Electrical installations

Yes, and it is not one thing but three, for three different floors. Heating foil goes under a floating floor and adds almost no height. Cable in screed is poured in and suits a renovation where the floor is being rebuilt anyway. Self-regulating cable changes its output with temperature, so it cannot overheat. Which is right is decided by the build-up of the floor and whether it should heat the room or merely take the chill off it.

Yes, we do de-icing of steps and outdoor surfaces. A heating cable is laid into the surface and switched by a thermostat with a moisture and temperature sensor, so the system runs only when it is actually freezing and wet — not all winter. The running cost rests on that switching.

Yes. An initial inspection and test is carried out before the installation is put into use; without that report the installation is not documented as safe, and in an insurance claim or an inspection it tends to be the first document somebody asks for. We do both, so you are not left arbitrating between two firms about who measured what.

It is a set of devices in the distribution board that diverts a surge to earth before it reaches the appliances. It protects against lightning striking the supply line and against switching spikes in the network, and with electronics — a boiler, a control unit, network equipment — it tends to be the difference between a small repair and a replacement. It is added when a board is replaced, because at that moment it is an hour of extra work rather than a day.

Replacing a flat's distribution board is a matter of hours rather than days, and it is done so that the flat has power overnight. A full rewire is split into stages and part of the circuits stays live. We say exactly what will be off and when at the survey — it is something to plan for, not to discover on the morning.

Aluminium has low mechanical strength and oxidises easily. Under the pressure of a terminal screw an aluminium conductor deforms over time, the joint conducts worse, heats up and can start a fire. What of the old wiring can stay is for an electrician to judge — expect it not to be much.

Plan sockets for the fridge and freezer, the cooker or oven, the microwave, the dishwasher and possibly an instantaneous water heater at the sink — that is five separately protected circuits. A sixth socket circuit serves other appliances, about ten sockets in all. Think of appliances you do not have yet, too.

Breakers thirty years old and more may no longer do their job: on a fault or an overload they do not trip, the conductors heat up, and a socket or lighting connection can start a fire. We see it regularly, and replacing the consumer unit is the first step that stops it happening.

Yes, and we run it together with the power, while the walls and floors are still open — pulling it later means chasing them again. Where it goes belongs in the design: where the network sockets are, which way the television cabling runs, and where the cabinet everything comes back to will sit. The same thought covers cameras and a video intercom, which run on data cable too.

Yes. We help you shape what you have in mind and draw it up; the budget and bill of quantities for the electrical work help you compare contractors’ quotes.