Survey diary Autumn rewire and consumer-unit slots are open for same-week surveys — send the job details and we will confirm a window.
Domestic electrical contractor · The Umber Vale
Rewires, circuit work, testing and certification for period houses, cottages and converted outbuildings.
Job sheet 01 · Older properties
We survey what is actually behind the plaster, write the work up circuit by circuit, then carry it out and certify it. Cottages, stone terraces, barn conversions and anything with a fuse board older than the kitchen.
Scope
Four lanes cover almost everything we are called out for. If your job sits between two of them, describe it in the form and we will tell you which it really is.
Full replacement of cabling, accessories and the board, or a staged rewire that takes one floor at a time.
Replacing rewireable fuse boxes and split-load boards, and adding the circuits a modern kitchen or utility needs.
Intermittent trips, dead sockets and buried junctions traced methodically rather than by replacing parts and hoping.
Lighting layouts that suit low ceilings and thick walls, plus power to garages, workshops and garden rooms.
Decide first
Most enquiries begin with the wrong assumption in either direction. These are the three jobs people actually need, and how to tell them apart before anyone quotes.
Method
The same four stages whether it is one circuit or the whole house. You always know when the power is going off and when it is coming back.
We look at the board, the cable types, the earthing arrangement and the bonding, then set out the work circuit by circuit before quoting.
Agreed before we start: which circuits go off, for how long, and what stays live. Fridges, freezers and home working get planned around.
Routes taken through joists and chases rather than across the face of old plaster. Dust sheeted, floors refixed, offcuts taken away.
Continuity, insulation resistance, polarity, earth loop and RCD timings recorded, the board labelled, and the certificate issued with the schedule.
An old house tells you what it needs if you test it properly first. Every rewire we have regretted was one that started before anyone read the existing installation.
Working rule — Umber Vale Electrical
Questions
The six that come up on nearly every survey.
New circuits, a replacement consumer unit and most work in bathrooms or outdoors are notifiable. Like-for-like replacement of an accessory generally is not. We tell you which category your work falls into at the survey and handle the notification for anything that needs it.
Usually yes, if you accept working around one room at a time. We agree the room order with you, keep a working socket and lighting circuit live where the installation allows, and restore the supply each evening. Kitchen and bathroom days are the awkward ones and we flag them in advance.
Enough to be worth planning for. Cable runs go through joists and voids wherever possible, but switch drops and new socket positions in solid walls need chasing. We cap and make good the chases; skim finishing and decorating is normally left to your plasterer or decorator so the finish matches the rest of the room.
That depends on the main fuse rating, the existing load and the earthing arrangement, not on the charger. We check the incoming supply and calculate the demand before recommending anything, and will tell you plainly if a load-managed unit or a supply upgrade is the sensible route.
A report is coded rather than simply passed or failed. Items needing urgent attention are explained first, improvements are listed separately, and you get a quote only for what the codes actually justify. You are free to have the remedial work done by anyone.
Rarely. A single circuit tripping usually points to one fault: moisture in an outdoor accessory, a damaged cable under a floor, or an appliance with failing insulation. Fault finding on that circuit is the right first step, and it often ends the job there.
Request a quote
The more you can say about the property and what it is doing, the more useful the first reply will be. We answer with a suggested survey window and what we will need to see.
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