Electrical Repairs in Eastbourne | Eastbourne Electricians

Electrical Repairs

NAPIT registered electrical repairs work for homes, rentals and commercial buildings, with certificates issued and the chased walls made good afterwards.

Gas Safe registered, FMB members and family-run in Eastbourne.

What electrical repairs cover

Electrical repairs cover finding and fixing faults in a building’s wiring and fittings, and bringing anything unsafe up to current standards. That includes dead sockets and lighting circuits, tripping breakers and RCDs, scorched or damaged accessories, old consumer units, faulty extractor fans, and cooker or shower circuits that are no longer up to the load being put on them.

We are NAPIT registered, which means our electrical work is assessed against BS 7671, the current wiring regulations, and we can self certify notifiable work and issue the certificates you need for building control, a landlord’s file or a sale. Work is tested before we sign it off, and you get the paperwork rather than having to chase it.

We work for homeowners, landlords, letting agents and businesses across East Sussex. Because we also cover plastering and decorating, a rewire or a new circuit does not have to leave you with chased walls and lifted floorboards to sort out yourself.

If you are not sure whether something is urgent, ring us and describe it. We would rather talk you through it on the phone than have you leave a scorched socket in use.

Signs something needs looking at

Breakers that trip for no obvious reason, sockets that feel warm, a faint burning smell near a fitting, lights that flicker or dim when an appliance starts, and any scorch marks or discoloured accessories all need a look sooner rather than later.

Older installations are the ones we are called to most. Rubber or fabric insulated cable, a fuse board with rewireable fuses and no RCD protection, and no earth on lighting circuits are all common in houses around here that have not been touched since the seventies.

In rentals there is a legal angle as well. An Electrical Installation Condition Report is required for tenanted property in England, has to be renewed, and the remedial work it lists has to be carried out within the timescale given.

If a breaker trips and will not reset, or trips again immediately, leave it off and ring us. That is the installation telling you something rather than being awkward.

How we work on electrics

We test before we start guessing. Fault finding on a circuit that trips intermittently is mostly a process of elimination, and doing it in order is quicker and cheaper than replacing parts hopefully and hoping one of them was the problem.

Once we know what is wrong you get a written price. If a repair only makes sense alongside something larger, such as replacing a consumer unit that cannot take an extra circuit, we will explain why rather than simply doing the bigger job without telling you.

Everything gets tested and certificated when it is finished. Where we have had to chase walls or lift boards, we patch, skim and make good so the room is left usable rather than just wired.

We also label the board sensibly before we leave, which sounds minor and saves the next person a great deal of time.

Fault finding

Tripping breakers and RCDs, dead circuits, intermittent faults and earth leakage, tested in a logical order rather than by swapping parts. Intermittent faults are the ones worth paying someone to do methodically.

Consumer units and boards

Replacing old fuse boards with modern units with RCD or RCBO protection, main bonding, and adding capacity where there is no spare way for a new circuit. Tested and certificated on completion.

Sockets, lighting and fans

Additional sockets, replacing damaged or scorched accessories, new light fittings, downlights, outside and security lighting, and bathroom and kitchen extraction sized for the room and ducted outside.

New circuits

Cookers, electric showers, garden offices, garages and EV charge points, each sized for its load, with the existing supply and board checked for capacity first.

Testing and certificates

Electrical Installation Condition Reports for landlords and property sales, minor works certificates, and periodic testing for commercial premises and communal areas in blocks of flats.

Rewires and making good

Full and partial rewires, with chased walls patched and skimmed by our plasterers and the room redecorated by our decorators, so you are not left finishing the job yourself.

Landlord electrical safety, in short

If you let property in England, the electrical rules are specific and the penalties for ignoring them are real. This is the short version.

You need an EICR. Privately rented property requires a satisfactory Electrical Installation Condition Report on the fixed installation.
It lasts five years at most. Sooner if the report itself specifies a shorter interval, and a copy has to go to tenants and be available to the council on request.
Faults have to be fixed. Anything coded as requiring remedial work must be put right within 28 days, or sooner if the report says so, with written confirmation afterwards.
New tenancies need the paperwork. A copy of the current report goes to new tenants before they move in.
Detection matters too. Working smoke alarms on every storey and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance.

We carry out the inspection and the remedial work, so you are not coordinating two firms and a deadline. For agents and portfolios we can programme testing across several properties and report back together.

