we turned up on site i feel like i'm in a sketch from naked gun this isn't Big Al it's will
from HBS electrical as i can see on your shirt i can't see
anything else are you possibly the tallest electrician in the UK at the moment
possibly yeah okay so you're gonna show us around this two bed we're gonna have a walk around
will's gonna show us what he's doing and what is installed in this electrical installation
so why is the house being rewired um so the customer uh it's his first house um he's
bought it and completely gutted it so the the electrics were pretty short so we've uh decided to
upgrade say the truth you're his mate and you're an electrician he wanted his house re-wiring yeah
it's mates rates so we're in the uh intake position here what earthing arrangement have we
got uh TN-C-S okay and i don't know what that is believe it or not what is that um i believe it's
to do with the the smart meter okay so that says on there Zigbee comments below if you can tell me
exactly what that is it's got a feed coming into it and nothing else so obviously it must be some
sort of communication device is that part of the smart meter leave your comments below should we
go inside yeah oh indoor swimming pool i see so is it a case of leaping through here leaping through
it's all right for you okay it's amazing what you can find in the skip if your rifle around
for long enough the original wiring accessories in this two bed house were MK and we're taking them
out and replacing them with the new MK Base range which we've already reviewed on the channel i'll
leave a link for that in the description but catch up with will now old consuming air looks like a
Wylex rewireable that old favorite that was installed many moons ago what's the advantage will
a customer of upgrading that consumer unit uh protection mainly RCD protection uh obviously is
the the main advantage um across all the circuits as opposed to uh none okay and also with it being
circuit breakers they've got the ability just to reset when the fault has been cleared hasn't made
so looking very energized yeah yeah and as yours mate it means that's probably one less phone call
you're gonna get hopefully yeah look into the kitchen i'd see a number of spotlights so they
carried that theme out through the house no it's um i think there's only the the kitchen and the
the house bathroom uh with spots apparently from that there's actually you got away with
that one didn't you because yeah normally it's doing it we'll have spots everywhere exactly
i know it's over there in the corner we've got i think what looks like a lead pipe coming in for
the water so that means protective bonding is gonna need to be installed yeah it's currently
under the floor ready to be connected obviously we need the plumber to come in and work his magic
i think he's leaving it a little bit late is he another friend he's another friend
well it looks like you've been busy in here chopping in socket outlets there seems to be
a number of them in the kitchens you're mad and he well i like this so i'll take it uh if we're we're
doing our homes under the hammer bit we've got the open plan living here so we're kitchen diner
living area living area yeah that's correct always focusing on the bit behind the telly so i know new
builds never have enough socket outlets is it down in the right hand yeah down in the right if
i see two twin sockets i'm always impressed as we pull this back what we got uh so oh
yeah he chased him in himself that makes logical sense doesn't it now sound systems Sky TV uh TV
i think he's not going wall mounted by that his decision's going low level no low level um he'll
have a unit with a tv will sit on and then he'll have his uh Playstation DVD player everything
underneath so as this obviously is a mate's rate for the plumbing makes right for the electric
is obviously a budget involved with it it's it's been a nice simple basic reward for me and look
at it maybe from their point of view if you've got to put your first carpet in your first wall
your first plaster first pipe your first cable and all furnishings they've got something that gives
and with it being his first house and doing it on his own um obviously he's got to keep
an eye on that money yeah that budget's really important you look upstairs yep
somebody else not done their job right is that right pretty much so plaster is not cleaning their
boxes out it's really easy to always want to clean the box out oh it's wet yeah yeah yeah rather than
when it's dry so when you said you were trained old school was that a small company large company
so at Airedale the company started with out onto sites with proper old school electricians
what class is somebody who's a proper old school electrician that's a great term
great Graham Roulette it was called that was i was put with he he was coming up to retirement but
like literally didn't even have battery drills he used to have uh mandrels everything had to be
literally spot on a bit of a baptism and of fire when we uh when we started there were two of us
that would put with Graham on these jobs and how good was that in hindsight now oh no probably you
dreaded it at the time with the old man yeah yeah so USB socket is on the side of the bed
good idea yeah i think so i think obviously uh phone chargers um stuff like that now i
think it becomes your radio alarm clock as well doesn't it yeah does everything these days um
so and it comes with a USB lead now rather than an actual socket so
so you've got some screw caps there yeah i'll leave them uh in a box for him and then once
he's finished decorating it can have a pleasant job of going around and screwing them all in
okay so you say pleasant job are you a fan of screw caps no generally what i'd say is
the person that's going to come after in or with many years if they want to change it they've got
the job of trying to get them off and uh you're worried about somebody who's coming
back in 15 years time i like it Will i like your style there i think the customers tend
to be the ones who do like them down and gives that nice finish as it's yeah the accessories
don't obviously not been painted yet that's going to come off again isn't it at some point
