Last week a user of my website www.mylocalelectrician.co.uk posted a comment in my forums about the distance a socket should be installed from the edge of a kitchen sink. Since then I have done some research online about this question and there seems to be confusion in the trade with regards to the minimum distance a socket or switch can be from the edge of a sink or hob and I would like to let everyone know how I see it.

In the current IET 17^th edition wiring regulations there is no reference to the position of an electrical outlet in a kitchen, the only reference is  “sockets and accessories are suitable for the environment they are to be used in”, vague I know, but isn’t most of the regs? Lol

The “ electricians guide to the building regulations”  book mentions this and even have a nice diagram showing a minimum distance of 300mm ( 30cm / 12” ) from the edge of a hob and sink.

So to put things clear to everyone as I see it, the minimum distance for an electrical outlet in a kitchen should be 30cm. That is the width of two 6” wall tiles or three 4” wall tiles.

This rule is NOT an electrical regulation but it IS a building regulation. Part P building regulation to be precise.

This is a picture of yet another badly wired junction box I found under a hallway floor. As you can see there are numerous problems with this,  No earth sleeving being the most obvious!

Also this lighting junction box was not easily accessible, making a relatively easy job into a much larger job than it should have been.

Please do remember that junction boxes, or indeed any type of cable connection, should be accessible.

As any type of connection, over time the connections could become loose or break down. If this happens I am sure you would like the piece of mind that if there were a problem and the junction box was easy to get to then your local electrician will find it easier to fix the problem and of course this will save them time and you money!

I also think that if I had a penny for every junction box that probably exists under the floors of peoples homes in the UK like this one, I would probably not have to work another day in my lifetime.

I came across this junction box of cables under the floor of a house that I part rewired a month or so ago. This really is probably one of the worst junction boxes I have seen in a while.

I think every rule in the book has been broken here! No earth sleeve, bare cables, no cover on the junction box, I really could go on and on! I am so glad that something serious did not happen as the open junction box was quite close to some central heating pipes.
This is a prime example of someone attempting electrical work and not being competent enough to carry out the works. If you have seen any junction boxes in your home like this then please call your local electrician or ask our resident electrician any electrical questions you may have.

I came across this socket hanging off the wall and fixed only by its cables! in the house where we done the electric cooker job last week.

As an electrician I could not see this and do nothing about it! so I replaced the plasterboard box that was currently being used to screw the twin socket front to and refitted to the wall with a correct twin surface pattress and a new twin socket front.

I know that we did not get paid for this as this was not part of the paid job but in my mind as we had the parts on the van and it took me about 10 minutes, and of course I had all the tools out anyway, I figured that I would be the right thing to do.

If you see anywhere or have a socket like this in your home please contact your local electrician at www.mylocalelectrician.co.uk

Here you will find your local professional electrician. You can also ask our resident electrician any electrical question you may have or post a comment or reply to others on my electricians magazine.     

The job we had yesterday was to install a new cooker circuit for a 6.4kw double electric cooker / oven. Initially the customer called us up to take a look at the existing cooker circuit to see if it would be ok to use for their new electric oven. After finding that the cooker existing cooker circuit was not correctly fused and also finding that there was no isolation or a cooker outlet plate we decided to investigate further. As you can see from the picture, I found the 6.0mm twin and earth cable disappearing behind a skirting board! We suggested a new circuit from the consumer unit to the cooker. The customer thankfully agreed and felt also that this should be done, So now the customers cooker can now be connected safely and correctly. I only wish that all customers were like this one, and when I recommend something they get it done! One of the rare occasions where the customer did not complain about the works needing to be done or haggled about the price!         

Hi all, I felt I must show you this picture on my electricians blog. This is a picture that was kindly sent to me by another like minded electrician in the uk wanting to help in my campaign informing the public about what can happen with bad electrics in the home. Chris from CPJ Electrics from Berkshire ( www.cpjelectrics.co.uk ) emailed me to say  “Please use my pictures to stop people employing ill informed / non trained and non competent people”

Chris moves on to explain what happened in the picture you see:

“the chrome Switched fused spur unit shows what happens when you have a 2400W dryer & 1200W washing machine on the same fused spur – its overheats – melts & emits a fishy smell”

Thanks Chris for your kind time and efforts in helping this electricians blog. Eventually if us electricians “ Competent people “ can convince home owners that it really is not saving them money in the long term to not employ a competent electrician, Then we should all live in safer homes!

Finally today we finished the part rewire we have been working on for what seems a life time! Actually it took us ten days in total.

As we were finishing up today writing the electrical certificate, the lady from the council came around to ensure that all works we had invoiced were carried out. The council do seem really on the ball as she was very efficient and thorough. She said she was also going back to the office to put our payment through which also makes her a really nice lady! Thanks Katie!

Before we left the customer of the property also asked if we could do a few little extras for him. One of the extras was to rewire his garage. We have already re run a new supply to the garage from the main consumer unit in the house with a 6.0mm to a garage consumer unit. All the old electrics in the garage have been cut out and disconnected a while ago by the looks of it. Take a look at the picture I took today of the old 2 gang switch. The customer also asked if I could reuse this! Electricians, Would you reuse this 2 gang switch?

How to change and update an old type fuse box. Welcome back to my top 10 Tuesday electricians blog. This is week three of my top 10 electrical problems I have come across in my occupation as an electrician.

In the picture you will see an old style metal fuse box that I found in a customers garage. As you can see it is hanging off the wall with all the live cables exposed! including cobwebs and plenty of dust. This is not good! If you have come across anything like this in your travels as an electrician or even worse still, have something like this in your home or property please contact your local electrician at www.mylocalelectrician.co.uk.

Thankfully our customer, who had just moved into this house, called us up and asked us to sort his electrical problems out. There are plenty of problems in his home that need sorting out, but for now this seems to be the worst! But then again like I always say to my customers “ it is not what you can see, but what you can’t see” that can cause problems.

If you have a question for me as an electrician or would like to ask a question to an electrician but too worried to ask, please feel free to contact me at www.mylocalelectrician.co.uk / www.mylocalelectrician.blogspot.com or email me at gary@mylocalelectrician.co.uk

I will guide you in the most suitable direction without it costing you anything.

This week and next we are on a partial rewire. We gave an estimate for the job about 3 months ago and it has taken this long for the job to come up as it is work that the customer is having done through his local council as a grant.

When we gave the estimate for the job we put a disclaimer on it stating that excessive household items be removed from the property for us to be able to do the job.

Well ! as you can see in the picture I have taken of the customers attic, This has not been the case. The house is packed floor to ceiling in every room with boxes and books and newspapers! The customer says he is a collector!

As you can see, even the attic is completely packed with stuff and carpeted and boarded!

We have now suggested another £300 on the estimate and guess what! The customer is saying why? Can we not just go round the edges of the attic to rewire the lighting circuits?

Unfortunately some people have no idea what is involved in a rewire.

Do you think that an extra £300 is ok for having to move and work around all these problems? Bearing in mind it now puts on an extra 2-3 days on the job.