New House trip box in garage. I think it's a problem?

[fletchybear]

We are about to move into a new build and as part of the process the builder has just completed a walk through. Pointing out electric sockets etc. On the walk through we realised the trip switch box (circuit box) is located in the integral garage.
The problem with this is you can only enter the garage through the external doors. Their is no internal entrance.
This has freaked me out a little as my OH is away a lot with business. I have 2 small children and I'm worried if something trips in the night, I'm going to have to exit the house to sort. Daytime this isn't too much of a problem. But if it goes in the middle of the night!!!
Does anyone else have the switch in the garage?
The builders have said they could build an internal door but they are quoting a stupid amount.
Any thoughts, experiences would be appreciated.

Ours is in internal garage, but we have an internal door. I would try and negotiate the price, if you haven't completed, to include an internal door.

integral garage.

If it goes in the middle of the night you won't know you'll be asleep and so will the children so no problem and you can sort in the morning.

If it goes in the evening just pop to the garage and sort it. Make sure you have your keys!

How frequently does the electricity trip anyway. Mine hasn't for years.

Finally if you ate worried get another couple of builders round to quote for the door and negotiate a reduction in the price if you can.

I didn't think internal doors to garage were standard now. Realistically how often are you going to need to go there at night. Presumably there is an access door which you can use at the back. Make sure that area is well lit outside (with emergency lights for power cuts) and you have the keys to hand.

Not sure what you've been quoted but we paid £350 for an internal garage door in our new build and it's been an absolute godsend, so much easier than using the up and over when we need to use the garage. Dp's brother wants an internal garage door in their house and he has been quoted a fortune as once the house is built they need building regulations changing, has to be a fire door and it's a brick wall which you'd need to take out. I really think, if their price isn't too bad, you should consider the door. Our neighbour says she wishes she had got one for their house now.

I think the main reason for my panic is the smoke alarm. Ours went off a couple of weeks ago on the middle of the night (it was beeping I tried to change it and then the alarm went). Luckily OH was here so he was able to sort it.
One of kids has autism and is glued to my leg. So I'm imagining myself wrestling with the garage doors with one child hanging off my leg. I know I'm a panicker but I'm imagining the worst I.e front door closing behind me and locking myself out with baby inside.
We defo need the internal door. The builder has quoted over 1500 which I think is too high. The build is practically ready so they are saying its a big job (we only offered 2 weeks ago if we had been involved sooner we would have ordered internal door). I guess I just can't believe that new houses wouldn't be obliged to make the access to the trip switch more straightforward. They aren't budging on price so I am considering walking away.

Smoke alarm batteries always fail about 4am when the house is coldest. And I think a new house should have mains powered alarms anyway if this is the UK.

never leave the house without your keys in your hand.

if the place is decently built the electrics shouldn't trip, although it will happen at some point in your lifetime. Get yourself informed about how houses work.

and as others mentioned - get some quotes for the internal door.

Garage doors are notoriously easy to force open, and once inside, an intruder can work, unheard and out of sight, to open an internal door. Even if it is a substantial door with a proper lock and mortice bolts, it will not take many minutes, especially if you have left a garden spade or other tools handy.

If you need to attend to your CU more than once a year, there is something wrong. About once in five years your iron might trip a breaker and need to be thrown away. If you have energy-saving lamps and not spotlights with old filament bulbs, you are unlikely to get a trip when one burns out.

If you want to spend some money, I would get a qualified electrician to fit RCBOs (one to each circuit) instead of having multiple circuits on one RCD. That way, a fault on one circuit will leave all the others working, which is much more convenient. It is a pretty easy change on most CUs made in the last 20 years or so.

Thanks everyone, maybe I am over reacting a little. We don't need to have the door fitted before we move in. I think it would be a lot cheaper if we hired a builder ourselves (just easier to do before carpet goes down). I really don't want to be messing with garage doors in the night. But if the chances of things tripping are slim I can put things into perspective:) Thanks for all the advice !

I'd agree with PigletJohn's suggestion (who'd dare to disagree with the guru, anyway?!) of individual RCBOs. We had to replace our fuse box last year and the electrician suggested that whilst he was at it, he should do this and a couple of other bits and pieces - we've known him years, he wasn't trying to get more money out of us - and it made a big difference. We still have a few spotlights which do trip the fuses, and I really appreciated it when it was just the kitchen/utility circuit that went out one evening instead of the whole house when the DC were in the bath. I didn't know it had tripped till I came back downstairs - if the whole lot had gone out, I'd have had to get two DC out of the bath, run downstairs, locate torch, move crap out of cupboard in front of fusebox etc. As it was I didn't even need the torch as the hall and cupboard lights were on. Still had mountains of clutter to yank out first though - for that reason alone I'd love to have a fusebox in a garage without loads of stuff stacked in front of it.

Also, on a serious note, we had to have our fusebox replaced due to a loose connection causing a fire inside the box, which is in the under stairs cupboard. Fortunately I smelt it and called the fire brigade whilst it was still contained - they pointed out that within 24 hours it would have gone up, taking the staircase above with it, and this is a common cause of house fires (I know of two others to whom the same thing happened but the whole house went up). I would be extremely pleased to have a fusebox outside the house. It still gives me shudders thinking about how we would have got the DC out if the staircase (straight down to the front door) had gone up in flames that night. We do have roll-up fire escape ladders (and smoke alarms inc one outside that cupboard) but I still wouldn't want to get a toddler down a ladder and we'd have had to get past the stairs to their rooms anyway.