Areas we cover
Electricians in Kent
We list fifteen towns in Kent, from Dartford and Gravesend on the Thames to Margate, Dover and Folkestone on the coast, with Royal Tunbridge Wells and Tenterden inland. Many homes here were built long before modern wiring standards, so this page explains what an inspection looks at first in an older house, and what to check if yours might be listed.
Towns
Towns we list in Kent
Thames-side towns, Chatham on the Medway, a cathedral city, seaside towns from Whitstable round to Folkestone, a spa town and a Wealden market town, where Victorian terraces and older houses sit alongside newer estates.
The list runs from the Thames at Dartford to the Channel coast and inland to Tunbridge Wells and Tenterden, across ten council areas, but it is not the whole county. The DA, ME, CT and TN postcode areas take in far more than these towns (DA reaches into south-east London and TN into East Sussex), so treat them as a rough guide, not a boundary.
Dartford
- DartfordDA
Gravesham
- GravesendDA
Medway
- ChathamME
Swale
- SittingbourneME
- FavershamME
Canterbury
- CanterburyCT
- WhitstableCT
Thanet
- MargateCT
- BroadstairsCT
- RamsgateCT
Dover
- DealCT
- DoverCT
Folkestone and Hythe
- FolkestoneCT
Tunbridge Wells
- Royal Tunbridge WellsTN
Ashford
- TenterdenTN
Explained
What we look at first in an older property
These are among the first things an inspection looks at in an older house. Finding one of them does not, on its own, mean a full rewire: what work is needed, if any, depends on the condition found and the test results, which an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) records.
Select a numbered part to highlight it on the drawing.
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Older fuse boards, the forerunners of today’s consumer units, use fuse carriers fitted with replaceable fuse wire. The board is checked for damage and signs of overheating, and each fuse for whether it is the right rating for the circuit it protects.
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Boards of this age usually have no residual current device (RCD), which switches the supply off quickly if current leaks to earth, for example through a person. The report records where RCD protection is missing.
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Rubber-insulated or lead-sheathed cable can still be found in floor voids and lofts. Old rubber insulation can harden and crack, so its condition is examined closely and any deterioration is recorded on the report.
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Lighting circuits in older houses were sometimes wired without an earth conductor. That matters wherever a metal light fitting or switch plate needs earthing, so the inspection checks whether an earth is present at the lights.
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Cables clipped along walls and skirtings are often later additions. They are checked for damage, secure fixing and protection where they could be knocked, and for whether the circuit they were added to can take the extra load.
Local guide
Is my house listed?
Canterbury, Faversham, Tenterden and Royal Tunbridge Wells have many listed buildings, and so do the older parts of the coastal towns. If your home might be one, find out before electrical work is planned, because where and how cables run can affect whether listed building consent is needed.
- Search the National Heritage List
- Historic England’s National Heritage List for England can be searched online by name or place, or on a map. If your home has its own entry, it is listed. If you cannot find it but think it may be, ask your council: older structures within the grounds of a listed building can be protected without an entry of their own. Unless the entry expressly excludes part of it, listing covers the whole building, inside and out, not only the features the entry describes.
- Ask the conservation officer
- If the building is listed, or you are not sure, contact the conservation or heritage officer at your council before the work is planned in detail. They can advise whether what you have in mind needs listed building consent.
- Work that can need consent
- Listed building consent is needed for any alteration that would affect a listed building’s special architectural or historic character, and electrical work can do that: chasing cables into old plaster, cutting into beams or panelling, or fixing new fittings to a historic front. Carrying out such work without the consent it needs can be a criminal offence, and the owner can be required to put it right.
- Surface or chased cable routes
- Chasing hides a cable but cuts away original plaster or masonry. Running it on the surface, in slim trunking or along skirtings and cornices, disturbs less of the original fabric, although it still needs fixings, and it changes how the room looks. Which is acceptable depends on the building, and the conservation officer may have a view.
- Conservation areas are different
- Being in a conservation area is not the same as being listed. The extra controls mainly concern the outside of buildings and vary from one area to another, so ask your council’s planning team before fixing anything new to the front of a building, such as an outside light.
- What to tell us
- Whether the building is listed and at what grade, whether consent has been applied for or granted, and any conditions attached to it, so they can be taken into account before anything is priced.
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Houses wired in stages
A Victorian terrace in Chatham or a Georgian house in Margate was wired long after it was built and has usually been altered since, so one house can have cable from several decades and a fuse board whose labels no longer match the circuits. Certificates and reports from earlier work show what was done and when: keep them with the house papers, and send copies when you ask about new work.
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Which council to contact
Planning and listed building consent are dealt with by the district, borough or city council for your town, not by Kent County Council, and the same council’s website will tell you how to reach building control. Chatham is the exception: it is in Medway, a unitary authority, so Medway Council deals with all three there.
Contacts
Who to contact for what
Not every problem is one for an electrician. Start with the right people.
| If you need | Contact |
|---|---|
| Power cut, or damage to the incoming cable or main fuse | Call 105 Your network operator |
| You smell gas | 0800 111 999 National Gas Emergency Service |
| Fire, smoke or someone injured | Call 999 Emergency services |
| A problem with the electricity meter itself | Your energy supplier |
| Checking whether a building is listed | Search the list (opens in a new tab) Historic England (National Heritage List for England) |
| Listed building consent, planning or building control | Find your council (opens in a new tab) Your district, borough or city council (Medway Council in Chatham) |
| An electrical fault in your property, or work you want quoted | Contact us DualCurrent |
Often asked for in Kent
- Fault finding and troubleshooting Tracing the cause of tripping, flickering, dead sockets and intermittent faults, so it can be put right.
- Full electrical installations Rewiring, new circuits, extra sockets and complete installations for refurbishments and new spaces.
- Electrical compliance and safety testing Inspection, testing, reports and remedial work so you know where your installation stands.
- Lighting installations and upgrades New and replacement lighting, LED upgrades and outdoor lighting for homes and workplaces.
Questions from Kent
- Do you cover the whole of Kent?
- No, only the fifteen towns listed on this page. Some places, such as Maidstone, Ashford and Sevenoaks, are not on the list; Tenterden is, although it is in Ashford borough. If your address is near a listed town but not in it, send us the postcode with a short description of the job and we will reply either way.
- Does an old fuse box mean my house needs rewiring?
- The board and the wiring behind it are judged separately. A fuse box with rewirable fuses usually has no RCD protection, and an inspection will often recommend replacing or upgrading it with a modern consumer unit; whether the cables need replacing as well depends on their condition and the test results. A new board with RCD protection can also show up faults in old wiring that the fuses never did, which is why the existing circuits need testing as part of any board change.
- I am buying an older house. Is an electrical inspection worth having before I commit?
- It can be, particularly if there is no recent report. A general building survey normally looks at the electrics without testing them, and may recommend a test by an electrician; an inspection for an EICR includes testing the circuits, and the report records their condition, which gives you something to budget from. You need the seller’s agreement for access, and the seller should know that circuits are switched off in turn while they are tested. If the seller already has a report, check its date and whether the work it recommended has been done, with paperwork to show it.
Next step
Tell us about the job
Include the postcode and a short description. We will contact you to talk it through and tell you whether and when we can help. Nothing is booked until you have a written quote and have accepted it.
Call or email us for a free quote
Tell us the postcode and a little about the job. We will contact you to discuss it, and you get a written quote before any work starts. Quotes are free. Some survey or diagnostic visits may be charged: ask when you book.
Our email address: support@dualcurrent.co.uk
Helpful to include
- The postcode of the property
- What the job is, or what is going wrong
- Photos, if you have them, taken without removing any covers