Home Renovation Electrical Safety Guide

We’re going to be talking about home renovation and electrical safety. If you’re thinking of renovating certain parts of your home then you’re going to want to make sure you get it right. After all, you’re dealing with something that requires respect and careful thought, electricity can be very dangerous. We recommend that you call in a professional, highly qualified and skilled team of electricians, and we’re going to go through some of the things you need to consider before undertaking anything yourself, and preferably, call in a professional if you’re unsure.

Where are your wires?

If you’re going to take on the massive task of rewiring your entire electrical system make sure you know where to find those pesky wires. Most of them will be concealed behind walls and plaster. Again, we can’t stress enough the importance of working with a reliable, qualified and experienced electrician to update your wiring because it’s a big job - even for us and we do this kind of work all the time.

If your home is quite dated, and by that we mean possibly going back to the 60s and 70s, then it’s more than likely it’ll need rewiring. You may be considering the option of adding more rooms to your home and adding extra appliances. You could have some additional outlets installed so you’re not using too many extension cords as this can be dangerous and put too much stress on your electrical installation. 

You’ll need to make sure that any new electrical items you buy as part of your makeover is registered, so look out for the British kitemark. They need to be safe to use before you start, so if you have invested in some second hand items do make sure they’re registered and come with a logo that proves this.

Do you know where your new appliances are going to go?

You don’t want to place them somewhere where you’ll fall, trip over them or the cord attached or where they may simply not work as well as they should due to where you’ve placed them. Certain power outlets may have limits as to what power they give. Also, don’t put your appliances anywhere where they will overload the sockets.

RCD

RCDs are important because they will cut the power from your electrical installation should there be a power surge or a fuse blows. These types of incidents can often cause an accident and in some cases death. An RCD in your fuse box will prevent anything like this by cutting the power when an accident happens.

Take a Thorough Approach

If you’re considering carrying out some electrical work on your home because you’re going to be renovating, please make sure you don’t undertake anything until you’ve done thorough research before starting. In some cases you may not be able to do it yourself anyway. This is because anything complex that involves electricals must be signed by a registered engineer. If you fail to do this then you could invalidate any insurance you have on your home. This could seriously impede any future attempts to sell your property, and this is especially important if your renovations have been with the sole intention of selling. Of course, unsafe electrical installation is a dangerous one, and the danger this poses to you and your family isn’t worth the risk if you are not experienced with electrics.

VC Electrical - Expert Electricians

If you don’t think you have the relevant experience and knowledge to undertake electrical work as part of a home renovation, why not leave it to the professional electricians? Why not call us and we can talk through your ideas and we’ll do all we can to help.