Bathroom DIY - certification needed?

brendonald

Hi all!

I am the lucky owner of the apartment I currently live in.
I have done a fair bit of small DIY in it since my dad and I enjoy rebuilding houses.

We remodelled the bathroom by tearing down a wall, removing the bath tub and the sink that were in there, and then we re-piped the room to fit the new layout, and made a 20cm-high cement platform to create a shower (for which we installed an electric shower).

I have had issues with certifying some electrical work that we've done ourselves, so my question is: do I have to get the works I have done in my bathroom certified by someone?

That may seem like a silly question but since I own the place, I thought I was entitled to modify it as I liked. And I hardly see how a professional can certify something like this.

If anyone can help figure this out, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

Sleeper12

Ask the same question in the electrical forum for better answers but most electrical work in the bathroom needs to be done by a REC. Some might not cert someone else's work as this is illegal. They might insist on them redoing your work before certing the work.

antoinolachtnai

If it were a few lights it might be workable, but I think it will be very hard to find someone who is going to be interested in having anything to do with your installation of an electric shower. There is quite a bit to installing (or even repairing) an electric shower properly. It is important to do it properly not only from the perspective of user safety but from the perspective of the safety of any electrician who services it in the future (which is something that should be a preoccupation of all electricians when they complete their work). I would say it is well worth the money now to make sure it is right.

If you are not familiar enough with electrical practice to be aware that distribution board and bathroom work needs to be certified, then you really don't know enough to be doing this kind of work, even on a say-nothing-to-no-one basis. Quite apart from it being completely illegal and potentially having an impact on your insurance if anything goes wrong, it is just too risky. (I say this as a non-electrician who sometimes fixes things.)

brendonald

Thanks for your replies!

@antoinolachtnai, it is not about knowing enough to be doing the work, but about knowing the laws in the country (which I agree I should) As I am not Irish and I only moved here a few years ago, I am not aware of everything, hence my question. For instance, as I own the place I thought I was entitled to do the work myself. And having seen a few electricians around me, I'd say that doing a neat, safe and future proof job is not their priority (my bathroom light is wired by 2 neutral wires, one of them still carries power ).

That said, I have been made aware (ye included) that my electrical work will need to be certified, and that it might imply scrapping what I have done and hiring an electrician to do it again.

My question was more related to plumbing/building. I installed supply and evacuation pipes myself, and I made a cement platform on which I lied a Wedi board to create a shower. I am wondering if this type of work is also subject to a required certification or if it is fine if I do it myself. Any advice on this?

Thanks again @Sleeper12 and @antoinolachtnai, that was helpful anyway

antoinolachtnai

I think your plumbing work won't cause you too much trouble. Water plumbing and bathroom renovation is not a strongly regulated profession in our fair land. I suppose we spend so much time in the rain that we are supposed to be used to the water.

The wires were not neutrals! They might both have been the one colour (black?), but clearly, one of them was not neutral. This is not the current practice, but it is not necessarily wrong.

brendonald

Thanks @antoinolachtnai!

As far as I know, blue is the standard for neutral, green/yellow is earth and brown is phase (at least that's true in Ireland, France and a few other European countries that I have had to do these kind of works in). You are right, one of them is not neutral, but circling back to what you said about safety for future electricians coming in to do some work, that does not seem right.

To be accurate, my bathroom light has no less than 3 brown and 3 blue wires coming to it. The power comes from a blue wire, and the neutral is also a blue wire. The 3 brown wires are all connected into a connection box... Don't ask me what they're here for There also is a useless blue (neutral) wire Some headaches coming my way.

Following your advice, I will try to get an electrician to come and check (and hopefully certify) what has been done.

Anyway, good to know that plumbing shouldn't be an issue. How about the cement slab? Is that likely to be an issue?

Thanks!

antoinolachtnai

You are right about the colours. I was thinking about very old installations where you see a lot of black and not a lot of any other colour in the lighting circuit.

When you come across really bad wiring it is honestly hard to know what to do. Some clown obviously got his wires mixed up somewhere.

I do not think the Cabinet will lose much sleep over your cement slab.

Tom44

Cement slab has to be under 3 ton
If not, it needs reinforcing bars.