Electrician in Hythe: what happens once you ring

The bigger jobs we take on in Hythe are rewires, consumer unit changes, EV chargers and commercial work, and this page follows a visit from first call to finish.

Hythe is along the coast from our base in Folkestone, with Sandgate in between. What a job costs is set out on our price guide. This page covers the part a price list leaves out: what we ask when you get in touch, what to sort before we arrive, what gets switched off and for how long, and who needs to be at home. It runs in the order it happens.

If you can smell burning, see smoke or sparks, or anyone has had a shock, ring 999 first. Nothing below applies until that is done. After it, switch off at the board if it is safe to reach, then call us.

The call, or the message

Ring, WhatsApp or use the form below. The questions are the same whichever you choose, and having the answers ready makes it quicker.

• What is happening, in plain words. "The kitchen sockets went off when the kettle boiled" tells us far more than "electrical fault".
• Where your board is, and whether it is easy to get at.
• House or flat, and whether there is a loft or a cellar we might need.
• Anything that needs the power on. Someone working from home, a freezer you are worried about, equipment someone in the house relies on. It changes how we plan the time the power is off.

For a straightforward job, that conversation often ends with a price. If it needs a look, we book a quote visit. Quote visits are usually Friday evenings and Saturday mornings.

Before we arrive

• Clear a path to the board. Coats, the hoover, the shoe rack in the cupboard under the stairs. We need to stand in front of it, not lean past things.
• Move what is against the walls we are working on. Sockets behind a sofa or a bed mean moving the sofa or the bed. It is quicker if that is done first.
• Loft hatch and ladder, if the work involves the loft, with anything stored right beside the hatch pulled back.
• Pets in another room. Doors get left open while tools and materials come in and out.

On the day: what goes off, and for how long

How long you are without power depends on the job.

• A rewire or part rewire. We work one area at a time, and wherever it can be done the power is back on at the end of each day, so you are not living in the dark for the length of the job.
• A new consumer unit. Everything goes off while the board is changed. Most board changes take a day and some take half a day, so plan on having no power for that stretch. If the freezer worries you, say so on the call and we plan round it.
• A socket, switch or light. Only that circuit goes off, and only while that part of the work is being done. The rest of the house carries on as normal.
• Tracking down a fault. Circuits go off and on in turn while we test, so expect the odd short gap rather than one long one.

Dust sheets go down before the first screw comes out.

Who needs to be in

An adult has to let us in and be reachable while we work. Nobody needs to stand over us. But if we find something that changes the job, we stop and ask, and we need someone who can give a yes or a no. If that will not be you, tell us on the call who it will be.

For a quote visit, it helps if the person making the decision is there, so the options are heard first hand rather than passed on.

Before we leave

Every circuit we have touched is tested before it goes back on, and the board is labelled so the next person can read it. You get shown what has been done, and the mess leaves with us. All completed work is inspected, tested and certificated through a registered contractor we work with, and we provide all the required certificates. Where the work is notifiable, the notification to Building Control is handled as part of the job.

Card, bank transfer, or cash on completion for standard jobs. Larger projects can be split into stages agreed up front. No VAT is charged on domestic work. If anything is not right afterwards, ring and we come back to sort it.

If what you have is a breaker that has gone and will not reset, the emergency page covers what to do first.