i'm sure you'd agree that the very best electrical jobs are the ones where you
start with a completely blank canvas you can really make it your own you've not got to worry
about tying into existing systems however we also know that that isn't always the way that it works
so i've popped back down to Devon to meet up with Theo Webster electrical services
winner of not one but two eFIXX awards they got commercial and industrial install of the year
as sponsored by Deligo and also winner of a 30 under 30 award as supported by BG Luceco and
we're going to have a chat about the challenges of combining the old with the new on this job and
how that's leading them on to the exciting new work that's taking place elsewhere on this site
so Theo i've been outside talking about new work this doesn't look like a brand new building to me
it looks like it might have been here sometime so tell me a little bit about what's going on with
this job yes so it's phase one of a two-part job for us um so this used to be a vehicle workshop uh
it will now become servicing bays for motorhomes um so we we came in with a client and basically
the wiring was very old i'm not sure exactly how old it was in here to be honest
but we priced to completely rewire it yeah using as much of the existing containment that we could
right installing new where necessary and yeah uh so we've yeah chucked in completely new wire that
we were going to try and save some parts of the wiring uh but once we started working on further
inspection it wasn't salvageable yeah you find that don't you on existing jobs you sort of get
a point where it just becomes a point where you've got to cut your losses and you think there's no
point trying to salvage that now because it'll be quicker actually just to take care absolutely
yeah definitely yeah it's yeah definitely quicker sometimes just to renew than it is to work with
what you've got so so we've got lovely nice new trunking behind us here that looks really nicely
installed with your excellent conduit bends i'm going to look at those in a bit more detail yeah
but what sort of challenges of connecting the the old to the new i mean obviously was the existing
trunking in just pristine order when you needed to extend it no it was pretty beaten up yeah um you
know as you would expect from any sort of workshop of of this age so you know we've had to adapt
certain parts of it replace uh just so that we can actually so so it's usable so we've come over to
the distribution board Theo i noticed we've got a KitKat chunky there so we're approaching tea
break we'll wait till we're off camera to eat that but uh it's looking like this is a very very full
distribution board we've got a lot of circuits in here and this doesn't feel like a huge space
so tell me about what's going on inside here yeah so there's a lot going on for the size of the unit
there's the intentions are there's going to be three servicing bays for the motorhomes okay um so
each bay's got a 32 amp and a 16 amp single phase supply okay as well as a three-phase supply for
future vehicle ramps brilliant there's ring main in each bay as well consisting of six twin sockets
uh just for ankle grinders and things whatever they may need
we've got 32 amp and 16 amp supplies around the rest of the workshop as well all single phase just
for charging leisure batteries on the motorhomes and things like that so we've we've tried to make
it as versatile as possible so no matter what they need it for where they need it they can charge
vehicles or whatever wherever they need it it's a really good approach to design that isn't it
just making sure you've got everything exactly where you need it everything's fully equipped
and that there's there's an element of future proof yeah yeah definitely try to future proof
it i think yeah it's you know it was it was a difficult install the with the way the wiring goes
up and over the roller door it was it was a really difficult pull to get cabling in so
we tried to do it as much in one go so i haven't got to come back and try and do
it again yeah there's nothing worse than trying to pull cables past existing yeah
and just looking at some of the finer details inside here as well we've got uh it's nice to
see we've got A type RCDs yeah not AC's yes that's good so is that is that just for this installation
or is that something you do no it's something we do as a standard really yeah to be honest it's i
think it's the way the industry's going yeah it's yeah it's all going to go that way so yeah i mean
in reality there's so little you can actually get away with using a type AC here exactly
yeah yeah makes sense yeah and surge protection again standard or standard calculations no i i
personally don't see the point um i know there's a lot of contractors that will offer it to clients
as a cost difference yeah and like particularly in domestic i i just think it's completely pointless
yeah i think for what the cost of it is yeah in a in like a domestic consumer unit yeah
i just i think you may have better just fitting it yeah versus the cost of the homeowner replacement
absolutely yeah definitely yeah so um yeah you know SPD is standard that's good that's good and
