New build electrical contractors

Sequencing first fix around the other trades

First fix is the stage where an electrical contractor either helps the programme or holds it up. Cables go in once the frame and roof are on and before the plasterboard, so the window is narrow and it moves. What we care about is being told when it moves. Back boxes, containment routes and drops for power, lighting, interlinked detection, data and any renewables all go in at that point, and whatever gets missed comes back later as a chase in a finished wall.

On multi plot work the gain is repetition. We have wired a twenty eight plot development to one consistent specification, and the value of that is not the first plot, it is the twenty seventh. Second fix crews are not relearning the house each time, testing runs faster, and a variation agreed early rolls across the rest cleanly. Settling accessory positions and circuit schedules properly at the start beats finding out late on that the kitchen sockets have drifted plot by plot.

Second fix, certification and building control

Second fix is where the programme pressure lands, because it sits between the decorators and the handover date. Accessories, fittings, the consumer unit and every final connection go in, then all circuits are dead and live tested before anything is energised in anger. Interlinked smoke, heat and carbon monoxide detection is part of that stage, and it is one of the items building control will want demonstrated as working and not simply installed.

Certification is ours to issue. As an NICEIC approved contractor the electrical work is self certified under Part P, so the paperwork comes from us instead of waiting on a separate inspection, and Electrical Installation Certificates are issued plot by plot. A finished plot can therefore be signed off and released without the rest of the site having to catch up, which matters most on a phased handover where the sales office is working to different dates from the site manager.

Handover packs that stand up later

The paperwork outlives everyone who worked on site. Warranty providers, solicitors on the first resale and the homeowner two years in all come back to the same documents, so they are worth doing properly the first time. Per plot we provide the installation certificate, the circuit schedule and test results, and as installed information for anything not obvious behind the plasterboard. When somebody rings about a tripping circuit, whoever answers should be able to read the schedule instead of guessing.

Where solar, battery storage, EV charging or MVHR forms part of the specification, the renewables side is ours as well, so the MCS certification and the electrical certification come from one Lincolnshire contractor on one job number. On a development that means a single point of contact for the whole electrical and low carbon package instead of a main contractor holding two subcontractors apart and arbitrating between them when a date slips.