Frequently asked questions.

Yes — we're based in Paddington and our main coverage runs across the inner-west and the eastern bayside corridor: Sheldon, Capalaba, Cleveland, Carindale, Cannon Hill, and Camp Hill, plus most of inner Brisbane in between. If you're outside that footprint, give us a call anyway. We regularly take on jobs in the wider Brisbane metro area when scheduling allows, and we'll be upfront about whether we're the right fit for your suburb before you book in any work.

Our standard hours are 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday to Friday. We can also book Saturday and Sunday work by appointment, which is useful for tenants and homeowners who can't be on-site during business hours, or for commercial clients who need work done outside trading hours. For urgent residential issues we try to be as responsive as possible during the day. The fastest way to confirm a time slot is to call 0448 096 625 directly.

All electrical work in Queensland must be performed by a licensed electrician — that's a regulatory requirement, not a marketing claim. Sneyd Electrical operates as a registered electrical contractor and carries the appropriate trade licensing and insurance to work on residential, commercial, and industrial sites across Brisbane. If you'd like our specific licence and insurance details for compliance reasons (some commercial and strata jobs require this), just ask when you book — we're happy to send through a copy of the relevant paperwork before work starts.

We accept bank transfer, credit card, and EFTPOS for most jobs. For one-off residential work we usually invoice on completion with payment terms agreed upfront. For larger commercial and industrial projects we can arrange progress payments tied to milestones — that's worked out before work starts and is set out clearly on the quote. If you have a preferred payment method or need a specific invoice format for your business or strata, mention it when you book and we'll accommodate where we can.

The fastest way is a quick phone call on 0448 096 625 — for straightforward jobs (a power point, smoke alarm replacement, a switchboard inspection) we can often give you a price range over the phone. For anything more involved we'll arrange a free on-site quote so we can see the work properly, ask questions, and give you an honest fixed price upfront. You can also use the contact form on this site and we'll get back to you the same business day.

Yes. All electrical work performed by Sneyd Electrical carries a workmanship warranty, in addition to whatever manufacturer warranty applies to the parts and fittings we install. If something doesn't perform the way it should, give us a call and we'll come back and put it right. We keep records of every job we do so warranty claims are straightforward — there's no hunting through paperwork or chasing the original electrician years after the fact.

We cover the full range of home electrical work across Brisbane — installing and repairing power points and data points, lighting design and installation, outdoor and garden lighting, switchboard upgrades, smoke alarm and safety switch compliance, appliance hookups, electrical work as part of renovations and extensions, and general fault-finding when something stops working. If your home has an electrical issue or an upgrade you're planning, we can almost certainly help — and if it's outside our scope, we'll tell you straight up rather than wasting your time.

We do our best to respond quickly to urgent residential problems during business hours — things like a tripping circuit breaker that won't reset, a power outage isolated to your property, or a switchboard giving off a burning smell. Call 0448 096 625 and let us know what's happening; we'll triage it and either book you in same-day or talk you through what to check while we're on the way. For after-hours emergencies, leave a message and we'll respond first thing.

For Paddington and the inner-west suburbs we can usually be on-site within a day or two for non-urgent work, and same-day for genuine emergencies during business hours. Eastern bayside (Sheldon, Capalaba, Cleveland) tends to be next-day depending on what's already in the schedule. The honest answer depends on the day — give us a call and we'll tell you exactly what's possible rather than promising a generic timeframe we can't keep.

For most residential jobs, yes — at least to let us in and walk us through the issue. Once we're started, you don't need to hang around if you'd rather get on with your day. For tenanted properties we can coordinate with the tenant directly if the owner gives us their contact details. We'll always test the work with you (or get your sign-off remotely) before we leave so you know everything is functioning as it should.

Yes. Part of being a tradesperson worth recommending is leaving the place at least as tidy as we found it. We bring drop sheets for any work that involves drilling or chasing into walls, vacuum and wipe down work areas before we leave, and take all electrical waste, old fittings, and packaging away with us. If there's any patching to ceilings or walls from cable runs we'll let you know in advance so you can decide whether you want us to organise the patch or handle it yourself.

Yes — that's one of the most common upgrades we do in inner-Brisbane heritage homes. Old ceramic fuse boards, single-pole RCD-free boards, and undersized boards are all replaced with modern boards that include circuit breakers, RCDs (safety switches), and proper labelling. We coordinate the supply isolation with Energex, do the swap-over usually inside a day, and leave you with a board that meets current standards and is ready for any future load you might add.

