Electrical installations - in general

Are you planning to start your home refurbishment, build an extension or carry out a conversion? You are probably going to hire some builders to do the work. However, before you let somebody start on your project, read this article and get some basic knowledge of how the electrical installations are carried out – some tips are always useful to get the best results.

When a project is a full scale refurbishment, everything has to be stripped out to clear spaces leaving just bare walls, ceilings, floor. Then one of the first jobs is electrical circuit installation (as well as tv, alarm system, sound system, computer cables). To do it properly a plan has to be prepared where all the sockets, switches, lights and other outlets (for alarm system - any sensors, magnets, sound system - speakers, computer network sockets, etc..) are marked. Electrical plan should clearly indicate at what heights, positions, what types of fixtures will be used, where and what appliances will be connected - to make it all clear and to avoid any misunderstandings.

This plan has to be prepared before work commences on walls or ceilings plastering, drylining, constructing partition walls or suspended ceilings - wiring done in the first phase of any project, then it is all hidden inside walls or above ceilings. Switches and sockets installed this way affect the overall look very little, look nice and neat. Hidden wiring should allways be done in living spaces - it's not only nicer, but also safer, minimising the risk of accidentally damaging any exposed cables. Otherwise when walls are finished, wiring is fixed onto the walls, exposed cable casings look ugly.

To maintain design consistency London electricians allways advice on using same model, design switches, sockets.

Switches and sockets have to be installed in positions easy to reach, safe to use. It is a bad idea to install them just above worktop or floor because there is a risk of electrical shock when cleaning surfaces with a wet mop or cloth. Usually sockets are installed 20-30 cm above the floor, 10-15cm (1m - 1,15m above ground) above the worktop, 1 m above ground in garages.

When designing a plan it is important to predict your electrical needs in future: perhaps you can't afford a home theatre system or few computers connected into local intranet system at the moment, but some time in the near future you may acquire it - speakers, tv or computer cables and few sockets are not costly to install. The sockets could easily be covered until they are needed. In the kitchen area above worktop there is never enough of electrical sockets - so many appliances are used in cooking and with technology progressing it is more likely in future there will be even more of them in every kitchen.

General advice is - it's not worth saving money on electrical installations, you should have as many sockets as needed, preferably duoble and in some place triple or four in one place: later, when renovation project is finished, having extension leads or additional sockets installed on the walls with exposed wire casing looks very ugly. Besides electrical wiring, all appliances better perform when they are hardwired - intranet network, alarm system, phone line can operate on radio waves, but the operational efficiency is lower, may need some maintenance, the equipment itself is more costly.

For your home rewiring, contact Azbuilders, london electricians. For your home full scale refurbishment, contact Azbuilders, builders in London - we guarantee quality service and the end result that would meet (or sometimes even exceed) your expectations.