Outdoor sockets
An outdoor socket is the small job that makes the biggest difference. No more extension lead through the kitchen window for the mower, the pressure washer or the patio heater. We fit a weatherproof double socket, rated to keep the rain out with a plug in it, and protect it with an RCD, the device that cuts the power in a fraction of a second if current leaks to earth. Outdoors, with wet hands and wet grass, that protection is what matters most.
Most outdoor sockets go straight through the wall from an indoor socket on the other side, which keeps the cable short and the cost down. Where the socket needs to be further away we run a cable along the wall in a protective conduit or use armoured cable. Either way, we test it, label the circuit and issue a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate.
Garden and path lighting
Garden lighting is where we spend most of our outdoor time. Path lights so you can get to the bins without a torch, spike lights in borders, wall lights on the house and the fence, and step lights on a patio with a drop. Some of it runs on mains, some on a low-voltage system with a transformer indoors, which is safer in flower beds and lets you move fittings around later.
We plan the lighting with you, usually at dusk, because what looks right in daylight often looks different in the dark. Controls are simple: a switch inside by the back door, a dusk sensor, a timer, or an app if you want to turn the lights on from the sofa. Six fittings, wired and controlled, start from £680 including VAT, and more fittings cost less each.
Power to sheds, garages and garden rooms
Garden rooms have become the most common outdoor job on the Fylde since people started working from home. An office at the bottom of the garden needs heating, lighting, a few sockets and reliable internet, and that means a proper supply, not an extension lead.
We run steel wire armoured cable, SWA, from the house to the outbuilding, buried in a trench or clipped along a wall or fence. Inside the outbuilding we fit a small consumer unit (a fuse box) of its own, with RCD protection, so that a fault in the shed trips the shed and not the house. The size of the cable depends on the distance and on what you want to run: a few lights and a laptop is one thing, a workshop with a kiln or a welder is another. A supply sized for a future hot tub or EV charger costs little extra now and a lot later.
A new outbuilding circuit is notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations in England, so we register it with building control through NICEIC, and you receive an Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) and the compliance certificate for your records.
What it costs
An RCD-protected outdoor socket is £145 including VAT. Six garden light fittings, wired and switched, are from £680. Supplies to outbuildings are quoted after a look at the route, because the length of the trench and whether you or we dig it make the biggest difference. We give you a written price before we start and tell you if there is a cheaper way to get what you want.
Coastal weather
The Fylde coast is hard on outdoor electrics. Salt air corrodes cheap fittings within a couple of years, and we see outside lights in Cleveleys and Fleetwood with the back plate rusted through and water sitting in the lamp holder. The wind drives rain into enclosures that would be fine inland. So we fit marine-grade or at least stainless and properly sealed fittings on seaward walls, use glands that seal the cable entry, and site sockets out of the direct weather where we can. It costs a little more up front and saves a call-out every winter.
Inland, in Poulton and out towards Garstang, the issues are different. Outbuildings on older properties and smallholdings have often been wired by whoever was handy at the time, with twin and earth cable strung along a fence or buried without protection. If you have an existing shed supply that nobody certified, we will test it, tell you honestly whether it is safe, and put it right if it is not.
