spalen

for that - I'd do it myself, change a light fitting. Its ridiculous to have to get someone in to unscrew 3 wires, put them back in the same hole.

As long as you are bright enough to turn the thing off first at fuse box and prove its off then do the swap its not exactly difficult. But I guess some people arent bright enough to do those steps.

Adding a socket i can understand should be restricted - so I guess the law is the law because you cant really differentiate between a light fitting (easy to swap - but hard to 'install' ) and a socket etc - the enforcement and guidance would be tough - so its eaasier to just say "nobody can do anything".

MartinLuther

I know what you mean. Running new wires fine; but changing sockets and light fittings can be done by anyone competent, licensed or otherwise. As long as you switch off everything and test the wire before meddling what can go wrong. In my house everything is protected by RCD as well.

Amazulu

I do.

KJCherokee

I do my own electrical and plumbing work all the time for minor things, but get the tradies in for anything major. I have taken down old light fittings and replaced them, removed and replaced taps, but when we did major renovations (kitchen, bathrooms) I used tradies to do the plumbing and rewiring.

Bear in mind that if anything goes wrong and you can't produce the tradie's certificate of compliance your insurance will not be worth a pinch of poo.

4500 Times

Same here...but i used an acccredited sparky when we first renovated our house, new downlights, all new sockets, safety switch in the meter box etc etc....unfortunately he wired up the domestic supply to the wrong meter so every week we were losing power. Wasn't until Energex came out we found out.

He advised us to contact the electrician and get him back to double check all the work he had done, and guess what ???? he was nowhere to be found.

I gave the regulatory body all the guys info, ABN, Licence number, phone number, house address.....and apparently they could'nt find him either.

I have since found another sparky who is brilliant and he has put right everything....so just be careful when using tradies.....

steve_kelly_and_boys

for future reference in case people do not know in bunnings they stock hep 20( although it is tucked away in our store )
which is the really easy push fit system we used to use in the U.K

no flaring/crimping or speciality tools required and a really good system been using it for years, not sure why it hasnt taken off over here although it could be to protect plumbers jobs

paulandcelia

If you get plumbing wrong the worst that happens is you get wet.
Get electrics wrong, you can cause a fire or get yourself or someone else killed.

That's the problem, a lot of people are not bright enough.

IvanM

Get plumbing wrong and you could get a poo flood. Black and Decker do a book of plumbing. Some things look straight forward.

steve_kelly_and_boys

or get plumbing wrong and totally flood your house and cause irreparable damage and the insurance dont pay out if they find out you done the work yourself

Vash the Stampede

I fixed our leaky toilet cistern, but I called a plumber in to fix the leaky pipe which feeds the cistern.

After trying - and failing - to fix it myself.

pemajoka

Just read this thread as I do most of the DIy in our house and have for years. done major refurbs on three houses so far and would say if you UNDERSTAND what you are doing as opposed to knowing how to do it, then do it,, if you don't leave it alone. Everyone knows how to change a light fitting or plug but do you know WHY the wires go there and the consequences of doing it wrong.