and breakers, lots of cable and 10 double sockets etc.
Prepared to write that off, he has earned very little if anything, said he will bill me for the work to date...good luck with that i say. Don't want the guy back. I asked him if he could finish the job by next Mon evening by working over the weekend, that's when the argument started.

In reply to pete cain:

Essex, I know serves me right!

In reply to john spence:

In a similar situation, have sacked builder and his subbie electrician as both were useless. Think I can have a stab at what's left with the building, with help, but the electrics are harder.

Have a spark coming round tomorrow night to either finish the job, or more likely, start afresh. Hate paying twice for the same job, but better than letting that xxxxxxxxxx back in the house.

Anyone know a not very good builder based in Leigh? I do.

In reply to john spence:

I'm a sparks and live in stortford. Give me a shout if you need to.
He'll probably bill you for more the 500 quid. Materials are easy to price for, just use screw fix then no argument. Labour you'll have to discuss. Though if he's been thrown off the job he may try, but probably will not expect to be paid.
He hasn't provided the professional service he quoted and agreed to.

To play it safe if you do hear from him again.
Get everything in writing and signed if you can, including any settlement agreement. Telling him your reporting him to elecsa, trading standards, write report on trust a trader etc will probably have him running off anyway.

Regards, Kevin.

In reply to Kevster:

Thanks Kevin, some good advice . Just priced up all materials comes to £220. so he has earned a bit which I have no problem with. Thanks to all who replied. John.

There's a lot of builders out there who reckon they've got enough knowledge to wire installations safely. I remember sitting my 17th edition and listening to these 'electricians' having a minor meltdown during the exam because they didn't get it. It worried me that they were essentially struggling on an open book exam on how to look up regulations, nothing overly technical.

Just get the installation tested, by rights there should have been a 'design phase' by a senior electrician before work started. See if you can get hold of that. If tested correctly any problems in the circuits he's installed will be identified without much hassle. Shouldn't be any if its all new! Make sure the new electrician has his 2391 qualification!

In reply to john spence:

Had an electrician in at 8.00am this morning, after much head shaking and tutting he has agreed to come and do a full check and start tidying up the mess, beginning with a new earth rod and breaker. Seems to think it is electrically safe but a shambolic mess. Feeling a sense of relief now. Thanks for all the advice.

In reply to john spence:

I take it you can no longer do all the donkey work, of the wiring and sockets yourself ( to the latest code) ,and just get a Qualified Spark in to wire up to consumer unit , attach the tails , test the sockets etc and sign it off?

Thats what I did, but that was 30 years ago !

In reply to Jim C:

I wish it was that simple.
I suggested to an electrician that if I were to run some wires under the floor to where I want sockets in the future while I had the floors all up for a different job, could he wire up some plugs and then test/sign everything? his answer was no because he couldn't see where the wires ran.
This seems at odds with what I've seen other electricians do eg, rewiring by pulling new cable in attached to the old cable, how would they know what's near the old cable run?