Renovating a house and the guy doing the electrical rewire for me isn't an
electrician (he's a builder) so I've had to get the local building control
office involved who charged me £59.99 and said that they employ a local firm
of electricians to do the inspections for them.

I was told that they need to inspect it when the first fix is complete,
which it now is, and they're coming to see it at 9.00am on Friday. My
question is, what will they be inspecting and looking for?

TIA,

Dave.

In message ,
"Dave Sharp" wrote:

Renovating a house and the guy doing the electrical rewire for me isn't an
electrician (he's a builder) so I've had to get the local building control
office involved who charged me £59.99 and said that they employ a local firm
of electricians to do the inspections for them.

I was told that they need to inspect it when the first fix is complete,
which it now is, and they're coming to see it at 9.00am on Friday. My
question is, what will they be inspecting and looking for?

I've never done it this way around as I only test my own work, but the
aim is to end up with several bits of paper describing the installation
in detail. I suspect that your electricians are probably going to have
to come back when second fix is done, as some of the tests can't be
completed until everything is connected up. How thorough they are will
be interesting - *please* report back when they've been.

On first fix there is a lot that can be done. The main issues are
(OnSite Guide section 9) to "verify that equipment is correctly selected
and erected in accordance with BS7671... [and] not visibly damaged or
defective..."

So at first fix they will be looking to make sure that cables are
properly identified, are routed sensibly and in safe zones or otherwise
mechanically protected, are selected correctly with respect to the
circuit design load etc, that fire barriers which may have been breached
have been made good, and so on and so on. They will also need to be sure
that your plan for the installation is sensible, so will need to be
shown details of the proposed circuits, calculations for design loads
and so on. If you haven't such details then they *should* generate them
themselves, given information from you, but...

Most of the "testing" that has to be done before sign-off can't really
be carried out completely until second fix. The exception is probably
testing on the incoming supply to determine supply impedance, maximum
fault current and earthing arrangements.

After second fix, and *before* the circuits are energised, each circuit
and the complete installation will need to be checked for (OSG 9.3 &
10.2)

quote [except the bits in square brackets]

i) continuity of protective conductors (including main and supplementary
equipotential bonding conductors)

ii) continuity of ring final circuit conductors...

iii) insulation resistance (between live conductors and between each
live conductor and earth) ["live" and "neutral" are both "live
conductors" in this context]

iv) polarity; this includes checks that single-pole control and
protective devices (e.g. switches, circuit-breakers, fuses) are
connected in the phase conductor only, that bayonet and Edison-screw
lampholders... have their outer contacts connected to the neutral
conductor and that wiring has been correctly connected to socket-outlets
and other accessories.

v) earth electrode resistance [if applicable & depends on test method]

Only after this point can the installation be energised. Thereafter,

vi) second check of polarity

vii) earth electrode resistance [if applicable]

viii) earth fault loop impedance

ix) prospective fault current...

x) functional test.

And for all that testing, which might take quite some time if the
electrician hasn't done the installation himself, you usually end up
with at most a half a dozen pieces of paper.

It is much easier for an electrician to certify his own work than anyone
else's as most of the checks mentioned above can be carried out as you
go along. Certainly things like the polarity checks. In order to
thoroughly check someone else's work you should be inspecting every
single connection/accessory and while there are "shortcut" methods to do
this with sockets, there aren't any easy ways to do it with things like
FCUs and light switches.

Hope this helps. Please do let us know what happens on Friday, and if
(when) they do make a second visit, please report back again.

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... I'm dangerous when I know what I'm doing.

In article , says...
Renovating a house and the guy doing the electrical rewire for me isn't an
electrician (he's a builder) so I've had to get the local building control
office involved who charged me £59.99 and said that they employ a local firm
of electricians to do the inspections for them.

I was told that they need to inspect it when the first fix is complete,
which it now is, and they're coming to see it at 9.00am on Friday. My
question is, what will they be inspecting and looking for?

TIA,

Dave.




Circuit topology,
Cable sizing
Installation methods
Routing of cables
Bonding as applicable
....

"Dave Sharp" wrote in message
...
Renovating a house and the guy doing the electrical rewire for me isn't an
electrician (he's a builder) so I've had to get the local building control
office involved who charged me £59.99 and said that they employ a local
firm
of electricians to do the inspections for them.

