What's the mating call of a sparky?

Legionreturns

Wtf does one have to do to get an electrician to ring you back / turn up to do a job? It's not a big job, It's finishing off the calling for putting in two lights and a garden socket. By law I'm not allowed to do this now. I have to have a competent person but none of the fuckers are interested in the job. 2 weeks and 7 different electricians not one has turned up when they said they would and I've got cement waiting to go in. 

Rant over

marantz1300

how much were you paying?
they might want more.

Flink_Poyd

Too small a job by the sounds of it. 

Legionreturns

marantz1300 said:

how much were you paying?
they might want more.

They haven't even given me a quote yet! 

Legionreturns

Flink_Poyd said:

Too small a job by the sounds of it. 

Right, but if it's too small but I'm not allowed to do it, where does that leave me?

Barney

Iff the socket cable needs armoured cable put in the ground thats whats probably putting them off....cos they will have to dig it...i know our area there is loads of work so they can pick what they want ..

Flink_Poyd

Legionreturns said:

Flink_Poyd said:

Too small a job by the sounds of it. 

Right, but if it's too small but I'm not allowed to do it, where does that leave me?

Pretty much where you are.  Praying that someone is going to show unfortunately. Small jobs just aren't as attractive 

Legionreturns

Barney said:

Iff the socket cable needs armoured cable put in the ground thats whats probably putting them off....cos they will have to dig it...i know our area there is loads of work so they can pick what they want ..

I've already dug the armoured cable in, and drilled the holes for it to go through. It's probably a half hour job. Wire a junction box, wire a double socket, light switch and 2 lights with all the cables there. I'm more than capable of doing it but don't particularly want to invalidate my insurance. 

Barney

Legionreturns said:

Barney said:

Iff the socket cable needs armoured cable put in the ground thats whats probably putting them off....cos they will have to dig it...i know our area there is loads of work so they can pick what they want ..

I've already dug the armoured cable in, and drilled the holes for it to go through. It's probably a half hour job. Wire a junction box, wire a double socket, light switch and 2 lights with all the cables there. I'm more than capable of doing it but don't particularly want to invalidate my insurance. 

Sounds like they picking there jobs...also iff they are coming from the consumer unit they will need to do a installation certificate that makes them responsible for earthing and stuff ...also iff there is no RCD on the consumer unit one of them should be fitted as well.....maybe you have all these in place though ? 

Funkfingers

From the electrician's perspective, allotting two hours of a working day to complete the OP's "quick job" renders the electrician unavailable to be anywhere else, raking in the cash.

The chancers amongst them know that they have you by the short and curlies. They may be gambling that you will eventually become sufficiently desperate to complete the job that you will offer more money.

thermionic

I need a new drain cover fitted in my back yard, so I phoned a local company - I see their vans around with "No Job Too Small" on them. Well I guess I finally found a job that is too small for them, when I rang they said "email a photo and we'll give you a quote". They didn't. Same thing happened with the next company I phoned. Ridiculous.

robgilmo

That's the thing, if they did give you a quote you would probably think a lot worse of them.

chillidoggy

I'd just get on and do it myself. 

spark240

Just do it .....post the pics before you fix it all back and I'll tell you if it's ok

whee are you based ?

boogieman

chillidoggy said:

I'd just get on and do it myself. 

If you know what you're doing so would I tbh. Just make sure the work follows the electrical regs. 

Legionreturns

boogieman said:

chillidoggy said:

I'd just get on and do it myself. 

If you know what you're doing so would I tbh. Just make sure the work follows the electrical regs. 

The regs now state that for outside work (and certain other things) you have to have an inspection certificate from the planning department and permission, unless the work is done by an electrician who can self certify. If I don't follow that process, my insurance could be invalidated. Not worth the risk whether I'm happy doing it or not. I just want one of them to pop in and do it on the way home one evening, I don't even care what the quote is. We've just spent three grand on landscaping and this is the last job to finish it off. 

chillidoggy

Have things altered? in the last few years, then? Last time I did any work like this, I told the Building Control what I was doing, and that I was competent to do it. Never heard anything back from them.

Legionreturns

chillidoggy said:

Have things altered? Last time I did any work like this, I told the Building Control what I was doing, and that I was competent to do it. Never heard anything back from them.

It depends what you're doing. I'm essentially adding a new, outdoor circuit, taking the feed from the kitchen, and it's outside. That's 3 specific exceptions to the DIY rules. 

chillidoggy

Ah, OK.

I just had a quick Google, and the regs have changed since I last tinkered with stuff, too.

mellowsun

Legionreturns said:

Barney said:

Iff the socket cable needs armoured cable put in the ground thats whats probably putting them off....cos they will have to dig it...i know our area there is loads of work so they can pick what they want ..

I've already dug the armoured cable in, and drilled the holes for it to go through. It's probably a half hour job. Wire a junction box, wire a double socket, light switch and 2 lights with all the cables there. I'm more than capable of doing it but don't particularly want to invalidate my insurance. 

Stop me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't they need to check that the armoured cable has been installed correctly and is safely connected to its own fusebox and RCD inside the house?

When I had this done, I got them to do the whole thing: create a new circuit off the main, install isolated fusebox, RCDs, install armoured cable and junction box etc. 

Can a sparky just turn up on site to wire a junction box and double socket without taking responsibility for the whole job and the circuit?

Legionreturns

The cable isn't connected to anything at either end. It's buried around the perimeter of the garden and I've drilled holes through the sleepers where the socket and switch will mount. The sparky can see everything they need to see and I've not don't anything other than the heavy labour.