When it comes to adding extra sockets into a room of your home, it is a legal requirement for the work to be carried out by a qualified electrician under UK Building Regulations.
Homeowners in Bristol are only legally allowed to replace the faceplate to a socket, rather than DIY the installation of a brand new socket entirely. A qualified electrician will ensure that the work carried out is swift and fast but keeping it safe and compliant. If this is in an easy location, it would usually only take just over an hour for an electrician to add a plug socket for a Bristol homeowner, this is what we call a minimum charge job.
A recent additional socket installation job in Bristol
We were recently called to a family home on Symington Road, Bristol. The era of the homes on this street are mainly mid century semi- detached. The customer contacted us as her home had nowhere near enough sockets to keep a family running safely or sustainably, the customer isn’t alone with this issue though - this is extremely common with mid century homes. Mums main concern was her teens room, like most teenage boys his bedroom has a tv and playstation in. The over dependence and usage of extension leads in her son's room was causing her concern about the potential danger of that with a forgetful and clumsy teen.
It was our pleasure to proceed with the simple job of installing an extra socket in a sensible location of his bedroom, bringing the mum some peace of mind that she has prevented a whole list of potentially dangerous scenarios.
The only challenge we came across in this customer's home was working around the family dog who took a shine to the electrician, no complaints on his part!
People think of small jobs such as extra socket installation and think it’s not worth calling an electrician out to do this, but realistically a skilled and knowledgeable electrician knows how much making the small tweaks and improvements are what can increase the electrical safety of your home massively and that should matter more than anything.
it’s not wasting money to ensure that an installation is secure and safe, it’s an investment into both your home and your families safety.
What is the process of additional socket installation with a qualified electrician?
The first and arguably most important step of extra socket installation is cutting the power from the main circuit to prevent any electric shocks or worse and to keep the environment safe - we would then check that there isn’t any electricity running through the wiring still by using a voltage tester.
We would liaise with the customer to decipher where the new socket location would be most beneficial, ensuring the desired location is within safety requirements. The wall is then cut, running the power directly from the source of power. Inside the wall we have to then secure any loose wiring to the wall with an electrical standard staple.
Lastly we would connect the wires accordingly and secure the new socket box into the opening of the wall, screwing in the face plate. Once all screwed on we would need to restore power in order to run some tests on the new sockets to ensure it all works correctly and is above all safe.
EMC Electrical Group
If you’d like to discuss installing extra sockets in your bristol home, why not give us a call or fill out our contact form today!
EMC Electrical Group - NICEIC Approved Contractor
