Electric wall sockets not working since building works?

[BlogOnTheTyne]

Last year. I had some building works done in the house and as part of the process, an electrican replaced the old fuse box with up to date one.

In a room backing onto the new building works and the one backing onto that, the electric wall sockets no longer work. The thing is, I've only just discovered this, about 6 months down the line, as those rooms have been used for storage since then and so nothing's been plugged into the sockets there.

The ceiling lights are OK but not the wall sockets. These were definitely working up until the time of the building works and had appliances plugged in and regularly used. I remember during the building works, the electrician muttering something about checking the electric supply to those rooms as they backed onto the buidling development and he was obviously aware that this part of the electric circuit might be altered by the new electrics being done.

Anyway, I've emailed the builder about all this and asked him to give me the contact details of the electrician who did the works. I'm hoping - but not expecting - that they'll fix the problem for free as they obviously caused it. If not, I'll have to fork out myself.

However, the builder hasn't replied, so I'm getting angry. Same builders made 2 key blunders during the building works - one potentially harmful to the family and one potentially damaging to separate fitments added after the works were done. So I'm not totally pleased with them.

My question is - can anyone who knows about electrical circuits in the home tell me if they think this problem will be easy to fix or is it going to involve hacking chunks out of the walls in new build and the two other rooms, to access wiring - thus causing major disruption and damage?

If the latter, can I pursue the builders for all costs, given they were at fault when reconnecting the electrics or is it too late, 6 months on - to pursue any claim?

If you had a new consumer unit "fusebox" fitted and you are in England or Wales, then the electrician should either have been a member of a Competent Persons Scheme, and issued paperwork declaring that he had designed, installed and tested the change, with test results, and showing his name and business address; or else the documents and work might have been partly done by or for the Building Control Office (as this is part of Building Regulations) for a person who is not a member of a Competent Person Scheme (e.g. a DIYer, general labourer, or unqualified "electrician").

Your post suggests that you did not receive such documentation, which is a bad sign (unless you have just mislaid it).

It would be useful to examine your contract with the builder, and the specification of work, and the invoices, to see what he was supposed to have done.

It is possible that the supply to the two rooms was a non-compliant addition prior to your recent building work. Socket circuits in the UK are usually wired in a ring, and it is difficult, unless there are least two simultaneous faults (that testing would have found) for some sockets in a ring to work and others not. A fixed-price consumer unit change usually excludes rectification of existing faults or non-compliant installation which need extra work and an additional fee, unless they are identified and specified prior to calculation of the price.

It depends a little on how those rooms are wired as to how messy it will be to fix - best case scenario, wiring is fine and the electrician just neglected to wire it into the new consumer unit. I assume you've checked you don't have any fuses switched off...

Worst case scenario, he deliberately left it out because it was causing a fault on the testing (we actually have two consumer units, one for the extension wiring which was signed off by the electrician and one for the older part of our house which was causing the lovely new safe unit to trip. We have subsequently totally rewired the older part of the house too and chucked in RCDs everywhere) and you won't be able to wire the existing circuit into the new unit. You might just be able to pull new wiring through to the sockets or you might need to channel out and then patch (when I say you, I mean a qualified electrician obviously).

This is messy, but actually surprisingly ok to patch up. We did it with several layers of ready mix plaster to fill in the enormous holes, then a final layer of fine plaster which we then sanded back with the little handheld sander. Looks fine.

My initial reaction was the same as MummytoMog, the electrician forgot to wire that element into the consumer unit - there must be a lot of circuits on these things. I think most electricians will complete paperwork and submit it to NICEH. You can trace on their website if any electrical certificates have been registered to your address - don't panic if they haven't. If you can't contact the electrician, it's worth getting someone in to check the box and see if they can find any loose wires.

There are a number of Competent Person Schemes. NICIEC is a well known one and you can check by postcode on www.checkmynotification.com/ but there are a number of other accredited organisations, and your electrician could have been a member of any one of them, or none. See the genuine gov.uk government website

It is very usual for a professional electrician to put a sticker with his business name, on the new CU, to encourage new business and testing work, but he should also have left documentation with the householder, which he appears not to have done. This is not a good sign.

and a bit more here

An unqualified person is also allowed to do the work, by paying an additional fee and submitting plans to Building Control before starting work.

Some people think that work can be done by an unqualified person and subsequently "signed off" by an electrician. This is not correct, since the person(s) signing must certify that they have designed, installed and tested it (with test results). I suppose there are people willing to sign fraudulent certificates.