Brisbane offices, retail fit-outs, hospitality venues (cafes, restaurants, bars), small warehouses, and professional services suites — basically anywhere that's not your home and isn't heavy industrial. We've worked on shopfronts in Paddington and Stones Corner, office tenancies through the inner city, and a number of small-business workshops out in the bayside corridor. If you're unsure whether your site is something we'd take on, give us a call with a brief and we'll tell you within a few minutes.

Yes — for retail and hospitality clients we frequently book early-morning, late-evening, or Sunday slots so the work doesn't disrupt customers or staff. After-hours rates are quoted upfront on the job; there are no surprise loadings on the invoice. The trade-off is that bookings outside business hours need a bit more notice, since we coordinate it with the rest of the schedule. For tight timelines, weeknight and weekend availability is usually around 7-10 days out.

Yes. We work directly with shopfitters, builders, and project managers on new fit-outs and refurbishments — running power and data, installing lighting per the design, hooking up appliances and equipment, and certifying the electrical work for handover. We're comfortable working off architectural drawings and electrical schematics, and we keep close tabs on the build program so our work fits cleanly between trades rather than holding things up. Quote and timeline are always confirmed in writing before we start.

We can carry out switchboard condition inspections that include load testing, thermal imaging where appropriate, and a written report on what we find. For commercial premises this is often required by insurers or by a strata body before lease renewal — and it's also a sensible check before you sign a long lease on a tenancy where you'll be running expensive equipment. Reports are clear, plain-English, and prioritised by urgency so you can act on them without needing a translation.

Yes. All notifiable electrical work in Queensland is documented with a Certificate of Testing and Safety, which we email through within a day or two of completion. For commercial clients this is the document your insurer or building owner will ask for. For larger jobs we also produce as-built drawings, board labelling, and a brief commissioning report covering what was installed, where it's circuited, and any conditions on its operation.

We do regular maintenance work for a number of small commercial clients — typically a quarterly or six-monthly visit covering switchboard inspection, emergency lighting test (where applicable), exit signage check, and a walk-through of any reported issues. Pricing for ongoing maintenance is structured per-visit so you only pay for time on-site, not a vague monthly retainer. Let us know what your premises looks like and we'll put together a sensible schedule.

Light industrial maintenance — workshops, small manufacturers, warehouses, automotive bays, and the kind of light-industrial workspaces you find through inner-east Brisbane. Common jobs are three-phase power supplies, machinery hookups and isolators, lighting upgrades to LED across larger floor areas, and switchboard work for sites that have outgrown their original electrical setup. We're not a heavy-industrial mining contractor — if your site needs that kind of specialisation we'll tell you upfront and refer you to someone better placed.

Yes. Three-phase installation, fault-finding, and machinery connection is standard work for us — connecting compressors, lathes, welders, ovens, commercial cooling, and similar. We'll size cabling and protection correctly for the load, coordinate any supply upgrade with Energex if your site needs it, and label everything properly so the next electrician (us or anyone else) can pick up where we left off. Quotes for three-phase work are always on-site so we can see the existing supply before pricing.

We install machinery isolators and lockable disconnects to AS standards, and we can advise on the broader electrical safety arrangement around a workshop or production area. For sites that need formal risk assessment or safe-operating-procedure documentation we'll work alongside the relevant safety consultant rather than try to do it ourselves — but the electrical install side, including labelling, lockout-tagout point identification, and post-install testing, is core work for us.

Yes. For industrial and warehouse clients the cost of downtime is usually higher than the cost of the work itself, so we plan around it. That means doing site walks before the shutdown to confirm scope, pre-staging materials, and where appropriate doing the work outside operating hours. We'll be honest about how long an isolation needs to be — we'd rather quote a realistic 4-hour window and finish in 3 than promise an hour and run over.

Yes. Thermal imaging on industrial switchboards is a good way to catch a loose connection or an overloaded circuit before it becomes a fault, and many industrial insurers prefer or require it. We can do this as a one-off inspection, or as part of an annual preventive-maintenance visit. The report we hand back identifies hot spots, photographs each one, and recommends an action and timeframe — useful evidence for the insurer and a clear maintenance plan for you.

We'll always do our best to triage urgent industrial breakdowns during business hours — call 0448 096 625, tell us what's stopped working, and we'll give you a realistic ETA before we drop everything. For genuinely critical, single-point-of-failure equipment, talk to us in advance about a service-level arrangement so you have priority response built in rather than depending on whatever the schedule looks like the day something fails.

