Fourteen questions, numbered

The answers

1. Is there a minimum charge?

   £75, which buys the first hour on site including travel inside the ring road. Most single jobs — a dead socket, a light that trips the RCD, a cooker connection — are inside it. After that it is £52 an hour in fifteen-minute blocks. There is no separate call-out fee stacked on top; the £75 IS the call-out.

2. Do you make good after chasing walls?

   We fill and leave it flush and ready to decorate. We do not skim, we do not paint, and we do not re-plaster a whole wall. Anyone who tells you a rewire leaves no decorating is not going to be the one doing it. If you would rather nothing was chased, ask about surface trunking or a re-route through the loft — cheaper on decorating, uglier on the wall, and your call not ours.

3. What happens if you find something dangerous mid-job?

   We stop, photograph it, make it safe, and tell you what it is and what it costs to put right — before doing any of it. Some of it is not optional: if a board has no earth bonding we are not putting it back together and signing our name to it. But you will hear the price from us with the cover off, not on an invoice afterwards. If you would rather another electrician looked, we will leave it safe and walk away, and there is no charge for the visit beyond the hour.

4. Do you charge to quote?

   No for anything we can measure and price on one visit. Yes, at the hourly rate, for fault-finding — chasing an intermittent trip is the job, not the estimate for it. It comes off the bill if we do the work.

5. Who certifies the work, and what do I get?

   Voltway is a fictional demonstration and makes no registration claim. A real business should name the electrician, current scheme and certificate or building-control route, then confirm the expiry and scope before publishing this answer.

6. What is an EICR, and do I actually need one?

   An inspection and test of a whole installation, ending in a report that codes each fault by how urgent it is. £180 for a three-bedroom house, £240 with more than one board. If you are letting a property you will need one on a fixed cycle — the requirement and the interval are set by regulation and differ between England, Scotland and Wales, so check the current rules for yours rather than taking a tradesman's word for it. If you own and live in the house it is not compulsory; every ten years is the usual advice, and sooner if you are buying.

7. What does a new consumer unit cost?

   £520 to £680 is an illustrative preview range for a standard domestic board, not a Voltway quote. A real price would depend on inspection, existing wiring, protection and the certificate route.

8. How long will the power be off?

   A board change is four to six hours with the power down. A full rewire is room by room, so you keep power somewhere in the house for most of it, but expect two days with no heating controls. We will tell you which day is the bad one so you can plan around the freezer and anyone working from home.

9. Can you fit an EV charger?

   Yes, and the first thing we check is whether your supply can take one alongside a shower and an electric hob — sometimes the answer is load management rather than a bigger main fuse. £850 to £1,100 fitted for a 7kW unit on a straightforward run. Grant schemes exist for some properties and change often; we will tell you which one currently applies to your situation and never quote as though you have it.

10. Will you work off a ladder, or do I need scaffold?

    Ladders for short jobs at low level, a tower for anything longer or higher. If a job genuinely needs scaffold we say so and it goes on the quote as its own line — we are not going to freelance off a ladder at gutter height because it is cheaper to price.

11. What is the guarantee?

    Any guarantee shown in this fictional preview is illustrative only. A real business should publish its verified labour and manufacturer terms, exclusions and start date here rather than presenting a made-up promise as Voltway policy.

12. Do you take on part-finished jobs?

    Yes, and without the speech about the last electrician. What we will not do is certify work we did not see go in. That means opening up enough of it to test properly, which costs time — usually two to three hours — and occasionally the answer is that a section has to come out. We will price the inspection first so you can decide before committing.

13. Do I need a full rewire, or just repairs?

    Often just repairs. We test the existing circuits and the board before recommending a rewire — a scorched socket or a tripping circuit is usually a local fault, not proof the whole house needs stripping out. A rewire earns its place when the cable insulation itself has failed, there is no earth on lighting circuits, or the board simply cannot take modern protection. We will tell you honestly which of those applies, and give you both prices if there is a genuine choice to make.

14. Do you notify Part P for the work?

    This is a fictional preview and makes no registration claim. A real electrician should confirm whether the work is notifiable under Part P, whether they can self-certify it, and what certificate or building-control notice you will receive.