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Issues with house rewire

katie275

I had a complete house rewire done recently and have a few concerns.

Mainly being:

The electrician drilled completely through a joist to hang a light bulb
Diagonal wall chasing
Exposed live wires in boiler room
*pics attached*

We chose him because he was a work connection of my partners and we had faith in him to do a great job, we had the job done off the books, no certs, bad move - probably but what’s done is done.

We have contacted him regarding the above and he’s vehemently defending his work. He’s coming over tomorrow evening to discuss. We paid a lot of money for the job as we were promised top notch work.

I’m by no means an expert on this but surely this is not good practice?

Opinions appreciated

Thanks

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bfclancy

That most certainly is not a roof joist by the appearance of it.
Diagonal chase was necessary to avoid the existing switch above I'd imagine what other route could he take

katie275

bfclancy wrote: »

That most certainly is not a roof joist by the appearance of it.
Diagonal chase was necessary to avoid the existing switch above I'd imagine what other route could he take

Surely the light switch could have been placed differently?
And it is a ceiling joist...

Larbre34

I love the fact there is an embedded advert alerting to cowboy electricians in this thread.

Sharp MZ700

What is the brass switch for? Did he make that hole in the ceiling for access?

katie275

Sharp MZ700 wrote: »

What is the brass switch for? Did he make that hole in the ceiling for access?

I imagine an old broadband/phone connection? Yes he made the hole for access

Sharp MZ700

katie275 wrote: »

I imagine an old broadband/phone connection? Yes he made the hole for access

Just saw that now. Hard to think he couldn't have used that chase already... Maybe it's old timber trunking inside but if it was plastic he could've swapped the two. The cabling in the second photo is worth a photo, for the scrapbook.

meercat

If there is no certificate issued,then what way is the new distribution board connected into the meter.?

Tuco88

If thats a roof joist, I'd invest in a Carpenter.

olestoepoke

bfclancy wrote: »

That most certainly is not a roof joist by the appearance of it.
Diagonal chase was necessary to avoid the existing switch above I'd imagine what other route could he take

Where does the OP say it was a roof joist? Its a ceiling joist and if stepped on by any unsuspecting person could be very dangerous.

olestoepoke

What were they thinking when they installed that light in the closet? Is that an exterior waterproof light? Those wires exposed like that can't be safe.

katie275

olestoepoke wrote: »

What were they thinking when they installed that light in the closet? Is that an exterior waterproof light? Those wires exposed like that can't be safe.

Yes that's what I thought! Never seen anything like that before...
Left over from another job perhaps?

We are also having problems with several sockets, there is a lot of resistance even when plugging in brand new appliances, I mentioned this and showed him with my phone charger and he blamed the plug

katie275

meercat wrote: »

If there is no certificate issued,then what way is the new distribution board connected into the meter.?

The old mains connection (30+ years old)
My fault for not checking this out before agreeing to cash job but I wasn't aware of these consequences of going off the books

Suckler

katie275 wrote: »

but I wasn't aware of these consequences of going off the books

No sympathy. "cash job/going off the books" encourages substandard work and puts good tradespeople out of work.

EHP

Suckler wrote: »

No sympathy. "cash job/going off the books" encourages substandard work and puts good tradespeople out of work.

Have to agree no sympathy for both the op or the sparks that did the job. Cash job or not you can report to safe Electric as he legally has to cert that job no matter what.

katie275

Suckler wrote: »

No sympathy. "cash job/going off the books" encourages substandard work and puts good tradespeople out of work.

Fair point, we paid 7k and certainly did not expect sub standard work.

TheBoyConor

Mention to him that you'd like to get the work audited by Safe Electric.

If he panics and offers to fix and certify you might come away good.

If he freaks and disappears or tries to dissuade you he probably isn't a registered electrician.

Hibernicis

katie275 wrote: »

The electrician drilled completely through a joist to hang a light bulb

That’s not a hanging light bulb, it’s a recessed downlighter with no thermal barrier fitter. Some of those can get extremely hot, and in this case it is close to wood which of course is combustible.

meercat

EHP wrote: »

Have to agree no sympathy for both the op or the sparks that did the job. Cash job or not you can report to safe Electric as he legally has to cert that job no matter what.

