Consumer unit change - How do you do it?

[catdog1121]

Dont change many consumer units, usually go ok but had one today that I did cheap for next door neighbour (Why is it always the ones you do cheap for friends and family that bite you). Anyway changed the board etc, all ok. Then came testing and obviously have various alterations in the last 40yrs, still had original wylex rewireable fuses.

I found Neutral ring missing - A socket had a neutral out.
Conservatory had two sockets, a light and an automatic window opener all spured off a spur in the kitchen with no grommets in the back box (Apparently done by an electrician)
One socket of two gang no neutral - just change face plate
One socket no neutral (Spur) - Just had to wago and put blank plate as obviously a junction box under the floor
There was some others as well.

Anyway in my haste to speed up testing I did insulation resistance with a couple of sockets off (I know stupid), when powered on RCD kept tripping if I removed socket neutrals it was fine. Finally tracked it down to a really tight socket in the kitchen that had a damaged neutral cable, managed to sort everything.

Started at 9.30, was running around in the dark finished about 8pm with everything ok, im totally shattered.

I am thinking of insisting on a full EICR before I do a consumer unit change again, at least you know what you are getting into mostly and you dont spend an entire evening trying to chase down issues as once you have changed the board and especially adding RCD's your kinda committed.

Just wondering do others do EICR beforehand or just wing it?

If you just wing it how often do you have issues?

 

[Midwest]

Don't think I would of got many CU change jobs, if I insisted on my customer paying for an EICR first, at what a average cost of £150-300?

You can still factor in some pre testing before replacing the CU, you have to factor a reasonable amount into you quote.

 

[Pete999]

Don't think I would of got many CU change jobs, if I insisted on my customer paying for an EICR first, at what a average cost of £150-300?

You can still factor in some pre testing before replacing the CU, you have to factor a reasonable amount into you quote.

Then I think the ruling should be changed, to avoid the avoidable cases of unscrupulous, people quoting for CU changes without any testing beforehand.

 

[Midwest]

Then I think the ruling should be changed, to avoid the avoidable cases of unscrupulous, people quoting for CU changes without any testing beforehand.

What ruling?

I always tested first, before the old one came off. It doesn't make any business sense to say I'll charge a customer £200+ for an EICR, then £600-1200 (dependant on size of install etc) to actually replace the CU.

If its a very large property, then yes. But a two bed semi, you'd get shown the door.

 

[Pete999]

What ruling?

I always tested first, before the old one came off. It doesn't make any business sense to say I'll charge a customer £200+ for an EICR, then £600-1200 (dependant on size of install etc) to actually replace the CU.

If its a very large property, then yes. But a two bed semi, you'd get shown the door.

Then opinions need to change .don't they?

 

[stevethesparks]

Price will always normally win, if you get shown the door it's more than likely the customer will go for the bloke down the pub and get it half the price, the customer will then be even worse off. If we had the backing, and sheds were not allowed to sell CU's to the public, things could improve.