A few common signs: ceramic fuses instead of circuit breakers; no RCDs (safety switches) on the board; circuits that trip regularly; the smell of burning plastic or visible scorch marks around the board; or labelling that's missing, illegible, or wrong. If you've recently bought an older home, or you're planning to add solar, an EV charger, ducted air-con, or a pool pump, an upgrade is often needed to handle the additional load safely. Send us a photo of your current board and we'll give you a quick read on whether it needs work.

For a typical residential property the swap-over is usually completed inside a single day, with the power off for around 4-6 hours of that. We coordinate the supply isolation with Energex in advance so you know exactly when the power will be off and when it'll be back on. For more complex jobs — three-phase upgrades, larger commercial boards, or sites where the existing main cable also needs replacing — we'll quote the timeline as part of the upfront quote so there are no surprises.

Sometimes — if the upgrade involves changes to the supply side of the meter, an increase in supply capacity, or main neutral replacement, then yes, we'll arrange an Energex disconnect and reconnect as part of the job. We handle the paperwork and the booking with Energex directly so you're not chasing them yourself. For straightforward consumer-side board replacements, we can isolate at the main switch and the work doesn't need an Energex visit at all.

A standard residential upgrade includes a modern, fully-enclosed switchboard with circuit breakers sized for each circuit, RCDs (safety switches) on all final sub-circuits per the current Standards, clear and accurate labelling, and a Certificate of Testing and Safety once the work is done. We'll talk you through the layout before we start so you know which breaker controls what — and we leave you with a labelled key to the board for future reference.

Yes. The supply voltage and frequency to your appliances doesn't change as part of a switchboard upgrade — we're replacing the protection and distribution gear, not the supply itself. The practical change is that some circuits may now trip on faults that the old board would have ignored, which is the upgrade doing its job. If a particular appliance trips a new safety switch consistently, that's a sign the appliance has a fault and needs investigation.

Yes — this is one of the most common reasons people upgrade. If you're adding solar, the board needs the right protection on the inverter circuit and clear segregation per the Clean Energy Council guidelines. For an EV charger, the board often needs a dedicated circuit and load-management arrangement so charging doesn't overload the main supply. We size and configure for what you need today and leave reasonable headroom for future additions.

Yes — lighting design and installation go together for us. For new builds, renovations, and significant lighting refreshes we'll walk through the spaces with you, talk about how each room is used (work, relaxation, entertaining, sleep), and put together a plan that combines ambient, task, and accent lighting. The plan is presented as a simple sketch over your plan or floorplan, with fittings selected, before any cable goes in. That way you can see what you're committing to and adjust before there's a hole in the ceiling.

Yes. Most rooms benefit from dimming, both for atmosphere and for energy use, and we'll specify suitable dimmable drivers and switches. For smart lighting we work mostly with mainstream systems (Clipsal, HPM, Wiser, Philips Hue) — we don't push proprietary ecosystems that lock you in. The system is set up to work first as a standard wall-switch installation, with smart features as a layer on top. That way if your phone app stops being supported in five years, the lights still work the way they always did.

Most homes we visit are over-lit by a margin — too many downlights, all on one circuit, all at the same brightness. The simple fixes: split the lighting into zones so you can turn off what you don't need; mix downlights with pendants, lamps, and wall lights so the light comes from multiple heights; and put dimmers on circuits where you actually use a range of brightness. We'll talk through this when we walk the site so the design works for your routine, not against it.

Yes — see our outdoor lighting page for the longer answer, but in short we cover landscape and garden lighting (low-voltage in the gardens, mains-voltage on hard surfaces), pathway and step lighting, security and motion-activated lighting, and feature lighting for trees, water features, and outdoor entertaining areas. The design considerations differ from indoor lighting (weather-sealing, glare, light spill onto neighbours) and we factor those in before we quote.

Yes — and this is one of the most worthwhile upgrades you can do in an older Brisbane home. Halogens run hot, draw a lot of power, and the fittings deteriorate. Modern LED retrofits use a fraction of the energy, last years longer, and run cool enough that they're safer when you've got insulation in the ceiling above. We replace the fittings and drivers as a unit — not just the bulb — and step-test each one before we leave so you know they're behaving.

Inner-west Brisbane has a lot of pre-war Queenslanders and timber homes where surface-mounted modern downlights would look out of place. We'll work with you on fittings that suit the period — surface-mounted batten holders, pendant lights, wall sconces, and fittings that respect the architecture. Cabling in heritage homes also needs more care to minimise visible runs, especially in homes with timber-lined ceilings. Both of these add a bit of time to the install — we'll factor that into the quote upfront.

