All the contractors used by the Premises services team have gone through a stringent list of requirements to be included on our approved contractors list. This is because we as a service are only as good as the contractors that we send to do the servicing and repairs on our sites. This gives you peace of mind for a quality and professional service and most of importantly a “safe” repair.
Some properties choose to employ contractors directly but this cannot guarantee the quality of the job especially as some of these contractors are not on our approved list. This means that as they are being instructed directly they are not under the control and direction of your dedicated qualified surveyors within premises services. Unfortunately, these decisions can lead to unsafe installations as shown in the photographs below taken in our properties where the work has not been completed by our approved contractors.
The photo below shows a situation where the electrician has installed a new distribution board and not fitted the gland plate on the top of the board, this is a 3 phase distribution board running at 400 Volts where anything dropped or inserted into the top of the board would cause a serious electric shock, fire or explosion. The brown and blue cables are single core cables with no mechanical protection so pose a significant electric shock risk if they are damaged in any way. When this was found it was rectified as an emergency job by one of our approved contractors at the cost to the premise.
The next photo shows 2 circuit breakers in a distribution board. The school were having problems with circuits tripping in a certain area so they instructed an electrician to look at the job. Their solution was to remove the correctly sized circuit breakers and install larger 63A rated circuit breakers. Obviously the nuisance tripping disappeared however these circuits are wired in 4mm cable that has a current carrying capacity of 32A. In this case the cables could be overloaded and not trip the circuit protection leading to damage to the cables or a fire within the distribution board or conduits. This was picked up on a routine 5-year periodic electrical installation and repaired as an emergency job by one of our approved contractors at a cost to the premise.
This photograph was picked up on a routine PAT inspection and really needs no explanation except that the job has been done by a person with no specific training, competence or knowledge. This was rectified immediately by our PAT inspection engineer.
In conclusion, using contractors who are not on the approved list under the control of your dedicated surveying team could lead to not only additional costs for repair of defective installations, but also cause serious damage or injury within your property.
For further advice, please speak to PSG on 01743 281079.