Kingswood
Fuse box upgraded to a modern RCBO board
Old rewireable board out, full RCBO protection in, everything labelled and certified.
About this service →Electrical faults don't announce themselves; they trip things, dim things, and kill the odd socket, and the fix is only cheap when the diagnosis is right. Fault finding is diagnosis first, repair second: I find what's actually wrong, tell you in plain English with the test readings to back it, and you approve the repair knowing what you're paying for. No parts-cannon, no "replaced the board, see if that helps".
Common faults I get called to
A breaker or RCD that trips, either instantly on reset or randomly at 3am. Half the sockets in a room dead while the other half work. Lights that flicker or dim when an appliance starts. A warm switch, a fishy smell, a buzzing dimmer. Outside lights that trip everything when it rains. Each of these has a short list of usual suspects, and the job is eliminating them in the right order.
Something tripping, dead, or smelling hot?
Switch the circuit off if it's heating up, then send a photo or call — most faults are found and fixed in a single visit.
How I find a fault
Split the circuit, test each half, follow the failure. It's the method every good electrician uses and every bad one skips: isolate the circuit, divide it at accessible points, and let the insulation-resistance and continuity readings say which leg the fault lives in, then narrow again until it's one junction, one cable, one accessory. It beats guess-and-replace because you pay for one repair instead of a sequence of hopeful ones. If your fault is the classic tripping RCD, the RCD tripping guide shows you the unplug-everything version of this same method, free, and it resolves a good share of cases before anyone is paid.
What fault finding costs
These are estimates, not quotes. Final costings always follow a free site inspection — and jobs often come in under the estimate, never over without you agreeing it first.
Diagnosis is an £80 call-out plus £30 an hour — and most faults are found in the first hour. Repairs are quoted once the fault is known, before they happen. Intermittent faults can take longer to reproduce, and I'll be straight with you when one looks that way. Indicative rates, confirmed in writing when you book.
Recent fixes
Longwell Green
Garden lighting, designed then wired
Lighting positions planned with the customer before a single cable went in the trench.
About this service →
Fishponds
Unsatisfactory EICR turned around in a week
Two C2s found at a landlord inspection; both remedied and a satisfactory report issued five days later.
About this service →Can you find intermittent faults?
Yes, they're the speciality and the slog. The approach changes: readings under load, monitoring the conditions the trip happens in, and sometimes leaving a circuit split for a few days to catch it in the act. I'll always tell you when a fault is the patient kind before the hours add up.
Why do my lights flicker?
A loose connection somewhere between the board and the fitting, a failing dimmer, or a big load pulling the voltage down when it starts. Whole-house flicker with big appliances points at the supply or a main connection, and that one shouldn't wait.
Is a burning smell from a socket an emergency?
Yes. Switch the circuit off at the board, unplug what's in it, and leave it off until it's been looked at; if anything is smoking or you can see flames, get out and call 999. Then call me and say it's a burning smell, so I know it can't wait. Overheating plastic smells fishy before it smells like smoke; that smell is your early warning.
