Autumn inspection diary open: EICR slots from mid-October.
Request a written quote
Domestic & light commercial
Willow Works is a two-van electrical firm working across Willow Vale and the villages along the Harts Water. Fault finding, board upgrades, rewires, charge points and inspection work — priced in writing before anyone lifts a floorboard.
Dead circuits and tripping boards are triaged the same morning they are reported.
A written figure with the materials listed, agreed before work is booked in.
Certificates and test schedules issued within three working days of sign-off.
What we take on
We keep the list short on purpose. If a job sits outside these lanes — three-phase plant, fire alarm commissioning, solar inverters — we will say so and point you to someone who does it daily.
Tracing a dead ring, a nuisance-tripping RCD, a scorched socket or a light circuit that drops under load. We isolate, test, explain what we found, and leave the property safe even when the repair needs a second visit for parts.
Replacing rewireable fuse boxes and early split-load boards with a metal-clad unit on individual RCBOs, plus main and supplementary bonding checks, a labelled circuit schedule and Building Control notification.
Staged room by room so a household can stay in place where possible. Rubber or fabric-insulated cable removed, new circuits run, sockets brought to sensible heights, and plaster chases cut tidily for the decorator.
Load assessment first, then a dedicated circuit, earthing arrangement and a 7kW unit mounted where the cable actually reaches the car. Commissioned, app-paired, and handed over with the charging schedule set.
New switch drops, dimmable circuits that do not buzz, kitchen task lighting, transformer swaps in older downlight runs, and outdoor lighting on a sensible photocell or timed circuit.
Periodic inspection for owners, landlords and small commercial units: full test schedule, coded observations written in plain language, and a remedial list separated into must-do and could-wait.
Rates & scheduling
Bands below are indicative starting points for a standard property in our coverage area. Every job is confirmed with a written figure first, so you are never choosing between a guess and a surprise.
| Visit type | What it covers | On-site window | Indicative band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fault & make-safe call | Testing to locate the fault, temporary isolation, written findings and a repair figure. | 1–2 hours | from £95 |
| Consumer unit upgrade | New metal-clad board on RCBOs, bonding checks, circuit schedule, notification and certificate. | Half day | £480–£720 |
| EV charge point | Load assessment, dedicated circuit, earthing arrangement, mounting and commissioning. | Half day | £900–£1,250 |
| Lighting circuit or rework | Switch drops, dimming modules, transformer swaps or an outdoor run on its own control. | 2–5 hours | £180–£460 |
| EICR inspection | Full test schedule, coded observations, written report and a prioritised remedial list. | 2–4 hours | £180–£260 |
Rewires and multi-room projects are quoted per stage after a survey, because cable routes in older Willow Vale cottages decide most of the labour. Work outside the coverage list carries a travel line, shown on the quote rather than added later.
How a visit runs
Most of the worry about electrical work is not the wiring — it is the disruption. Here is the shape of a booked job so you can plan the day around it.
Send the symptom, the property type and a photo of the board. Ninety percent of faults can be narrowed down before we arrive, which keeps the first visit short and the figure accurate.
For anything beyond a single repair we walk the property, check cable routes and earthing, then send a written quote with materials itemised and the number of days held in the diary.
We confirm the hours the supply will be off and work to them. Fridges, home offices and freezers get a temporary feed where it is practical, and dust sheets go down before tools come out.
Circuits are tested and labelled, offcuts and packaging leave with the van, and the certificate or report follows by email within three working days with the remedial list if there is one.
Field notes
Rewireable fuses, a wooden back box, no RCD protection on socket circuits, or a schedule nobody can read — those are real reasons to upgrade. Age alone is not. A board installed in the last fifteen years with working RCBOs usually needs testing, not replacing, and a decent electrician will tell you that before quoting.
The brand on the front matters far less than the load assessment behind it. Check whether your supply can take 7kW alongside an electric shower and a hob, where the earthing arrangement leaves you, and how far the cable must reach when the car is parked as it normally is — not as it is in the brochure photo.
It is a condition report, not a fault repair. We test insulation resistance, earth loop impedance, RCD operation and polarity, then code what we find: C1 is dangerous now, C2 is potentially dangerous, C3 is improvement recommended. Only C1 and C2 require remedial work for a satisfactory outcome.
Coverage & hours
We work a deliberately tight patch so arrival times mean something. Jobs are grouped by village each day, and you get a one-hour window the evening before rather than a vague morning slot. Somewhere just outside the list? Ask — we will either take it with a travel line on the quote or tell you honestly that someone closer will serve you better.
Make-safe requests sent overnight are read and triaged at 07:00, before the vans are loaded.
Questions we actually get
Repairs and installations are quoted as a fixed figure with materials itemised. Fault finding is the one exception: the first diagnostic hour is charged at a known rate, because nobody can price a repair before locating the fault. Once we know what it is, you get a fixed figure for the fix before we continue.
Sometimes, and we tell you which rooms at survey stage rather than on the morning. Where boards must come up we lift and refit the same boards, screw them back rather than nail them, and cut chases straight and shallow so a plasterer or decorator can follow cleanly. Making good is quoted as a separate line if you want us to arrange it.
Yes, and most of our rewires are done that way. We agree an isolation window per day, give tenants written notice of when the supply is off, keep one working socket circuit live where the installation allows, and never leave exposed conductors accessible at the end of a shift.
New circuits and board replacements come with an Electrical Installation Certificate and a test schedule; smaller alterations get a Minor Works Certificate; inspections get a full EICR with coded observations. All of it arrives by email within three working days, and notifiable work is registered with Building Control on your behalf.
No. Describe it first: which circuits are affected, whether it happens in wet weather, and whether a particular appliance is involved. Intermittent tripping is usually moisture in an outdoor circuit, a failing immersion heater or an accumulation of small leakage across several circuits. That description often turns a speculative inspection into a targeted one-hour visit.
Not always. It depends on your main fuse rating, the spare capacity after existing loads, the earthing arrangement and whether the board has room for a dedicated RCBO. Plenty of installations take a charge point without any board work. We check that at survey and say which of the two you are looking at before quoting.
Regularly — much of the valley is lime-plastered solid wall. That work needs surface-mounted conduit, careful routing through existing voids and sometimes a conversation with the conservation officer. It takes longer than a modern cavity-wall property, so we quote it on cable routes found at survey rather than per socket.
Request a quote
The more specific the description, the more accurate the figure. A photo of your consumer unit helps more than anything else you can send.
Finish standard
Plates sitting flat and level, dimming that holds steady at the low end, and a board labelled so the next electrician — or the next owner — can read it.
