Consumer unit upgrades in Teesside

The most-quoted electrical job on Teesside

Drive through Billingham, Thornaby or Acklam and most of the semis you pass were wired in the 1960s and 1970s. A large share still run the original fuse box: rewirable fuses or early MCBs, no RCD protection on the sockets, and in plenty of cases a wooden backboard. The modern replacement is a metal-clad consumer unit with RCBOs on every circuit, so one fault trips one circuit instead of plunging the house into darkness, plus surge protection for the electronics a 1965 board never dreamed of. Swapping one is a single day's work for a competent electrician, and it is the upgrade that most improves the safety of an older Teesside house for the money.

What the price covers

• The board itself: metal enclosure, main switch, RCBOs per circuit, surge protection device. An 8 to 12 way board covers most houses.
• Testing before and after: insulation resistance, earth fault loop impedance and RCD trip times on every circuit, because a new board on a faulty circuit finds faults you did not know you had.
• Certification: an Electrical Installation Certificate for the new board, and building control notification under Part P through the electrician's competent person scheme.
• Honest extras: tails upgrade, earth bonding to gas and water, or a meter cupboard repair are quoted as lines, not discovered on the day.

When a board swap turns into something bigger

About one older property in a handful fails the pre-tests: degraded rubber-insulated cable, borrowed neutrals from decades of DIY, or circuits that will not hold insulation resistance. A straight answer at that point is a quote for the remedial work or a partial or full rewire, with the test results to show why, not a new board fitted over a known fault. Landlords should note that an old fuse box on its own does not fail an EICR, but the missing RCD protection often contributes to a C2 code that does.