I was told that they need to inspect it when the first fix is complete,
which it now is, and they're coming to see it at 9.00am on Friday. My
question is, what will they be inspecting and looking for?

Is this £60 for all visits? If you do a re-wire yourself, then this £60 is
well worth it. As building control are involved that means you can do all
the work, CU and even in all the wet rooms.

In article ,
Martin Angove writes:
I've never done it this way around as I only test my own work, but the
aim is to end up with several bits of paper describing the installation
in detail. I suspect that your electricians are probably going to have
to come back when second fix is done, as some of the tests can't be
completed until everything is connected up. How thorough they are will
be interesting - *please* report back when they've been.

I can't believe they will do anything very substantial
for their share of the £59.99, including two site visits.

--
Andrew Gabriel

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
.. .
In article ,
Martin Angove writes:
I've never done it this way around as I only test my own work, but the
aim is to end up with several bits of paper describing the installation
in detail. I suspect that your electricians are probably going to have
to come back when second fix is done, as some of the tests can't be
completed until everything is connected up. How thorough they are will
be interesting - *please* report back when they've been.

I can't believe they will do anything very substantial
for their share of the £59.99, including two site visits.

When you consider it cost about £60 a year for landlord's certificate every
year, that is not that bad.

"Doctor Drivel" wrote in message
eenews.net...

"Dave Sharp" wrote in message
...
Renovating a house and the guy doing the electrical rewire for me isn't
an
electrician (he's a builder) so I've had to get the local building
control
office involved who charged me £59.99 and said that they employ a local
firm
of electricians to do the inspections for them.

I was told that they need to inspect it when the first fix is complete,
which it now is, and they're coming to see it at 9.00am on Friday. My
question is, what will they be inspecting and looking for?

Is this £60 for all visits? If you do a re-wire yourself, then this £60
is
well worth it. As building control are involved that means you can do all
the work, CU and even in all the wet rooms.



Thanks to all who replied and I will certainly let the group know what goes
on on Friday.

With respect to the cost, there is significant upheaval going on in the
building control offices at the moment and I may have got the application in
just in time, because it looks like charges will be rocketing very soon.
Apparently, the council charges the public £59.99 but is then in turn
charged £200 by the firm of local electricians!!!

The council is now looking towards perhaps using their own workforce of
electricians, whether an inspection at first fix is really necessary or if
just a "final" inspection before the house is powered up will suffice etc.,
etc. I'm just grateful I put in the application when I did and got it for
£59.99 )

Dave.

In article ,
"Dave Sharp" writes:
Thanks to all who replied and I will certainly let the group know what goes
on on Friday.

With respect to the cost, there is significant upheaval going on in the
building control offices at the moment and I may have got the application in
just in time, because it looks like charges will be rocketing very soon.
Apparently, the council charges the public £59.99 but is then in turn
charged £200 by the firm of local electricians!!!

The council is now looking towards perhaps using their own workforce of
electricians, whether an inspection at first fix is really necessary or if
just a "final" inspection before the house is powered up will suffice etc.,
etc. I'm just grateful I put in the application when I did and got it for
£59.99 )

The ODPM caps the Part P price (although I thought it was nearer
£100), and expects the BCO's to do the inspections, just as
they do for other building work. When I spoke to my BCO before
Part P came in, they were expecting to have to get trained in doing
it themselves (no idea if they were). There's no requirement
that the councils use Part P certified electricians to do the
inspections. As has been noted here in the past, at least some
BCO's are happy to accept the DIY'ers certification of the
installation (but presumably only after deciding that particular
DIY'er knows what they're talking about).

--
Andrew Gabriel

In message ,
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

In article ,
Martin Angove writes:
I've never done it this way around as I only test my own work, but the
aim is to end up with several bits of paper describing the installation
in detail. I suspect that your electricians are probably going to have
to come back when second fix is done, as some of the tests can't be
completed until everything is connected up. How thorough they are will
be interesting - *please* report back when they've been.

I can't believe they will do anything very substantial
for their share of the £59.99, including two site visits.

A really thorough inspection on a new installation could easily take two
half days (first fix/second fix). AIUI (though I've not had cause to be
on the receiving end myself) there is a maximum that Building Control
can charge the owner, but that says nothing about how much it costs BC
to subcontract the service.