The full range — floodlights and security lights, downlights into eaves and verandahs, pathway and step lights, garden uplighting on trees and feature plants, deck and stair lighting, pool and outdoor-entertaining lighting, and bollards along driveways and paths. We work mostly with mainstream IP-rated fittings designed for the Australian climate, and we're careful about cable selection and termination so you don't have water or insect intrusion problems a year or two later.

Both have their place. 12-volt low-voltage systems are simple, very safe in wet garden environments, and the cabling can run shallow without the protection mains-voltage cabling needs — so they're often the right choice for a garden lighting design with many small fittings. 240-volt is needed for floodlights, larger outdoor downlights, and most permanent fixtures attached to the building itself. A typical home outdoor lighting design uses both, with each system running where it makes most sense.

Outdoor lighting design has a real responsibility around light spill and glare onto neighbouring properties — done badly it's the kind of thing that triggers council complaints. We use directional fittings rather than floodlights wherever possible, set elevation angles to push light onto the surfaces you want lit (paths, garden beds) rather than horizontally into the sky or across boundaries, and we test the install at night with you so you can see the actual effect before signing off.

Yes — and most outdoor lighting installations include both. Decorative and feature lighting works well on a simple dusk-to-dawn or programmed timer; security and pathway lighting often work better on motion sensors so the light only comes on when needed. We'll talk through the right combination for your property and explain how to adjust the timing later if your routine or the season changes.

Pool area lighting needs particular care — both for the obvious safety reasons around water and electrical work, and because the regulations around lighting near pools (zoned distances, IP ratings, RCD protection) are stricter than in the rest of the garden. We size and place fittings to comply with the relevant Standard, choose materials that resist chlorine and salt corrosion, and route cabling so future pool maintenance and concrete pool-deck work doesn't damage the install.

Most residential outdoor lighting installs are completed inside one or two days, depending on the number of fittings, how much of the cable run is buried, and whether we're running new cable from the switchboard or extending existing circuits. For larger garden lighting designs we'll often split it into stages so the most-used areas (path lighting, security) go in first and decorative feature lighting follows in a second visit. Timeline goes on the quote upfront.

Yes — that's a big part of what we do across inner-Brisbane and the bayside. For a full renovation we work directly with the builder or owner-builder from early stage through to handover, covering the strip-out side (decommissioning circuits and removing fittings safely), the rough-in (running cable to all the new locations, pre-marking switchboard changes), and the fit-off (installing fittings, terminating, testing, certifying). For owner-driven renovations we can also help coordinate with other trades on the build sequence.

Yes — most of our renovation work is alongside a builder, kitchen company, or project manager. We're comfortable working off plans and electrical drawings, attending site meetings if needed, and slotting our work into the build program rather than expecting everyone else to work around us. If your builder hasn't recommended a specific electrician we're happy to step in; if they have, we can also work as a sub-contractor on their terms.

Earlier than most people think. The single biggest source of frustration on renovations is electrical decisions made too late — power point locations that end up behind the new fridge, lighting plans that don't account for the kitchen island, data cabling forgotten until the gyprock's already on. We'd rather spend an hour walking through the plans with you at the design stage than retrofitting after the wet trades are finished. The first conversation is always free.

Yes — and during a renovation it's often the most cost-effective time to do it, because walls and ceilings are already open. If we find old TPS cabling, single-insulated wire, or any of the patterns that suggest the wiring has aged badly, we'll let you know what's involved in replacing it and what it would cost. We're upfront about whether it's a 'must do' issue or a 'nice to have' upgrade, so you can make an informed call rather than a panicked one.

We work in a lot of inner-west pre-war timber Queenslanders, and the electrical work in those renovations needs more thought than a standard project home. Cable runs need to respect the framing and the heritage finishes; switchboard upgrades need to fit the available space (often tight in older homes); and visible fittings need to look right against the period architecture. None of this is hard, it just needs care — and that's factored into the quote rather than discovered halfway through.

Yes. All electrical work we do during a renovation is documented and certified — you'll get a Certificate of Testing and Safety covering the new and modified circuits, and the work meets the current Wiring Rules and any applicable Queensland-specific requirements. For renovations that change the building's classification (e.g., adding a granny flat or converting a house into a duplex), we'll coordinate with the certifier on what they need from the electrical side.

