Frequently asked
The questions peopleactually ring and ask.
Fifteen of them, grouped so you can find yours. If the one you want isn't here, ring 07931 542 170 — quotations and advice cost nothing, and it is quicker to answer a question once than to have you guess.
Booking, quotes and how it works
- Do quotations really cost nothing?
- Yes. A & P Moyes offers free, no-obligation quotations. Small jobs can often be priced over the phone from a decent photograph; anything bigger gets looked at on site first, because the age of the property and the state of the existing installation move the number far more than the job description does.
- How quickly can someone come out?
- It depends on what is already booked in — this is a small family-run business rather than a firm with a rota of vans. Ring and ask; if something is genuinely unsafe you will be told what to isolate in the meantime, and out-of-hours appointments can be arranged on request.
- Is there a minimum charge or a call-out fee?
- Ask when you ring, and you will be told before anything is booked. Nothing on this site is a price list, and you should be wary of any electrician who quotes a firm figure for a job they have not seen.
- Can work be done outside normal hours?
- Yes — out-of-hours appointments are available on request. It is the usual arrangement for shops that cannot close during trading hours and offices that cannot lose a working day.
- Do you work for landlords and letting agents?
- Yes. Periodic inspection and testing and landlord electrical safety certificates are a regular part of the work, along with any remedial jobs the report throws up. Inspections are booked around the tenant rather than the other way round.
Qualifications and paperwork
- Are you NICEIC registered?
- A & P Moyes states that it is an NICEIC domestic installer, Part P approved and 18th Edition qualified. We have not printed a scheme number on this website, because a number is only worth printing if you have seen the certificate behind it — ask for the current registration before any notifiable work starts. That is sound advice for any electrician, not just this one.
- What does Part P actually mean?
- Part P is the section of the Building Regulations covering electrical safety in dwellings in England and Wales. Certain work — a new circuit, a consumer unit replacement, and work in special locations such as bathrooms — has to be notified to building control. A registered installer can self-certify it, which is quicker and cheaper than the alternative.
- Will I get a certificate?
- Notifiable work is certificated on completion, and inspection and testing comes with a written report. Keep both somewhere findable: a solicitor, a letting agent or an insurer will eventually ask for them, and reproducing lost paperwork usually means paying to have the work inspected again.
- What is 18th Edition?
- BS 7671, the wiring regulations, is currently in its 18th Edition. It is what any competent electrician should be working to, and it is why boards installed in the last few years look rather different from the plastic ones fitted in the nineties.
The work itself
- Do you do commercial and industrial work as well as houses?
- Yes — residential, commercial and industrial customers are all on the list. That means shop and office fit-outs, distribution board work, high-bay and fluorescent lighting, emergency lighting, three-phase supplies to machinery and ongoing maintenance, alongside the domestic work.
- Something keeps tripping. Is that a big job?
- Usually not, but it is rarely a five-minute one either. Fault finding means isolating circuits, testing insulation resistance and working through the possibilities methodically until the appliance, the buried nail or the water ingress turns up. It is worth having done properly rather than living with the fuse board as a light switch.
- How long is the power off when a fuse board is changed?
- Most of a working day for a straightforward domestic change, with the supply off for a good part of it. Freezers usually cope if they are left shut; anything medical or business-critical should be flagged before the date is booked so it can be planned around.
- Can you put lighting in a garden?
- Yes — garden lighting design and installation is on the list. It works far better planned as a scheme than bought as a box of spikes: what is worth uplighting, where a low wash along a path is enough, how the zones switch, and armoured cable at the right depth to get power out there safely.
- Can you wire in an electric shower or a new cooker?
- Yes to both. Each wants its own circuit in correctly sized cable with the right protection, and an upgrade — a bigger shower, an induction hob — is often not a like-for-like swap. That gets checked before anything is ordered rather than after it is on the wall.
- Do you do heating controls?
- The electrical half of them, yes: programmers, room and cylinder thermostats, motorised valves and the wiring centre that ties the lot together. It is a common reason for one zone staying cold or the hot water running when nobody asked for it.
Still wondering?
Ring 07931 542 170 or 01628 532 248, email philip.moyes@sky.com, or send a photograph on WhatsApp. Quotations are free and carry no obligation, and you will be speaking to the electrician rather than a receptionist.