yeah so if i look at the design of this USB socket obviously with this slightly curved and
the thickness of it what you're thinking of the MK Base range no i like it it looks nice sturdy
a good finish um kind of what you expect from a socket so when you first looked at it what would
you have suggested it was make wise would you said it was budget i would have said it's generally
what i'd generally install more of a middle middle range socket so this is bedside light switches
is it uh it says yeah is this doing the main light or the wall light uh just the wall light
okay and looking at the cables here what method are you using are you feeding the switch are you
doing the three plate method uh i'm feeding the switch do you always feed the switch or is it
just that these uh wall light type ones uh no i tend to always run my my permanence down to the
the switches um i just think it if you've ever a problem fault finding it just makes everything
a lot easier i mean of course because you've got the majority of the connections in one location
obviously the the light itself's only got one one cable in it i'm thinking now i don't don't often
people say that do they yeah i like that for finding obviously not your own work obviously
and just just confirm that that's into a bucket I like it so that's not tiding up as you go along
yeah do you think that'll ever catch on should do makes things a lot easier back in the day
uh a lot of stuff that was put in one's MK did you fit much of it in the past um back when i started
being an electrician yeah i think every everything that was installed on sites was pretty much MK
um what was your feeling on the brand at the time when you were installing back in the day
no great i used to love it um being literally i think it was one of the only makes that i
uh worked with um i didn't really know of any of my makes at that point in time so
and always find that the sort of make you first start out with is the one you tend to
hold on to the longest only because you were sort of trained on it work within those early
informative years of your apprenticeship yep obviously you've moved away um to a certain degree
from the MK brand now do you believe MK Base range is going to give you some more options moving
forward maybe where you're squeezed on budget yeah definitely it's extremely good are you coming here
i'll definitely uh be thinking of it in the future and design wise so as a look
at that with those soft edges do you think that's really important to a customer it depends on what
what look the customer wants the finish to look for but personally i think that
the rounded edges do look better than the square so i'd say showing them these will be
a good good option for them and off the budget socket tends to and a switch tends to be very
blocky doesn't it very square and quite thick doesn't it yeah were you aware of the thickness of
all the electric accessories which is the same so when you're in that kitchen with your cooker
switch and your fuse connection units and your sockets they're going to be the same depth it's
i think that's definitely a good good selling point of them really handy about these type of
installations is this raised floor allowing us to wire underneath it if you've got somebody small
enough in the electrical team you can pop them in the floor and wire say the downstairs ring really
quickly see what we've got under here ah my good friend Joe how's it under there mate thank you
so they're already backed out do you think that saves you some time yeah yeah definitely i always
think if you're obviously going for uh price conscious outlets that if you've got to start
unwinding screws they're already backed out and they're captive do you think that's going
to give you a little bit of advantage in speed of installing as well yeah yeah definitely i
think it's it's a really useful it's something that you don't generally think of until you're
having to unscrew them all or worst case scenario i'm screwing it a little bit too far and looking
at the floor here obviously we're scrambling as a hole it's definitely going to go down isn't it
so um yeah can be a little bit of an issue with the bounce to bounce into a different realm so 25
mil box that USB socket's gone on no problem you just got a problem obviously with a plaster has
left the load in there for you as well hasn't he yes very thoughtfully covered up the screw
holes just to make sure that no other rubbish gets inside we've got some different opinions on this
one when i installed two way switching around my bedroom area i left the switch my wife's side but
you suggested uh you've got your side at yours yeah yeah um it's it's one of them things where
i like to be in control of the lights as soon as it sounds generous side screws and then there's
light switches yeah and really big terminals which is um i thought was a really good feature
as often as you drop the price slightly you tend to have a little bit smaller holes less copper
smaller screws yeah that can be a problem can't it with some of those budget ranges
i thought you said you worked on your own i do so what do you need a pair of steps for
makes it ever so slightly easier all right okay
they're not the tallest steps in the world are they they don't need to be steps in then to just
raise yourself off the ground what about 200 ml yeah perfect now
i think you just brought in so you can obviously
uh yeah use the shell for now that's really what you've done
well equally as impressed as how well you can throw everything into that bucket as well i think
you've hit it every time so far you seem quite nonchalant as you just love it again it's it again
dare i ask did you ever play any basketball as a younger man no it's more okay so if i
can't jump to save my life what because you've never had to is it hard to yeah
i can uh if i could jump i'd have been like Peter Crouch and uh
made my fortunes with playing football and we're just gonna put a normal twin socket
outlet here yeah yeah are you aware of the guarantee that these outlets offer uh i'm not
no okay so that's that's 20 years do you think that could become a key point when installing
wiring accessories that the manufacturers also suggested that will guarantee their
