Has this consumer unit been installed correctly?

[danny199]

Hello,

Had a sparky install a new consumer unit, has it been done correctly. Bare in mind the chap cut corners on other bits of work he was contracted to do.

 

[danny199]

Member of NAPIT. Called earlier. Asked for postcode of the chap. Said "that postcode sounds familiar, did you call the other day?". Didn't make me feel confident.

 

[Michael J]

How much did you pay for this service? Quite often this is the result of the customer cutting costs. You get what you pay for.

That’s no excuse for poor workmanship

 

[Michael J]

How much did you pay for this service? Quite often this is the result of the customer cutting costs. You get what you pay for.

That’s no excuse for poor workmanship

 

[davesparks]

This cheapo customer paid £500 for a new consumer unit, 3 new plug sockets and moving two ceiling lights.

Sounds a bit cheap to me, but not ridiculously so.

 

[Wilko]

Hi - it’s compulsory that all the connections are properly made with good workmanship and materials. And it’s nice to be neat. Mostly these things will all go together. So, in my view the poor looking terminations in the board are all suspect. I’d just rebuild and retest. The other work may need looking into as well, just saying.

 

[danny199]

Just pulled up the floorboard to see this... not sure if this is ok.

 

[westward10]

Oh dear. You want to be sending these pics to NAPIT. I dread to think what else he had done.

 

[telectrix]

i'd send the pics to "Professional Electrician" magazine as well. they're asking for hall of shame pics.

 

[Dustydazzler]

OP

Is that the 'before' picture ?

 

[Marcus Vaughan]

Sounds a bit cheap to me, but not ridiculously so.

Hmmmm. I’ve just come across a CU much worse than this on an EICR. It’s a new customer so I quoted £400 for a new consumer unit, new bonding, a couple of hours of other remedial work. The £400 fee included the EICR which took much of a day. He’s knocked me back - saying I should do it all for £350.
Stalemate because I’ve already done the EICR. My bad. Lessons learnt. He hasn’t got his ‘Satisfactory’ EICR and I’m out of pocket - but that’s another story.

My point is that my ‘customer’ (the landlord by the way), has, I suspect, paid a very low amount for a rewire and CU only a few years ago (harmonised colours). The work is appalling. He called me in when he realised there was no earthing or certs. He went for the lowest quote and got John Wayne. I did think it might have been done by a competent electrician who just got fed up with haggling and walked off the job. I doubt it though, because it was done so badly - we are obliged to leave everything in a safe state no matter which way the customer relations is going.

Back to this post - I would do this job for £500, properly, and be happy.

No excuse for the amount of copper showing at every connection. Crazy - and it makes me wonder if everything is tight and whether prongs of busbars are on the right side of MCB clamps etc. Just does not inspire confidence.

 

[Dustydazzler]

No excuse for a connector block / tape joint these days....

5 quid for a MF box is all it requires

 

[Dustydazzler]

£500 is cheap for a board change with EICR

In my neck of the woods you are looking at £600-650

 

[Marcus Vaughan]

Just pulled up the floorboard to see this... not sure if this is ok.

View attachment 49369

Definitely not!

 

[telectrix]

this is how it should look

 

[Marcus Vaughan]

this is how it should look

Not tried those yet. Recommended?