Re: Working on that..
Just in case...
As pointed out in the FAQ linked by John Miles, there is nothing stopping you doing electrical work in your own home, and indeed there are some things that don't need certification if you are doing it for yourself - the obvious things like replacing a light fitting, but also adding a spur to an existing circuit, and this applies particularly where an urgent repair is necessary for safety.
It's also possible to do more extensive work yourself, but you will need at the very least to issue a notice to Building Control, and as they will usually require inspection by an electrician it's usually simpler (in theory) to engage a self-certifying electrician to oversee the work in the first place.
The problem is that by agreeing to do so, such an electrician effectively "owns" the work, for the purposes of professional indemnity and liability insurance and so will want to be absolutely certain you've done the work correctly.
We've recently built a house, and as someone who was self-certifying until I got a "proper" job a few years ago, I was desperate to save money by installing the electrics myself. Our builder had an electrician he worked with, so we asked him about oversight, but the bloke wanted to be on site the whole time I was working and apart from the inflexibility this would entail, he estimated a cost that wasn't far off what he would have charged to do the work himself.
I did eventually find a more flexible electrician, who visited a couple of times while we didn't have ceilings or plaster just to check routes and make suggestions, and then did a full-day take-everything-apart inspection once I'd finished. Much more reasonable.
And of course, we're all following the recommendation to have full installation inspections in our homes every ten years, aren't we....?
M.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