Queensland's interconnected-photoelectric smoke alarm legislation has been rolling out in stages since 2017 — and any home built or substantially renovated, sold, or leased after 1 January 2022 needs to meet the full standard. The full standard requires photoelectric, hard-wired or 10-year-lithium, interconnected smoke alarms in every bedroom, every hallway, and on every storey. If you're a homeowner not yet selling or renovating, the deadline is 1 January 2027. Send us a photo of your current alarms and we'll tell you where you stand.

Photoelectric alarms detect smoke particles by light scatter — they respond faster to the smouldering fires that are most common in the early stages of house fires, particularly the kind that start while people are asleep. Ionisation alarms detect by ionised air — they respond well to flaming fires but are slower on smouldering ones. Australian research (and now legislation) has settled on photoelectric as the better baseline for residential. Anything we install meets the photoelectric requirement.

Yes. For older homes that don't have the right wiring, modern wireless-interconnected photoelectric alarms with 10-year sealed lithium batteries are usually the most cost-effective path to compliance — they don't need to be hard-wired, they talk to each other wirelessly, and the 10-year battery means no annual battery replacement for the life of the alarm. We can advise on whether wireless or hard-wired makes more sense for your particular home as part of the quote.

The legislation requires one in every bedroom, one in any hallway connecting bedrooms, and at least one on every storey — even storeys without bedrooms. So a typical 3-bedroom single-storey home with a hallway is 4 alarms; a 4-bedroom double-storey home with a downstairs hallway is closer to 6. We confirm the count when we walk the property — there are some specific cases (e.g., open-plan layouts without a hallway) where the count is slightly different.

Modern smoke alarms have a 10-year service life — after that they need replacing entirely, not just a battery swap. This is true of both 10-year sealed-lithium battery alarms and hard-wired alarms with a backup battery. The 10 years is dated from manufacture, not installation, so an alarm that's been sitting on a hardware shelf for two years before it goes in your ceiling will already be 2 years through its life. We check manufacture dates as part of any compliance check.

Yes — for most homes we do a compliance walkthrough and install in a single visit. We assess what's there, talk you through the gap to compliance, install the new alarms, test the interconnect (you'll hear them all sound when one is triggered), and email through the documentation showing the work meets the standard. For larger homes or apartments with body-corporate involvement we sometimes split it into a quote visit and an install visit — you'll know upfront which it is.

A safety switch — formally an RCD or residual current device — is a fast-acting circuit-protection device that cuts power within milliseconds if it detects current leaking to earth. That's the kind of fault that happens when someone touches a live wire or an appliance has internal damage. Modern switchboards have one or more RCDs covering all the final sub-circuits — power, lighting, and dedicated circuits. If your board doesn't have them, you're missing the most important piece of residential electrical safety.

Look at your switchboard. RCDs have a 'TEST' button on them — usually labelled 'T' or 'TEST' — alongside the on/off switch. If you can see that test button, you've got one. If your board only has circuit breakers (no test button) or the older ceramic fuses, you don't have RCDs. The other tell: if you've ever had the power trip when an appliance played up, and you had to flip a switch with a 'TEST' button to restore it, that was an RCD doing its job.

Press the TEST button on each RCD every three months — it's the only way to confirm they're still working. Pressing TEST should immediately cut power to the circuits the RCD covers; flip the switch back to ON to restore power. If pressing TEST does nothing, or you can't reset the RCD afterwards, it's failed and needs replacement. We can do this as part of an annual maintenance visit if you'd rather not do it yourself, but the test button is designed to be operated by the homeowner.

If your board has space and the existing breakers are in good condition, retrofitting RCDs onto the existing circuits is significantly cheaper than a full board replacement. We'll inspect the board first and tell you whether retrofitting is viable or whether a full replacement makes more sense — sometimes the existing board is too old, too small, or too badly wired to retrofit, and starting fresh is the better long-term call. The on-site assessment is free.

Yes — and that's the RCD doing its job. RCDs detect leakage faults that fuses and basic circuit breakers ignore. The most common 'nuisance' trip is from an aging appliance with damaged insulation slowly developing a small earth fault. The trip is the warning sign you need; the appliance is the actual problem and needs investigation. If a particular circuit trips repeatedly, give us a call — we can isolate which appliance is causing it pretty quickly.

Not necessarily — a single RCD can cover several circuits provided the total load is within rating. The current Wiring Rules require RCD protection on all final sub-circuits, so the practical question is how to allocate them: one main RCD covering everything is allowed but means the whole house loses power if anything trips; multiple RCDs split the protection across different parts of the house so a fault in the kitchen doesn't take out the bedrooms. We'll recommend the right configuration for your home.

