Commercial to domestic (embarrassing question)

[ChinaPlate]

Hi guys, new to the foum. I'm a commercial electrician, with Gold Card (for what its worth!) who has done very little in domestic.

I'm at the stage of thinking of going self employed at some point, registering with NAPIT or NICEIC. The bulk of my work has been in shopfitting, 95% of which is tray/trunking/conduit. As I'm starting to think of going on my own I'm imagining different scenarios and I'm embarrased to say I'm not entirely sure how I would run cables in certain scenarios.

Has anyone here gone from commercial to domestic without having much experience with it? Would I realistically need to work with a domestic spark before attempting to go alone?

For example, a mate is in the process of getting some quotes for an EV charger and was asking me how I would expect them to run the cable from his CU. He's in a new-build, CU is in the hallway and the EV is intended to go to the garage, walls are dot&dab. I'm looking at his freshly decorated walls and questioning if this literally requires multiple holes, butchering his walls and making good? In a commercial enviroment I'd do this without thinking - it's someone else's job to make good! The thought of making the same mess in someone's property makes me feel a bit un-easy.

I know this is very basic stuff, I'd be embarassed to ask these type of questions in the real world hence the reason I'm using the anonymity of the internet! Maybe I'm overthinking things, and it's a case of throw yourself in the deep-end then work it out... Or is it something that needs to be experienced before going on your own?

 

[7029 dave]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Yes in the domestic field one has to be mindful of disturbing the décor and disruption to a minimum.
Your EV job what you have described ( without looking at the job)
Split the tails in the outside meter box ( assuming its outside new build) fit 2 way CU and run the cable outside (SWA) to the EV charger. Just an example. Good luck

 

[UNG]

I have never really understood the fear commercial and industrial sparks have of domestic installation work, yes there is a slightly different mindset needed but it is nothing to worry about. I started out nearly 50 years ago as an industrial and commercial electrical apprentice during my early apprenticeship a few of the qualified sparks quite often asked me to help them out on weekend rewires where I got the domestic basics although domestic wiring now is a lot different to what it was back then.
The things I have found over the years it is in a lot of cases what tools you have amassed in the box to make the job easier and what works best with particular construction types and styles. One the big challenges is finding routes through a property where you can conceal cables with no or minimal damage. Being able to look at a property and picture it as a skeleton does help along with customers who don't mind paying for the extra work that may be involved in achieving that perfection
If you can get to one or two of the shows like Elex, the installer show or any of the other related shows you will get see some of the tooling and gadgets that can help make the job easier and while some may not be cheap they do earn their keep
It will be a bit of a struggle initially but once you pick up the skills and tooling it does become easier and you become quicker

 

[littlespark]

Big difference will be under floors/ through attics.
Might not get a lot of them in industrial.

Lack of space in general…..


Having the BS7671 “special location” of a bathroom to deal with… unless your industrial works have dealt with shower rooms or similar.