Insider Knowledge
Hi, my names Tim. I was born in 1970 into a family of building contractors, my grandfather was a master tradesman, receiving priority discharge after WW2 to support the home re-building program. My dad was an electrical engineer, serving his apprenticeship with the National Coal Board and British Rail before setting up as an independent contractor, and my uncle and brothers were all very experienced in the construction industry.
Between my family and the employees of their respective businesses, as well as family acquaintances within the construction industry, I spent my formative years surrounded by a wealth of knowledge & experience. From an early age I spent most school holidays and weekends labouring on building sites and being mentored in a range of disciplines by highly skilled and very experienced hard working tradesmen.
By the time I left school in the mid 80's, I had no shortage of opportunities to earn a living on building sites and hone my fledgling skills, taking a particular interest in electrical installation work. Not only was it less strenuous than mixing cement, carrying bricks or laying roof tiles, it was peculiarly satisfying to design and install an electrical circuit and then actually see it work.
After spending the first decade of my adult life in construction, I took a vocational detour into the welfare sector, qualifying as a social worker and taking employment in Barnardos, then Social Services before heading up a national youth peer-education initiative funded by the Welsh Office.
When that funding came to an end, I decided to revert back to my origins, retraining as an electrical engineer and setting up as an independent contractor, specialising in domestic electrical installation & repairs.
Since 2006 I have provided electrical services to landlords, letting agents and home owners in Swansea and Llanelli, accumulating over 1,500 satisfied customers and completing over 4,000 individual jobs.
Over the past 15 years I have encountered many different electrical scenarios, solved many problems and upgraded many systems.
I thought it would be helpful to share some of that knowledge here and answer some of the most common questions I get asked by homeowners. I hope you find some of these articles interesting and I truly believe that there's no such thing as a stupid question - we only know what we know.
So if there's anything you're concerned about, or interested in, or simply just curious, use the form below to submit your question and I will do my best to provide a useful answer from an experienced electrician's point of view.