Older wiring in older houses

Much of the housing in Eastbourne, Hastings and the villages inland was wired long before the loads we put on it now. A house built with two sockets a room and a single lighting circuit is now running a kitchen full of appliances, an electric shower, a home office and often a car charger, and the installation was never designed for any of it.

Coastal property brings damp into the picture too. Salt laden air and damp solid walls shorten the life of external fittings, garage and outbuilding circuits, and anything run in a wall that stays wet. Corroded terminals cause a surprising number of the intermittent faults we chase, and they are easy to miss because everything looks fine until it is opened up.

Converted flats are their own category. Where a house was split into flats decades ago the wiring was frequently extended rather than redesigned, so you find circuits crossing between flats, shared lighting on somebody else’s meter, and no clear separation. That matters for safety and for billing, and it usually comes to light during an EICR.

None of this means an older installation is automatically dangerous. It does mean it is worth testing rather than assuming, particularly if you have just bought the property, you are about to let it out, or you are planning to add a kitchen, a shower or a charge point.

Questions we get asked

Are you a registered electrician?

Yes. We are NAPIT registered, so our electrical work is assessed against BS 7671, the current wiring regulations, and we can self certify notifiable work and issue certificates. Ask to see the registration before work starts if you would like to.

My breaker keeps tripping. What is it?

Most often it is a single faulty appliance, moisture in an outside socket or light fitting, or a failing accessory on the circuit. Occasionally it is accumulated earth leakage from several appliances rather than one fault. It needs testing to say which. If it trips again as soon as you reset it, leave it off and ring us.

Do landlords need an electrical certificate?

Yes. Privately rented property in England needs a satisfactory Electrical Installation Condition Report, renewed at least every five years and provided to tenants. Any faults coded as needing attention have to be put right within the timescale on the report, usually 28 days, with written confirmation. We do the inspection and the remedial work.

Will I be left with holes in the walls?

No. Where we chase walls or lift floorboards for cables we patch, fill and skim afterwards, and we can redecorate the affected area if you want us to. The quote makes clear how far the making good goes so there is no argument about it later.

Can you install an EV charger or a garden office supply?

Yes. Both need their own circuit sized for the load, and a look at the existing consumer unit and main supply first to check there is capacity. We price the circuit, any board work and the groundwork for a garden supply together so you can see the whole cost.

How do I know if my fuse board needs replacing?

If it has rewireable fuses or cast iron switches, no RCD protection, or a mixture of devices added over the years, it is likely to be at or past the end of its useful life. A board with no RCD protection is the most common single item flagged on an EICR. Testing will tell you for certain rather than guessing from the look of it.

Do you do commercial electrical work?

Yes. We work in offices, shops and communal areas of blocks of flats, including lighting, emergency lighting, distribution boards and periodic testing, and we can work outside opening hours where that suits the building better.

Can you help with fire detection and alarms?

Yes. We install mains powered interlinked smoke and heat detection and carbon monoxide alarms, which is frequently part of bringing a rental or a converted flat up to standard. It often sits alongside our fire safety work.

Where we work

We are based on Hyde Gardens in Eastbourne, so the town and the villages around it are home ground for us. We are out working here most days and we know the housing well, including the older seafront terraces, the Victorian and Edwardian houses in Upperton and Meads, and the newer estates and blocks of flats nearer the edge of town.

From Eastbourne we cover the whole of East Sussex. Along the coast that takes in Bexhill, Hastings, Seaford, Newhaven, Brighton, where salt air and driving rain are hard on any building. Inland we work regularly in Polegate, Hailsham, Pevensey, Willingdon, Lewes, Uckfield, Heathfield, Crowborough, Battle and the smaller villages between them, where period cottages and country properties often need a gentler approach and older materials matched carefully.

Being local matters for electrical repairs and testing. We can get to you quickly to take a look, we know the buildings and the ground conditions, and we are never far away if you need us again. If your village is not on the list there is a good chance we still reach you, so give us a call on 01323 671001 and we will tell you either way.

Backed by recognised standards

We are Gas Safe registered and members of the Federation of Master Builders, NAPIT and the FSB. Those memberships mean our gas, electrical and building work is measured against recognised standards, and that an outside body has looked at how we work rather than us simply saying we are good at it. For a family business our reputation matters more than anything, and we have built it one customer at a time.