Home Renovation: Q&A with an electrician
Unless you’ve worked with an electrician first-hand, you probably don’t realise what their jobs entail. From his top tips to his strangest experience, I met with Dave from Pearce Electrical to get the answers to your biggest electrical questions.
What question do you get asked by clients most often?
I often have clients say to us, “Hey, can you come over and rewire my entire house? It won’t take long as there’s not much to it.” A rewire usually takes longer than wiring a new house!
If there’s one thing you wished all clients knew, what would it be?
That first impressions work both ways.
That’s right team! Be nice to your tradies! They’re people too and they do a fantastic job.
What’s your favourite project to date, and why?
Ever been to Clevedon? I’m giving you a reason to post-lockdown. I worked on The Farmhouse Deli pre-opening. The project involved converting and extending a beautiful old villa into a cafe and deli. They were a great client to work for, and the results were incredible.
What’s your weirdest work story thus far?
I was booked in to fix a faulty light switch at 7 am at a popular South Auckland attraction. When I arrived at the property a lovely elderly lady greeted me at the door. She kindly showed me where the faulty switch was and told me she would be down the other end of the house, getting ready for her day if I needed her. The house was about 400sqm (more than double the floor area of an average-sized family home), so by no means a small space.
I finished the job and was about to re-liven the circuit when I heard some old-fashioned style footsteps walking clear as day down the hall toward me. You know that clunky wood on wood sound. It was weird because the old lady had mentioned she was there alone. So, I looked around the corner, but no one was there. It gave me a feeling that is very hard to explain. I quickly packed up and got out of there. As I was leaving, I ran into a man in the car park. I asked him to let the lady know I had finished the job… to which he replied, “No lady lives here…”.
To this day, I don’t know if he was having a laugh or not, but I never went back!
Following on from that spooky experience. Something more light-hearted! If you could be any electrical fitting or appliance, what would you be and why?
A coffee machine. For obvious reasons!
Can you share any tips for choosing a lighting layout and knowing how many power points a room needs?
Figure out what’s important to you. Is it lighting in a targeted area or general lighting throughout a room? Think about the output colour of the lights, too, as this can change the feeling of a room. For example, do you want a warm white colour or a natural colour? Dimmers are gaining popularity these days too, and blend in well with regular light switches, so you can’t go wrong there.
When it comes to power points, the more, the better. You’ll never wish you had less. For instance, in a bedroom, have several power points on either side of the bed, including USB.
For more information about electrical scope in a renovation, check out my Engineering & Services ebook.
