01
Fault finding & repair
Tripping breakers, dead circuits, intermittent faults that only show up in the rain. We work with insulation resistance and loop testing rather than guesswork, and we tell you what we found before we start replacing parts.
Domestic & small commercial electrical
Fix the fault,then fix the cause
Coda Grain is a two-van outfit. We test before we quote, write down what the work actually involves, and hand over a certificate you can give a buyer, a lender or a letting agent.
- Survey before scope
- Written works list
- Certificate on completion
Five lanes of work
Jobs we take
We keep the list short on purpose. If a job sits outside it we will say so on the phone rather than learn it on your floor.
02
Consumer units & protection
Replacing rewireable fuse boxes and early plastic boards with a metal unit, RCBO protection per circuit and surge protection where it earns its place. Circuits are tested, labelled and recorded on the schedule.
03
Rewires, part rewires & extensions
Whole-house rewires staged room by room so you can stay in the building, plus new circuits for kitchens, lofts, garden rooms and workshops. We agree socket and switch positions on site before anything gets chased in.
04
Lighting & controls
Replacing yellowed downlights with warmer dimmable fittings, adding two-way switching where someone has to cross a dark landing, and setting up outdoor lighting that is actually weather-rated for the position it sits in.
05
EV charging & heavy loads
Charger installs that start with a supply check, not a product page: main fuse rating, earthing arrangement, cable route and load management if the house already runs an electric shower and a heat pump. Ovens and showers follow the same approach.
Work out what you are dealing with
What's happening at your place?
Open the line that matches your symptom. Each one gives the usual cause and the first thing we would do about it, so you know roughly what the visit involves before you book.
The RCD keeps tripping
- Usually means
- Moisture or a failing appliance is leaking a small current to earth. Because one RCD often covers several circuits, a kettle in the kitchen can take out the upstairs lights with it.
- First thing we do
- Split the board and test each circuit separately to find the one that is leaking, then test the appliances on it. If a single device is the culprit you get a repair, not a rewire.
A socket or switch feels warm
- Usually means
- A loose terminal is heating up under load, or the accessory is carrying more than it was designed for. Warm plastic and a faint smell are early warnings worth acting on quickly.
- First thing we do
- Isolate that circuit, open the accessory, check the terminations and look for signs of heat damage further along the run. Stop using the outlet until it has been looked at.
Lights flicker or dim when something switches on
- Usually means
- Either a voltage drop across a long or undersized run, a dimmer that does not get on with retrofit LED lamps, or a connection working loose at a junction.
- First thing we do
- Measure the drop under load and check the dimmer against the lamps fitted. Sometimes it is a trailing-edge dimmer swap; sometimes the lighting circuit needs splitting.
One room has no power at all
- Usually means
- A break in the ring or radial feeding that area — frequently a spur added years ago, a nail through a cable during other work, or a buried junction box that has given up.
- First thing we do
- Trace continuity from the board to find where the circuit stops, then open only the point that needs opening. We would rather lift one floorboard than four.
We want an EV charger but don't know if the supply can take it
- Usually means
- The question is really about the main fuse, the earthing arrangement and what else draws heavily at the same time. Most homes are fine; some need load management or a supply upgrade first.
- First thing we do
- Survey the incoming supply and meter position, measure the earth loop, walk the cable route and tell you in writing whether it is a straightforward install or a two-stage job.
No surprises on the invoice
How a visit works
The same four steps whether it is a single socket or a staged rewire.
Survey
We look at the board, the earthing, the circuits involved and the access we will need. Nothing is priced from a photo.
Written scope
You get a works list in plain language: what changes, what stays, what gets tested and what we expect to find behind the plaster.
The work
Dust sheets down, circuits isolated one at a time where we can, and the building left usable at the end of each day.
Test & hand over
Circuits tested and labelled, results recorded, certificate issued, and five minutes spent showing you where everything now lives.
Specification & finish
What we leave behind
The parts of a job you only notice later — labelling, routing, make-good — are the parts we hold ourselves to.
- Boards
- Metal-clad consumer units with individual RCBO protection, so one fault does not darken the whole house.
- Cable routes
- Prescribed safe zones, mechanical protection where needed, and photographs of runs before they are covered.
- Labelling
- Every way labelled with the room and load it serves, plus a printed schedule left inside the board.
- Accessories
- Screwless plates in a finish you choose, aligned to existing heights rather than wherever the old box sat.
- Make-good
- Chases filled and sanded flush, floorboards refixed with screws, and the site vacuumed before we leave.
- Paperwork
- Installation or minor works certificate with test results, issued digitally and on paper if you want it.
Availability
The working week
| Day | Mostly kept for | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Faults and repairs | First calls of the week go to anything that left a property without power over the weekend. |
| Tuesday — Thursday | Planned installation work | Board changes, new circuits and rewire stages, booked as full or half days. |
| Friday | Surveys and quoting | EV charger and rewire surveys, plus second visits to agree socket and lighting positions. |
| Weeknight slots | Small jobs after hours | A limited number of early-evening appointments for single accessories and quick repairs. |
| Saturday morning | Certification & reports | Condition reports and landlord certificates, useful when a property is between tenants. |
Before you book
Questions worth asking
What certificate should I expect at the end?
New circuits and board changes get an Electrical Installation Certificate with the full test schedule. Alterations to an existing circuit get a Minor Works certificate. A survey of an existing installation produces a condition report with coded observations. If you are told a job needs no paperwork at all, ask why.
I'm a landlord — what do I actually need?
A periodic condition report on the installation, renewed on the schedule your tenancy rules require, plus certificates for any work done between reports. We write reports so the observations are readable: what must be fixed now, what should be monitored, and what is simply older than current practice but safe.
Do I need a full rewire, or is that an upsell?
Often it is not needed. Age alone is not a fault. We test first and look at cable condition, earthing and insulation resistance. Plenty of houses need a board change and two new circuits rather than a rewire. If a rewire genuinely is the right answer, you will see the test results that led us there.
Will you finish work someone else started?
Yes, with one condition: we test what is already in before we add to it, and that test is chargeable. We cannot certify work we have not verified, and we will not bury an unknown joint under new plaster. Occasionally the honest answer is to pull a run back and start it again.
How much mess and disruption should I plan for?
Fault finding and accessory work is usually a few hours with minimal disturbance. Board changes mean a planned power-off, so we agree the window in advance. Rewires are dusty by nature — we stage them room by room, sheet the route, and leave you with working kitchen and bathroom circuits each evening.
Our wiring is old. Is it automatically unsafe?
No. Rubber or lead-sheathed cable and a rewireable fuse box are worth replacing, but mid-era PVC installations frequently test well and only need modern protection at the board. The deciding factor is what the instruments say about insulation, earthing and continuity, not the date on the paperwork.
Can you work around a tenant or a business that stays open?
Usually. We isolate circuit by circuit, keep tills, fridges and routers live where the installation allows it, and schedule anything that needs a full shutdown for the quietest window you can give us. Tell us the constraint in your enquiry and we will plan the sequence around it.
Book a visit
Tell us what it's doing
A short description beats a long one. The more precisely you can say what happens and when, the better we can judge the length of the visit and what to put on the van.
- Describe the symptom and when it started — "trips when the shower runs" is more useful than "electrical problem".
- Mention the property type and roughly how old the board looks.
- Flag any access limits: tenants, stairs only, parking restrictions, a shop that must stay open.
- If something is warm, scorched or smells of burning, switch that circuit off at the board and say so in your message.