With other items they charge a sliding scale depending on the value of
the work undertaken. Does the same thing apply to electrical work?

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... If Jack helped you off of a horse, would you help Jack off a horse?

In message ,
"Dave Sharp" wrote:


"Doctor Drivel" wrote in message
eenews.net...

"Dave Sharp" wrote in message
...
Renovating a house and the guy doing the electrical rewire for me isn't
an
electrician (he's a builder) so I've had to get the local building
control
office involved who charged me £59.99 and said that they employ a local
firm
of electricians to do the inspections for them.

I was told that they need to inspect it when the first fix is complete,
which it now is, and they're coming to see it at 9.00am on Friday. My
question is, what will they be inspecting and looking for?

Is this £60 for all visits? If you do a re-wire yourself, then this £60
is
well worth it. As building control are involved that means you can do all
the work, CU and even in all the wet rooms.



Thanks to all who replied and I will certainly let the group know what goes
on on Friday.

With respect to the cost, there is significant upheaval going on in the
building control offices at the moment and I may have got the application in
just in time, because it looks like charges will be rocketing very soon.
Apparently, the council charges the public £59.99 but is then in turn
charged £200 by the firm of local electricians!!!


Sounds about right for two solid half days as I just posted (note
to self: should read the whole thread before posting :-)

The council is now looking towards perhaps using their own workforce of
electricians, whether an inspection at first fix is really necessary or if
just a "final" inspection before the house is powered up will suffice etc.,
etc. I'm just grateful I put in the application when I did and got it for
£59.99 )


I don't know how they'd get away without an inspection at first fix.
After all, BS7671 is quite adamant about things like routing of cables
(see OSG sec. 7.3) and anyone signing off the work will want to know
that cables have been installed correctly in protected zones or are
otherwise mechanically protected. Also there is some (usually ignored)
advice about where you can and can't drill holes in joists. What I want
to know is, why is it ok for a plumber to make a messy notch in a joist
big enough for two 28mm pipes a few inches from the end of a joist, yet
the IEE get all worked up about circular holes and insist that they
should only be within the area between 0.25 and 0.4 of the joist span?

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... Plasma is another matter.

"Martin Angove" wrote in message
...

SNIP

.. Also there is some (usually ignored)
advice about where you can and can't drill holes in joists. What I want
to know is, why is it ok for a plumber to make a messy notch in a joist
big enough for two 28mm pipes a few inches from the end of a joist, yet
the IEE get all worked up about circular holes and insist that they
should only be within the area between 0.25 and 0.4 of the joist span?


Any Structural Engineers care to comment? (Especially about the closeness to
the end of said joist)

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
.. .
In article ,
"Dave Sharp" writes:
Thanks to all who replied and I will certainly let the group know what
goes
on on Friday.

With respect to the cost, there is significant upheaval going on in the
building control offices at the moment and I may have got the
application in
just in time, because it looks like charges will be rocketing very soon.
Apparently, the council charges the public £59.99 but is then in turn
charged £200 by the firm of local electricians!!!

The council is now looking towards perhaps using their own workforce of
electricians, whether an inspection at first fix is really necessary or
if
just a "final" inspection before the house is powered up will suffice
etc.,
etc. I'm just grateful I put in the application when I did and got it
for
£59.99 )

The ODPM caps the Part P price (although I thought it was nearer
£100), and expects the BCO's to do the inspections, just as
they do for other building work. When I spoke to my BCO before
Part P came in, they were expecting to have to get trained in doing
it themselves (no idea if they were). There's no requirement
that the councils use Part P certified electricians to do the
inspections. As has been noted here in the past, at least some
BCO's are happy to accept the DIY'ers certification of the
installation (but presumably only after deciding that particular
DIY'er knows what they're talking about).

I was talking to a selfbuilder who had the BCO himself pass his self
installed electrical system just after Part P was introduced. He also
passed the unvented cylinder. The BCO knew the man after a year of visits
and knew he would do everything by the book and cut no corners. If he
didn't know something he would make sure he did by getting the books and
manuals, questioning many of the BCOs directions. I lot of what a BCO pass
is related to their confidence in the builder.