Commercial electrical contractors

Electrical work planned around your trading hours

The cost of a commercial electrical job is rarely just the quote. It is the quote plus whatever the shop, office or restaurant does not take while we are in it. That is why the survey asks about your week before it asks about your board. A cafe is dead on a Tuesday afternoon and heaving on a Sunday morning. A college is empty for six weeks in summer and a hotel is the other way round, so tell us the pattern and the job gets built around it.

Working outside trading hours carries a premium on labour and frequently costs less in total once lost trade is counted. Where the sums do not support that, the alternative is phasing, taking one floor, one wing or one circuit at a time and leaving the place trading in between. Temporary lighting and temporary supplies belong in the plan instead of turning up as an afterthought, and the sequence goes in writing before anybody arrives with a van full of cable.

Distribution boards and the capacity question

Commercial units across Lincolnshire have mostly grown by accretion. A board correctly sized for the original fit out is now feeding an extra air conditioning unit, a coffee machine, a bank of desk chargers and a server cupboard that appeared one summer. The symptoms are nuisance tripping, warm enclosures and a schedule on the door that no longer matches what sits behind it. A survey that measures the actual load beats an argument about what ought to be fine in theory.

From there the options are few. Rebalance the phases and release capacity you already have, add a sub board local to the new load instead of dragging long final circuits back to a full board, or apply to the DNO for a larger supply. The first two are quick. The third takes time and money, so it pays to know early if that is where you are heading, particularly with EV charging anywhere on the list.

Landlord shell or tenant fit out

Who is paying changes the specification more than people expect. A landlord fitting out a shell wants a compliant, neutral, robust installation that suits whoever takes the unit next, which means generous containment, sensible board capacity and lighting that will not need ripping out in a year. Longevity and low maintenance beat anything fashionable. It is also worth wiring for more than the current use, since a retail unit and an office want very different things from the same four walls.

A tenant is spending against a lease, so the calculation runs differently. Work out what reverts to the landlord at the end and what you can take with you, read the terms before committing to anything structural, and get consent in writing before altering the incoming supply or the main board. Any commercial electrician worth using will happily talk to both sides. It saves the argument at dilapidations, which is usually where these decisions resurface.