product for 20 years i think to the installer yeah that's great um i don't think i've ever
had a customer who when i'm installing a product have come to me and said what's the guarantee on
this switch but do you think it gives you a bit more confidence we think that the manufacturer has
backed it with a 20-year guarantee yeah definitely i think for the for the install it's great
so with a 20-year guarantee there's another little almost a hidden gem that they have now with these
outlets they're actually made of urea formaldehyde which means it kills off all those nasties
were you aware of the material that these socket outlets were made of will kill off 99.9 or 99.8 of
all nasties just to interject and bring a little scientific rigor to Gary's comments there about
nasties these sockets will do nothing to kill off people who don't thank you for holding the door
open for them or leave their hair in the shower rather he was referring to microbial life let's
face it sockets and switches are some of the most touched least sanitized objects in a residential
installation which is a cocktail for harboring harmful bacteria and viruses and in places like
HMO's schools and hospitals this could be a recipe for transmitting disease as stated the MK base
range is made from urea formaldehyde now this is a material that is antibacterial and antiviral
as an inherent property of the material it's not merely a coating on the plastic that will wear out
over time but rather the plastic itself that has this property the sockets have been tested by an
independent laboratory to the latest international standards and the results have shown that the
socket material has a kill rate of well over 99 of harmful bacteria and viruses such as MRSA
e coli listeria and salmonella along with the logic plus range MK say that they offer the
most widely tested wiring devices on the market so you and your customers can have real peace of mind
when using these accessories okay back to Gary and Will uh i wasn't now so with that in the 20
year guarantee well do you think that's something that maybe you'll start suggesting when you're
trying to win new uh new clients new jobs yeah definitely i think obviously given what's going on
um a lot of people are a lot more aware of things like that a selling point which people will uh
or people will like and there's electrical contractor having a selling point that causes
you no inconvenience at all that the material is made of is going to help you but that doesn't
matter does it really you've got that as just an added bonus yeah definitely we've fitted a few
accessories now so i'm going to challenge you with a question and i want your honest truthful answer
so i've bundled up all the electrical accessories for this job and i'm going to come up with
a certain little number for you let's say i've got them at 300 pounds and then your
usual electrical accessories are bundled up next to it identical amount of accessories
you got a choice are you going to move across to the MK Base range you're going to stick with the
range that you're currently using uh honestly i'd probably i'd probably stick with the MK
i can't really tell the difference between this and generally what i'd normally install so
you mentioned feel that as you're installing these and you're getting more and more used to
the accessories does it feel like a budget outlet no no um i think it's it's nice it feels solid um
it's everything that i'd quite happily put in my own house and the screw terminations that's
probably where you you find a budget one they're usually quite small and they're obviously not the
strongest screw connection how are you finding the terminals in the back of the sockets and switches
yeah great nice big chunk here chunky fixings um get a nice decent sized screwdriver in there
well you've set yourself a bit of a challenge there am i seeing three doubled over going to
go into one terminal give it a go yeah right okay that'll be interesting to see if that terminal is
big enough to take three double double i do like the fact you're doubling over but uh obviously
we'll challenge that switch now thinking of the the stuff we're installed in the stuff you've got
still to install is there any standout um products within the range or even elements of the range
um i'd say my favorite at the moment is probably actually the switches themselves
this will be the acid test after that statement because you've got three
doubled overs too and there's one is it there's one i'm going to get three in it
three straight and that one and easy no problems okay so generous size term so actually the new
or the return of the design of the back of that switch is something that you think is
a positive feature for you yeah definitely compared to how they uh they used to be
something suggests that i think i might be wrong that Richard wants tiles on this wall
do you understand ah yeah yeah thanks for that one yeah yeah that's normal people down here yeah i am
struggling a little bit on uh green and bearing it fan timer 20 minutes do you leave them on for
is that what you set them to or do you leave them to the customer to set their own um generally i've
set them to about five ten minutes running on um but then i show the customer how to adjust them
if they want it on longer or shorter or what i have started doing for a few people is installing
a humidity stat fan in the bathroom yeah so it takes away the uh yeah the concern doesn't it yeah
bathroom fan the whole cutting wall looks a little bit less round than it does square at the minute
it's a uh an interesting uh hole saw all right okay so you managed to rotate a hole so it made
a lovely square hole for the fan so what's the thinking beyond that um well it's exactly where
the customer wanted the fan uh and there was already a air grate out so what we'll end up
doing is putting a four inch four inch rounding and ducting it straight out i think we've learned
a couple of things today if you're stuck in a corner and you need some mates rates cashing in
will's your man and what's your thoughts on the MK Base range well yeah great loved it so all we need
now is your thoughts and comments leave them below and i'll try and get back to as many as i can