5 Essential Tips For Doing Your Own Electrics Safely

When renovating a property, there will likely come a point at which you will need to start working with the electrical systems running through the building. You may be thinking that with a quick bit of research and a selection of relevant tools, you can just get started with your own DIY electrician work, but we highly recommend that you take a step back first. One wrong move when doing electrical work can spell disaster and could cause serious harm to yourself and others working with you, or it could even damage the property itself. Before attempting any work like this, whether you’re replacing the whole wiring system or refitting switches and plug sockets, it’s important to do some research. To help, we’ve listed five essential tips for doing your own electrical work in a safe manner.

Research Building And Wiring Regulations
First of all, you’ll have to do some preliminary research before you start working on the wiring in your property. There are a number of different types of work that are covered by building regulations, and some things require official approval before you start work. These things include replacing fuse boxes and the electrics that they are connected to, plumbing a bathroom, changing the electrics in a bathroom due to their proximity to a bath or shower, installing and replacing heating systems, and a number of other things. When it comes to electrical work, a majority of the work you have to do will require these sorts of permission, especially if it’s a large undertaking. 

Don’t Ignore Wires In Walls
During your time renovating, and even when actively doing electrical work around the room, such as installing new plug sockets, you’ll likely be doing a lot of drilling. This is a necessity for certain tasks, but you should take care here. When drilling into a wall, you should always triple-check beforehand that there is nothing you’re about to puncture with the drill bit. Water pipes are a common casualty of poorly planned drilling attempts, and the same can be said for electrical wiring. At best, you’re going to damage the wires and have to fix and replace them. At worse, you could electrocute yourself, which could very well be fatal or even start an electrical fire. You can avoid this by using a cable detector which will scan inside a wall to pick up any electrical readings. This will show you where it’s safe to drill and which walls to avoid.  

Make Sure You Have An RCD
If you’re installing a new fuse box, you will want to make sure that you have what is known as a residual current device or RCD within that fuse box. This is installed into your consumer unit and is a device which can literally save lives. It will automatically shut off all of your power should a fault occur within your property’s wiring. Almost all consumer units will come with an RCD installed or even fixed into the unit, but it’s worth double-checking and avoiding any older models just in case. You can find various options like Hager consumer units via suppliers such as Sparks Direct. You can also buy portable RCD plugs, which can act as a temporary safety measure during your renovation project too.

Use The Right Equipment
Alongside these safety devices, you’ll also want to make sure you’re doing the work with the help of the correct equipment. While many of these jobs can technically be completed with the bare minimum, to increase your safety, it’s highly recommended that you use the correct tools and take your time as well. We’ve already discussed the cable detector to prevent you from drilling into any buried cables in the walls, but there are a few other tools that can help in preventing any nasty shocks too. First, you’ll want a voltage detector to detect the presence of power in a wire. You’ll also want to avoid using a standard metal screwdriver and instead opt for something insulated like a VDE screwdriver. The same can be said for other tools like pliers, cable strippers, and cutters. These will protect you from being shocked but remember that doesn’t give you a free pass to go digging around and cutting wires without care. Take all the other precautionary steps, including shutting off all power supplies before you start working with your electrics. 

Consider Getting Help
The last bit of advice we can get, and this might not be what everyone wants to hear, is to simply hire a professional. While it can be expensive to get this help, it could save your life. A trained electrician will be able to confidently handle this work with minimal risks. Not only will a professional electrician be able to work safely with a low chance of physical harm to themselves. There will also be a reduced chance of damage to your property. If you hire someone registered with a competent person scheme, you also won’t need to get any form of building approval for the work either. This can save you a lot of time and effort, potentially helping you to get the job done much faster.