A Rant About Incompetent Electricians!

[Piratepete]

I've taken the stand that I will not pass off anybody elses work and I actively tell Joe Public to use only Part P registered guys. This is not a guarantee of a good job but it helps. At least his test gear is likely to be calibrated, he'll be insured and he'll be up to date with the 17th Ed., he'll test and issue certificates and even maybe know how to do the work.
Case in point.
Got asked to a 25year old house to redo a loft light. Found no switch (connected to study light below) and done in flex.
Was then invited to the recently refurbished kitchen and utility room (converted from attached garage).
There was no accessible isolation for any of the white goods. The double oven was connected to the ring cct. The ring cct neutral was open circuit. The wall mounted TV was directly connected to the ring cct as was the kitchen extractor (the flex just disappeared into the wall!). The new lighting in the utility room is connected to the ring cct but not via a fused spur. Even the under cupboard lights were directly on the ring.

The guy who did this lot, a relative, has been practicing in south Brum for the last 2 years, Gawd help us!
Apparently he even found somebody to pass his work off!!!!

Resigned sigh! Pete

 

[Marvo]

If customers are ignorant of the fact that work needs to be signed off by a qualified electrician and qualified electricians are happy to sign off sub standard work then you're fighting a losing battle.

Why can't you just report the contractor and the qualified guy who signed the work off?

 

[GLENNSPARK]

"he`l be up to date with the 17th edition"......maybe but will he be "up to date" with owt else...lol....

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Relative or not....put a stop to it ...now mate......If he`s a relative then maybe you can have a chat with him over a pint...or three..lol.....and explain to him ina tactful way that this kind of work is substandard and he needs to get with the program as far as installing is concerned.......

 

[GLENNSPARK]

well if it was an approved contractor that signed.......hmm.....

 

[Garz]

I work in the metering industry, unfortunately we employed electrically experienced contractors and the statistics are alarming. For every five electrician incidents we had one incident with a un-qualified based background. Some investigations were a joke, chiefly tightening terminations and basic wiring were sub-standard.

 

[Big n Daft]

Rubbish is rubbish even if its a scheme member. There's plenty of good sparks not willing to be ripped off by a scheme. I've seen plenty of rubbish scheme members and plenty of good JIB sparks, not all tho'.

 

[DaveyD]

No offence to any of our experienced sparks but you will find twonks in DIY, new qualified sparks and old timers.
Example: Just finished a rewire - told the CU and Kitchen done 12 yrs ago so would be ok. Hmmm. Did celler and three floors fine myself.
CU labeled as RCD protected even with the RCD "test me" sticker yet ... no RCD.
All lights switched in neutral.
No bonding to GAS or Water.
Outside light spured off nearest socket in 1.5 T&E but not fused down and cable at 45 degrees up the wall.
Circuit spured from an existing house RFC at a socket but the CPC tied to the back of the plastic patress so now there was no CPC to existing socket. THEN ran a single new leg back to the CU on a different CB! House sockets isolated by turning off not one but two CB's.

 

[Dan23584]

Very good and well justified rant, shame they seem to be a common thing now a days.........

 

[GLENNSPARK]

No offence to any of our experienced sparks but you will find twonks in DIY, new qualified sparks and old timers.
Example: Just finished a rewire - told the CU and Kitchen done 12 yrs ago so would be ok. Hmmm. Did celler and three floors fine myself.
CU labeled as RCD protected even with the RCD "test me" sticker yet ... no RCD.
All lights switched in neutral.
No bonding to GAS or Water.
Outside light spured off nearest socket in 1.5 T&E but not fused down and cable at 45 degrees up the wall.
Circuit spured from an existing house RFC at a socket but the CPC tied to the back of the plastic patress so now there was no CPC to existing socket. THEN ran a single new leg back to the CU on a different CB! House sockets isolated by turning off not one but two CB's.

well by any standards thats poor though Dave...

 

[Piratepete]

Why can't you just report the contractor and the qualified guy who signed the work off?

Love to. Unfortunately he's my customer's relative, they don't talk to each other any more (I wonder why?) and she can't remember the name he traded under.

 

[Des 56]

People will always play with electrics,that guy Faraday potched about with it and man has carried on ever since

In order for it to be installed safely,some are trained to work with the stuff
After training,there are good,aveage and poor sparks
The non electrician is devided up the same but with more poor installers,sometimes bordering on suicidal

The effects of electrics poorly installed can be lethal but on the whole there are very few fatalities
Because the danger is not reflected in nuimbers of injured the regulation of electrics is piecemeal
It is not difficult to decide that the motivation for any regulation has been motivated by things other than safety

Electrics will continue to be installed by anyone who thinks they can
The authorities are happy for that to continue

Trying to police a non system that is awash with culprits of poor standards is a complete and utter waste of time
Unless the person is in competition with you for work that he is depriving you of
The economic reason can be justified but the safety concerns of the work of these others is not worth the effort

 

[Geordie Spark]

Very good and well justified rant, shame they seem to be a common thing now a days.........

........... suggesting maybe that Part Pee isn't working ?

 

[Geordie Spark]

well by any standards thats poor though Dave...

By any standards that's a masterpiece of understatement Glen.

 

[Specialist]

........... suggesting maybe that Part Pee isn't working ?

As if we did'nt know this already Lol.