I agree
A certificate should be provided. It’s a requirement and the new tails should be connected into the esbn meter.
This needs to be done now and it may lead to problems down the road as it’s not permissible to certify another electricians work.

meercat

katie275 wrote: »

The old mains connection (30+ years old)
My fault for not checking this out before agreeing to cash job but I wasn't aware of these consequences of going off the books

So your new installation is connected to old (and possibly undersized) cables. This is not the way it should be. I’d also wonder about where the neutralised earth is connected. Any photos of cables where they are terminated at meter
You really do need a certificate.
To have this job done officially may not have cost you much more tbh.

TheBoyConor

What came over you to think that you could just not bother having the work certified?
You lined youself up for a world of hassle!

What if there was an electrical fire and the insurance company asks for evidence of the certificaition of the electrics?
What if you are selling the house in future and the buyer asks for the certification?

Did you have a temperature when you made this deal?

2011

Mod note:
The OP should have used a REC, but didn’t. Everyone is clear on that now, so let’s take move on. From now on posts should be aimed at assisting the OP with resolving the situation rather than giving the OP a hard time.

Thank you.

TheBoyConor

Ok fair enough.

Well op if you want the electrician to fix things it really comes down to whether if you have paid them yet?

If not you have leverage against them.

You need to demand from them that the brief has changed, you now require the work certified without any exception.
If he fails to agree to this then you'll be getting on to Safe Electric. You are obliged to do this anyway if you are aware of uncertified or substandard work being carried out.

katie275

We went uncertified because we had another huge unexpected expense and had to review our budget. It's not like we paid buttons, we paid 7k cash and have paid in full.
At the time the only implication we could think of was house insurance and spark said the way to get around is to say the house was rewired when we bought it.
Of course in hindsight we would do it all officially.
Also, he is a registered electrician and is an electrical instructor as his 9-5, we really thought we were in good hands

meercat

katie275 wrote: »

We went uncertified because we had another huge unexpected expense and had to review our budget. It's not like we paid buttons, we paid 7k cash and have paid in full.
At the time the only implication we could think of was house insurance and spark said the way to get around is to say the house was rewired when we bought it.
Of course in hindsight we would do it all officially.
Also, he is a registered electrician and is an electrical instructor as his 9-5, we really thought we were in good hands

Tell him you now understand the implications of not having a certificate and require one.
It may cost extra but that’s the only way to proceed now.

meercat

You can check if he’s on the list of contractors

https://safeelectric.ie/

katie275

meercat wrote: »

You can check if he’s on the list of contractors

https://safeelectric.ie/

Thanks for that, he's not listed but website says:
As enrolment on the public website is not required, not all RECs may be searchable.

Will ask him this evening about getting certs issued now

Bruthal

TheBoyConor wrote: »

What came over you to think that you could just not bother having the work certified?
You lined youself up for a world of hassle!

What if there was an electrical fire and the insurance company asks for evidence of the certificaition of the electrics?
What if you are selling the house in future and the buyer asks for the certification?

Did you have a temperature when you made this deal?

Its easy to be all knowing in hindsight, from the op point of view

meercat

katie275 wrote: »

Thanks for that, he's not listed but website says:
As enrolment on the public website is not required, not all RECs may be searchable.

Will ask him this evening about getting certs issued now

You can phone them and ask if he’s a member.
As others have said ,it’s a criminal offence to carry out such work if he’s not registered and to portray himself as a registered contractor.
Ask him for his registration number and also his qc number
A quick google search about unregistered electrical contractors will bring up some prosecutions and also a jail sentence

TheBoyConor

Your only option now is to have it all certified since you know about the requirement to certify. If something goes wrong in future and someone is injured or something then pleasing ignorance is gone because you knowingly and deliberately carried on with an certified installation.

Bruthal

Suckler wrote: »

No sympathy. "cash job/going off the books" encourages substandard work and puts good tradespeople out of work.

Thankfully, becoming a registered contractor eliminates cowboy work from the cowboy electrician when he registers, and any journeymen he may hire.