one thing i really like of course as part of the eFIXX awards we had the marketing category which
of course you weren't successful in that one but what is nice to see everything's branded
here so we've got the the Theo Webster electrical services on the front and uh i particularly like
that we've got the um required stickers yeah were also branded but then this little one down here i
mean that looks like it's been made to measure for this Hager distribution board yeah it's not for
it it's not designed for it it's but uh it's now it's come off of a single u data cabinet blanking
module where i just trimmed it down stuck it in there well it looks absolutely brilliant branding
is key that branding is key absolutely and that's actually a really nice finishing touch on that
distribution board i like it so we've moved the van inside now there's got that beautiful
paint job that we're showing off it's just been freshly wrapped and it looks absolutely fantastic
um but it looks fantastic partly because of the lighting that we're under so talk to me what
fittings have we got in here uh so these are from Bell Lighting um so i think they're 100 watts now
i can't remember a while ago since i've done that i think 100 watt fittings um so Bell lighting are
fantastic they did the design so they spec their lux levels and all that as well and then give
you the detailed drawings as well so yeah really brilliant um yeah and i mean it's definitely going
to meet the requirements of what my client needs as well the only thing that might have to be in
addition going forward because it's because of the motor homes obviously they're quite tall and wide
yeah um we may have to look at local lighting but until they start using it it's something
that we just don't know yeah and also i guess when they're up in the air as well absolutely i'm kind
yeah makes perfect sense but it's good that it's all been designed because again you know light
levels especially an area where yeah it's not something you want to take a gamble on and just
go no well this is what i'd put in here you want it doing properly yeah yeah def you know
from your main light and also your emergency light as well you know you don't want to be responsible
and then suddenly it's not right yeah absolutely yeah i couldn't agree more with that now Theo i've
spotted a problem with your business model okay because this job is completely finished or very
nearly finished and you've got an awful lot of product left over here i can't help but notice so
why is there so much stock left over from this job uh well let's say this is for phase two so
we've got the new building coming up next door uh relatively soon i approached my client in i
think April when we actually priced it and i said look you know prices are going up yeah um by time
it comes to October we're actually going to start wiring you know you're going to potentially look
at another 15 increase on materials which we've definitely seen on on some manufacturers if not
more yeah particularly cable yeah um so you know we agreed that he would purchase all the gear at
the time uh to avoid any increases in costs and i think that will work massively in his favor i
think that is such a good idea as well because it solves that problem of increased cost over
time as you say that nasty surprise of well we quoted this much but now it's it's this much more
and also it means that you've not got the delays of stuff getting on absolutely yeah
yeah yeah some of the manufacturers are giving us three month lead times on items
yeah uh but we've got a lot of Heger gear um not all manufacturers uh wholesalers sorry we'll be
able to supply all that in one go yeah uh you know i had to wait a while to get some of it in
so you know particularly with the boards they're all SPD boards they're not just standard off the
shelf uh so yeah we've we've avoided any sort of lead time errors and things like that so yeah
it's a really good idea it means you've got your stock on site you've not got that increased cost
problem and also yeah not not running behind the not behind the eight ball are you with you yeah
he stopped coming in which is fantastic so all of this is ready for a few weeks now yeah when that
job starts yeah we can get that moved in yeah that and the job will be quite fluid anyway because
you know we'll be on site uh and varying parts of the building will be ready at different times
so this way we can just crack on with whatever we need to do absolutely great idea i've really
enjoyed my time on site with Theo today mainly because it's shown that he really is a worthy
winner of an eFIXX 30 under 30 award he's showing just the right blend of ambition but also tempered
by contentment to mean that he's built a business that shows a really reasonable manageable level
of risk in what it carries out so i really hope that things continue to go well for Theo
it's been really nice getting to know him and if you think that you're a worthy winner
of an eFIXX award then keep your eyes peeled for when we open nominations later in the year if
you've enjoyed this video please check out these ones here and thank you very much for watching