Electrical fault finding and repairs in Folkestone and Kent

Something has stopped working and nobody can tell you why. A breaker that will not stay up, a socket that is dead for no reason, lights that flicker when the heating comes on. That is the job this page is about.

Fault finding is £80 to £180. The reason it is a range and not a number is honest: we do not know how long it will take to find until we start looking. What you do get is a price agreed before anything begins, and a fault that gets tested out rather than guessed at.

Try this first, it is free

A good share of tripping boards are one broken appliance, and you can find it yourself in ten minutes without touching anything more technical than a plug.

1. Unplug everything on the dead circuit.
2. Reset the tripped switch, pushing it fully down first, then back up.
3. If it holds, plug things back one at a time and give each a minute of actually running.
4. When it trips again, the last thing you plugged in is the culprit.

Never take the cover off the consumer unit and never open up a socket or a fitting. If the board trips with everything unplugged, that is fixed wiring and it needs an electrician with the test gear to find it. There is a longer version of this in why does my fuse box keep tripping.

What we usually find

• A failed appliance. Kettles, washing machines and tumble dryers lead the field. Anything with a heating element wears out and starts leaking current.
• Water where it should not be. Outside sockets, garden lights, pond pumps. If it trips after rain, this is usually it.
• A damaged cable. A nail or a screw through a wall that clipped a cable, or rodents. You cannot find this by unplugging things because the fault is in the fixed wiring.
• An overloaded circuit. Usually plug-in heaters in winter, several on one extension lead.
• A worn breaker. Rarer, but real. They are mechanical and they do fail.

When to stop and ring instead

If you can smell burning, see smoke or sparks, or anyone has had a shock, ring 999 first. Then switch off at the board if you can reach it safely, and ring us on 07840 429873 after that.

Short of that, ring us if the breaker will not reset with everything unplugged, if it trips the instant you push it up, or if there is any warmth or buzzing at the board.

Where we work

Based in Folkestone, covering Hythe, Sandgate, Cheriton and Hawkinge every day, and Dover, Deal, Ashford, Canterbury and Romney Marsh when the job makes the trip worthwhile. On a CT or TN postcode and not sure? Ask.