New Kitchen, New electrics?

[feelathome]

I have just had a quote for a new kthcen from B and Q. It is for cupboards, worktops, sinks and taps, and floors only, no appliances, ovens etc.

However, the desgner told me that by law they have to re-do all the electrics, putting each appliance on its own spur and redo all the socets.
Does this sound correct? He wants to charge £1400 for this,, and I don't want to get ripped off if it is not neccesarry.
He said if they supply only and we get a local tradesman to fit it, we would not need to have this done.
How can this be right, surely the law is the law and it would not differ from fitter to fitter.

Does anyone have experience of this?

It is up to you if you want your kitchen electrics brought up to full and current 17th edition iee requlation spec, kitchen fitters are NOT electricians and under part P of the building requlations only a qualified electrician can carry out electrical work in a kitchen or bathroom. If you are going to get the electrics done they will need to be done before the new kitchen goes inas they cannot be done afterwards. How old is your electrical system and is it up to current specs?

thanks,
its not so much that i want it done, just that the designer said that by law he could not fit a new kitchen without doing it.
We only moved in last week, so i dont know when the electrics were last done, but looking at the plug points, it looks like it is very old. I dont doubt that it woukd be a good idea to have it done, im just not sure if i actually MUST have it done.

our independent kitchen chap strongly recommended that we had a new consumer unit fitted as the old one wouldnt be up to regs with our new appliances (we were having an induction hob and a integrated combo micro oven). I am pretty sure though that if we werent having new appliances there wouldnt have been any legal requirement so I don't think that your designer is right at all - if the electrics arent being touched, what business is it of his?

I have asked DH (proper grown up part P electrician). What he says is:

• replacing like for like (ie absolutely no change) is not notifiable so can be done by a non Part P electrician - ie agree with OhYouBadBadKitten
• a lot of kitchen fitters will have partial competence (restricted scope qualification) which will alllow for example the fitting of a new cooker circuit
• if there is any new wiring (new/moved socket for example) then you will be looking at upgrading that circuit to 17th edition standard which would also require that supplementary bonding to gas/water supplies to be upgraded. RCDs would also be required.
• DH's advice is that if you are having a whole new kitchen fitted then get the electrics sorted before the tiling is done. Not only will this be safer but you can then have all the sockets you can possibly want. The marginal cost will be so much less than doing it later.

thanks everyone,

it seems to me that, as we are not having anything electrical done at all, this designer from B and Q was just trying to get me to have more work than was needed.
He quoted £1400, which is 20% of the overall cost, so not a small amount of money.
Got Moben coming out today, so ill see what he says.

You mention the wiring is quite old in your house. My DH recommends that you get an independant electrician in to do a complete test of all the circuits and see what work needs doing. If you are going to have the disruption of a new kitchen is it worth having the whole house electrics renovated and upgraded?

By doing this you could probably have the whole house done for only a thousand or so more. A bit of mess and disruption now would leave you free to make any additions/changes to the house later (new shower, extension, conservatory whatever)

I agree, get a qualified spark to do a testing and inspection survey of all the wiring. I would most certanly have the kitchen rewired prior to a new kitchen going in due to the high number of high load appliances that are now installed in a kitchen, personally I would not connect new appliances to ancient wiring as you probably only have a shared circuit for your kitchen sockets which under current regs is not allowed and a modern RCD/MCB installation will only benefit your own safety and increase the value of your property. If you decide to rewire after the kitchen is fitted a great deal of your new kitchen will need to be removed to allow for a rewire so NOW is the time to do it and a price of 1k-1.2 k seems reasonable as your consumer unit wil require replacing as well. Make sure you get a qualified spark to do the work and insist on a testing and inspection certificate (2391) after the rewire is complete.