Anything that needs an electrical connection done properly — ovens, cooktops (induction, ceramic, and gas with electric ignition), rangehoods, dishwashers, washing machines and dryers, hot water systems (electric and heat-pump), pool pumps, ducted air-conditioning (electrical side), pond pumps, and outdoor kitchen appliances. For specialty and high-load appliances we'll often need to add or upgrade the dedicated circuit they need — that's quoted alongside the appliance install rather than as a surprise.

Anything that hardwires into the electrical system (most ovens, induction cooktops, heat-pump hot water, dishwashers in some configurations) legally needs an electrician — it's not a DIY job in Queensland. Plug-in appliances (a fridge, a regular washing machine, most rangehoods, a kettle) you can connect yourself. The grey area is appliances that come with a plug but are intended to hardwire — we'll always tell you upfront which side of that line your particular appliance falls.

Yes — and this is the conversation to have BEFORE you buy the appliance, not after. We'll check the existing circuit's rating, the load already on it, and whether a new high-draw appliance (oven, induction cooktop, heat-pump, large air-con) needs its own dedicated circuit run from the board. The check is quick, costs nothing, and saves the very common scenario where the new appliance arrives and trips the breaker every time you try to use it.

Yes — for the appliance we're disconnecting and replacing, we'll take the old unit with us for safe disposal at no extra charge. For larger items (full ovens, full air-con units, hot water systems) there's sometimes a small disposal fee that goes on the invoice — we'll mention it in the quote. The point is you don't have to figure out the council pickup or trip-to-the-tip side; that's part of the install.

Often yes — if you let us know the delivery window in advance. We'll coordinate so we're on-site shortly after the delivery, with the old unit already disconnected and waiting to swap out. For appliances with a tight delivery window or strict installer-presence requirements (some warranty programs require the installer to be present at delivery) we'll work to meet that, though it sometimes needs a bit more notice in the schedule.

Yes. Every notifiable appliance install is documented with a Certificate of Testing and Safety which we email through after the job. For warranty purposes you may also need this certificate to validate the appliance manufacturer's warranty — they sometimes require proof the unit was installed by a licensed electrician. Keep the certificate with the appliance paperwork; it's the easiest place to find it years later.

Modern usage means more outlets than older homes were built for. As a rough guide: 4 in a master bedroom, 3 in a kid's room or guest room, 6-8 in a kitchen (counting cooktop and oven), 4-6 in a living room (TV plus general), 3 in a study. We'll walk through your usage when we quote — there's no single 'right' number, only the right number for how you'll actually use the room. Power points are cheaper to add now than later.

Yes. USB-A and USB-C combination power points fit standard wall plates and replace existing outlets one-for-one. They're particularly useful next to beds, in kitchens, in studies, and in living rooms where phones and tablets are constantly being charged. We use mainstream brands (Clipsal, HPM, Legrand) where the USB component is properly heatsunk and rated to last — there's a noticeable quality difference between $40 and $90 fittings, and we can talk you through it.

Yes — Cat6 data cabling is one of the most common requests during renovations. We run the cabling, terminate the wall outlets, label and patch back to a central termination point (typically near your modem or in a small comms cabinet), and test each run with a certified data tester. For homes where wifi alone isn't keeping up, cabled connections to TVs, work-from-home setups, and game consoles make a real difference.

In most internal walls, yes. We use cable-fishing techniques to run cable behind plasterboard from the source to the new point, with minimal patching needed — usually a small entry hole near the skirting and a small exit at the new outlet location, both patched and ready for paint. In rare cases (solid masonry walls, existing cable congestion, or insulation that won't allow fishing) we'll use surface-mounted conduit, but we'll always tell you upfront so you can decide.

Outdoor power points need to be IP-rated (weather-sealed) and on an RCD-protected circuit — both for safety and per the Wiring Rules. We use full-cover weatherproof enclosures rather than the cheaper hinged-flap style, which we've seen fail prematurely. Common outdoor locations are alfresco areas, patios, pool pump alcoves, and garden sheds. For garden sheds we'll often run a sub-circuit to the shed and install a small sub-board there if you want multiple outlets and lighting.

A single point added to an existing circuit (with a reasonable cable path) usually takes around 1-2 hours including testing and patch-up. Multiple points done in the same visit drop the per-point time as we set up once and work through them. For points that need a new dedicated circuit run from the switchboard the time is longer — typically half a day depending on how the cable run goes. We'll give you a realistic time estimate as part of the quote.