24 hour call-out
Emergency
Electrician
Newcastle
Supply gone, a breaker refusing to stay in, or something near the board smelling hot? Ring it through and we will tell you what to isolate before we have even pulled away.
Working out how serious it is
Most people who ring an emergency number are not sure whether they have an inconvenience or a hazard, and that is a reasonable place to be. A bedroom socket that has stopped working can sit until Tuesday. A faceplate that has browned round the pins, a breaker that snaps straight back down the moment it goes up, or the smell of warm plastic anywhere near the consumer unit cannot.
So the first minute of the call is us listening and telling you honestly which of those you have got. Where it is genuinely dangerous we will walk you through isolating the affected circuit, or the whole installation, before we set off. That costs nothing and it is by some distance the most useful thing we can do while you are still on the phone.
The calls that come in most
Total loss of supply leads the list, though it is always worth a glance at the neighbours before ringing anybody — if the street is dark it belongs to the network operator and you can reach them on 105 for free. After that it is RCDs that refuse to reset, which means a fault has developed somewhere on the circuits they are protecting. Finding it is instrument work, not a process of unplugging things and hoping.
Then comes heat damage: scorching round an accessory, a plug that has deformed, a discoloured faceplate, a burning smell nobody can locate. These nearly always trace back to a loose connection, and loose connections produce heat for a long while before they produce anything more dramatic. They deserve treating as urgent even while everything still appears to work.
Flats, shared stairs and whose circuit is whose
A fair share of our Tyneside call-outs are complicated less by the fault than by the building. In an upper and lower flat arrangement there are two dwellings, two front doors, one stair between them and frequently a single supply head feeding two meters in a communal cupboard. Isolating the wrong thing takes out a neighbour who had nothing to do with it.
We establish what belongs to which dwelling before anything is switched, and where a stair or landing light turns out to sit on somebody else is circuit we tell you rather than quietly working round it. It is the single most common source of confusion in flats around Heaton, Byker and Wallsend.
When it is really age rather than accident
Plenty of what we attend is not a sudden failure at all. It is an installation that has been deteriorating quietly for decades and has finally run out of road. Wire fuses, henley blocks crowding the meter, circuits added by four different people across forty years, no RCD protection anywhere in it.
Where that is the case we make it safe and get you running first. The conversation about what it genuinely needs happens afterwards, in daylight, when nobody is standing in a dark hallway. An emergency is not a moment to be pressured into a board change.
What an emergency call-out covers
- Getting the place safe the moment we walk in
- Untangling which supply belongs to which dwelling
- Dead-testing and locking off whatever is affected
- Instrument-led fault location, not trial and error
- Proving the circuit before it is energised again
- Stopgap arrangements to keep you running overnight
- Swapping out accessories that have failed or cooked
- A written record of findings and outstanding items
How it runs
What actually happens
The call
Tell us what you can see and hear. You will know inside a minute whether something needs pulling out now and whether this is a tonight job or a morning one.
Arrival
A stated time, not a half-day slot. Should the job ahead of yours run long, your phone rings — you are not left watching the window.
Trace it
Instruments come out rather than guesswork. Once located and repaired, the circuit gets a full test before anybody goes near the switch.
The explanation
What let go, why it let go, and anything else spotted en route that wants dealing with. On paper, not muttered on the doorstep while packing up.
Recent projects
Jobs like this one
Taken on site the day each of these wrapped up.
FAQs
Asked about this a lot
How quickly can somebody be here?
That depends where you are and what is already live, but you get a real answer on the phone rather than a window. The city and inner Tyneside are usually quickest. If we are out at the coast or held on another breakdown we will say so rather than leaving you waiting on a promise nobody intends to keep.
Does an out-of-hours call-out cost more?
Work at eleven at night costs more than the same work on a Wednesday afternoon, and any firm claiming otherwise has hidden it somewhere else. What matters is that you are told the position before we set off rather than after. If it can safely wait until morning for less, we will tell you that as well.
The whole street is dark. Do I need an electrician?
Almost certainly not. If neighbouring properties are out too it is a network fault and belongs to the distribution operator, not to us. You can reach them free on 105 from any phone. Ring them first and save yourself a call-out charge for something nobody on site can fix.
Can you make it safe if I cannot pay for everything now?
Usually. There is generally a sensible middle ground where the dangerous part is isolated, the rest of the property stays usable and the full repair goes in the diary for when it suits your money. We will set out plainly what that covers and what it does not protect you against.
Hot smell but everything still working. Serious?
Treat it as urgent. A hot smell with nothing visibly wrong is nearly always a loose or deteriorating connection, and those warm up considerably before they fail properly. It is the classic case of something looking fine right up until the moment it very much is not.
Will you need access to the flat upstairs?
Sometimes, and it is worth knowing before we arrive. Where a supply head, a meter cupboard or a stair circuit is shared we may need the neighbouring property opened up. Mention it when you ring and we can usually plan around it rather than discovering it standing on the step.
Also worth a look
Other things we do
Get in touch
Get a price for this
If it is urgent, ring instead. If not, put as much in here as you can and something useful comes back — a number or a date, not a brochure.
Call the team0191 934 0119- CoveringNewcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside and out to Ponteland, Cramlington, Blyth, Prudhoe and the coast at Tynemouth and Whitley Bay.
- FlatsTyneside flats a speciality — shared stairs, split supplies and meters that live in somebody else's cupboard.
- LandlordsInspection reports, multi-let certification, remedials and appliance testing across a portfolio.
- UrgentAnything that has already failed wants a phone call. We can be on the road and walking you through isolation on the same call.
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Electrician To Your Door
Need somebody out today?
One call tells you how serious it is, what to switch off meanwhile and when we can be at the door.