Fault finding · Southampton
Electrical fault finding in Southampton
Something tripping, sockets dead, lights out or half the flat without power. Tell me what it is doing, in whatever words come out.
- No diagnosis needed from you
- Charged for the time it takes
- Free, no-obligation quotes
- NAPIT registeredRegistered competent electrician
- Fully insuredInsured on every job
- 15+ years' experiencePeter has been doing this a while
- Covering SO14–SO19Local to you
What to say when you ring
Whatever comes out. “The upstairs sockets have stopped” is a perfectly good description and tells me more than you would think. If you can add when it started, whether anything changed just before, and whether it is still happening now, that is genuinely all I need to set off with the right kit.
You do not need a diagnosis. Working out the cause is the job itself, not something to sort out before booking it.
Two things worth checking first
Only two, and neither involves opening anything. First: unplug everything on the affected circuit and try resetting once. If it holds, an appliance is the culprit and you have just saved yourself a call-out — plug things back one at a time until it goes again. Second: look out of the window. If your neighbours are dark too, it is a supply problem and the network operator deals with it, not me.
If neither applies, leave it switched off and ring.
Flats, shared supplies and freeholders
A lot of Southampton is flats, and faults there are often not entirely inside your own four walls. Landing lights, door entry, the supply into the building and anything in a communal cupboard usually belong to the freeholder or the managing agent rather than to you, even when you are the one sitting in the dark. I can tell you fairly quickly which side of that line a fault sits on, which is often the thing people actually need to know before anyone can be billed.
Getting in to look
Faults are awkward to schedule because they need someone there. If you work away from home, a key with a neighbour or a half day is usually easier than trying to find a slot that suits everyone. Tell me what works and I will fit around it rather than offering you a single take-it-or-leave-it time.
What it costs to find out
Fault finding is charged for the time it takes, because the honest answer is that nobody knows what is wrong until they look. I will tell you the likely range before I set off, and if it turns out to be bigger than expected I stop and speak to you rather than quietly running up the bill.
Questions
Questions about faults
Half the flat has power and half has not. Is that serious?
Not necessarily — it usually just means one circuit has tripped rather than anything dramatic. It does need looking at rather than living with, because the thing that caused it is still there.
It is a flat and the managing agent says it is communal. Who sorts it?
Depends where the fault actually is, and that is worth establishing before anyone argues about the bill. I can usually tell you within a few minutes whether it sits inside your flat or on the building side.
Do I need to be there while you look?
Someone does, at least to let me in and show me what it has been doing. After that you are welcome to get on with your day — you do not need to stand and watch.
Can you tell me what it is over the phone?
Sometimes I can narrow it down, and occasionally I can tell you it is something you can sort yourself. Mostly I cannot, and guessing down a phone line is how people end up paying for the wrong part.
Related
Where to next
Something not working?
Tell me what it is doing and roughly where you are, and I will come and find it.