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Gavin John Hyde

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Just gone along the road to screwfix to pick up a click and collect order for tomorrow before they close. Place usually like a ghost town this time of night.
However, There is a lady at the counter with a pile of stuff including a small consumer unit, a box of sockets, switches etc and some twin and earth. She is having a conversation with the guy behind the counter who is being more than helpful in selling her all the bits and discussing her planned job.
She intends to wire up her shed with power and lights now spring is coming and is doing it herself. I know most of the staff in the store and he says to her you need somebody like him (me), she says how much would it be? I said ball park figure depending on cable run and the condition of existing stuff, clipped direct/conduit? etc.. £500+ if it involves a long supply cable and rod.
She said thats far too much and she is going to carry on doing it herself! I said I hope you are going to notify it and test it afterwards. Her response was a classic... My partner will help if i get stuck!! Is he an electrician? No hes a teacher! , what about yourself? Oh, I am a community mental health nurse!
Surely there comes a point with these stores where they have to stop people being a risk to themselves and others in buying things they dont really understand... She might have read a book and watched youtube but is not competent to do the job.
I have long thought that certain stuff should be restricted and only available to people in the trade and qualified or accredited somehow.
 
If they restricted the sales of cable and consumer units to only people who have done their 2382 or something, this sort of problem could possibly go away, though to work properly it would have to be by law. Places like Screwfix are a business and care more about selling the stuff than who's buying it for whatever purpose.
 
Not going to happen,so don't stress:)

Are you going to restrict sales of thermometers?

Vets use thermometers,to assess the health of animals,and are trained to do so.

Anyone can buy any size of thermometer.

Anyone can purchase,any size,and fit in any orifice,of any animal.

Will restricting the sale in some outlets,stop these people from doing as they feel?

Nope.

If you feel the need to ban the sale of anything,head on down to the NEC exhibition centre,and ban the sale of a single scrawny baked potato,for a scandalous £8.95.

I will join you in the protest ;)
 
If they restricted the sales of cable and consumer units to only people who have done their 2382 or something, this sort of problem could possibly go away, though to work properly it would have to be by law. Places like Screwfix are a business and care more about selling the stuff than who's buying it for whatever purpose.

Nope,it will not.

...So they rock up,with a 2382 certificate,and no problems?

What about signing it off? Have they got any appropriate test gear?

Can they fit the equipment in a professional manner? ...because some sparks with more than the above,cannot.

....This is banning spoons coz people are fat,all over again :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
You've never extended or shortened a gas pipe, you haven't lived just need some washing up liquid or a box of matches to test for leaks.......
up here in the civilised North, we have ciggy lighters. matches are some sort of ball game played by the likes of arsenal and west ham. one day they'll approach the standards of Liverpool and Accrington Stanley.
 
If they restricted the sales of cable and consumer units to only people who have done their 2382 or something, this sort of problem could possibly go away, though to work properly it would have to be by law. Places like Screwfix are a business and care more about selling the stuff than who's buying it for whatever purpose.
Thats me stuffed then.
 
Diy is one thing but the real danger is trades people having a go in someone else's house. DIY only affects a single house but a dodgy "electrician" working around an area can do hundred of houses and not be there to deal with the results.
Personally I think part p has reduced the number of the latter, but I'm sure it hasn't changed DIY at all!
 
Once DIY centres only used to sell a limited range of materials and the general public never went near electrical wholesalers it was for trade only.
 
Once DIY centres only used to sell a limited range of materials and the general public never went near electrical wholesalers it was for trade only.
Yes, before the days of the Internet and also before Screwfix, Toolstation, etc. which are a sort of halfway house between the DIY superstore and a proper wholesale counter.

You'd think the Internet would make DIY safer, however as communications/ technology advances, a lot of joe public become more and more stupid and unable to communicate or comprehend anything they see or read, unless of course it originates from faeces book.
 
They are the same biscuits as supplied at boarding school, its not a custard or semolina coating.........

Ahh,happy days...once upon a time,the first three years at school were spent warming the toilet seat for the school bully...now you can tell them on day one,you want to be non-gender specified,won't do competition sports,and are vegan...

The world is upside down...;)
 

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