Where Do Plumbers/Bathroom Fitters Stand With Electrical work ?

[LDhiman]

Hello guys,

This must have been covered a millions times but.

where do we sand with doing minor electrical work? e.g light fittings, heated towel rail element and fans? i understand not being able to do install showers but can you take one off the wall and put it back on? or change the shower for a new one?

It annoys me paying a sparky £200 to do a few bits that i know i can do my self.

Thanks

 

[Alpha man]

You've got 3 choices, pay the sparks, do 17 edition / Part P or do it illegally!

 

[bacon_sandwich]

To do any electrical work in UK, you have to be deemed to be competent. This is a combination of qualifications and experience relevant to the job you are doing. Bathrooms are "special locations" as far as BS7671 is concerned so there are extra measures that have to be followed to make the electric safe. In reality to do this you need an up to date copy of BS7671 and the Onsite Guide as these specify what and what cannot be installed in bathrooms, i.e. Zones, LV vs ELV, IP4X vs IP7X etc etc. You also need to test and certify the work. An electrician who has registered with a Part P scheme has to recover the costs of that scheme and pay to notify the work. In very simple terms if you don't have the reference docs or ready access to them and don't have a tester that can test RCD, Insulation resistance, earth loop and continuity and fill in the certs- then chances are what you may want to do would not been deemed competent in the eyes of higher authorities

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

Bathrooms are "special locations" as far as BS7671 is concerned

And it all changed again last April 2013 so that you have to measure a distance from the water - not the whole bathroom and kitchens stopped being special locations.

This is the info I emailed my colleagues last April, of course do check as things may have changed since then and I may be out of date:

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Part P & Electric in bathroom - only notifiable if within the zone

This is what it says on the niceic website [DLMURL]https://brcs.niceic.com/[/DLMURL]

Part P Changes:

From 6th April Part P has changed for England. The electrical installation work that now requires notification to Building Control is - The installation of a new circuit. The replacement of a consumer unit. Any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a room containing a bath or shower (within the zones specified in BS7671). Any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a room containing a swimming pool. Any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a room containing a sauna heater. When notifying work in England please ensure that the most suitable descriptor is chosen. There are no changes to the notification requirements in Wales.

The zone is illustrated in Part P diagram 2, at 2.6, page 7 - here http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_AD_P_2013.pdf
This zone is:
vertically from finished floor to 2.25 metres high or to the shower head if it is higher.
horizontally from edge of bath or shower tray 0.6 metres or 1.2 metres away from shower head if there is no shower tray.

 

[erpkid]

Don't forget with the 17th edition they introduced a "duty of care" so they have the start of legal recourse if there is a problem. The relaxing of rules for kitchens made things easier for us but we still recommend that the customers get a 17th edition board in at the same time. What is 300 quid when they are replacing the kitchen. This automatically gets every circuit RCD protected and tested. The electricians we use would never touch our sort of work and we get referrals through them.

 

[bacon_sandwich]

And it all changed again last April 2013 so that you have to measure a distance from the water - not the whole bathroom and kitchens stopped being special locations.

This is the info I emailed my colleagues last April, of course do check as things may have changed since then and I may be out of date:

=======
Part P & Electric in bathroom - only notifiable if within the zone

This is what it says on the niceic website [DLMURL]https://brcs.niceic.com/[/DLMURL]

Part P Changes:

From 6th April Part P has changed for England. The electrical installation work that now requires notification to Building Control is - The installation of a new circuit. The replacement of a consumer unit. Any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a room containing a bath or shower (within the zones specified in BS7671). Any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a room containing a swimming pool. Any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a room containing a sauna heater. When notifying work in England please ensure that the most suitable descriptor is chosen. There are no changes to the notification requirements in Wales.

The zone is illustrated in Part P diagram 2, at 2.6, page 7 - here
This zone is:
vertically from finished floor to 2.25 metres high or to the shower head if it is higher.
horizontally from edge of bath or shower tray 0.6 metres or 1.2 metres away from shower head if there is no shower tray.

Yep a slight relaxation for building control notification, BS7671 has not changed yet but is due an amendment in about a year. Kitchens were never a "special location" as such it was just bundled in with them as there is nothing you do "special" in a kitchen. I have to admit the last bathroom I did - it took me a while to figure out whether it was notifiable or not, I had to get the tape measure out and was just 2 inches out of zone. Saved me £3 in fees - ha Wow