Strathmore is a stay-put suburb. The interwar and post-war homes on the wide streets around Woodland Street and Pascoe Vale Road tend to get extended, renovated and added to rather than sold, which shapes the electrical work: new circuits for reworked kitchens, ducted heating and cooling going into houses that were never wired for it, alfresco areas out the back, and EV chargers going onto boards that are decades older than the car. There is also a solid rental market here, which brings its own set of legal obligations worth getting right.
- Extension & renovation wiring
- Dedicated appliance circuits
- EV charger installs
- Rental safety checks
- Smoke alarm compliance
- Fault finding & repairs
The pattern in Strathmore is a house from the 1930s to 50s being asked to run a 2020s household. The original installation was designed for a few lights, a handful of points and not much else — no ducted heating, no induction cooktop, no second fridge in the garage, certainly no car charging overnight. Everything since has been added on top, usually one circuit at a time, to a board that was never resized to match. It works right up until it does not, and the symptom is normally nuisance tripping or lights dimming when something heavy switches on.
That is why we start with a proper look at the board and the main supply before quoting anything big. There is no point installing a charger or a ducted system onto an installation that cannot carry it — you end up back where you started, plus the cost of the install. Getting the capacity sorted first usually costs less than doing it twice, and it means everything you add afterwards goes in cleanly.
Earlier than most people think — ideally at plan stage, and definitely before the walls get lined. Electrical on an extension runs in two visits. Rough-in happens once the frame is up and before plastering: we run all the cable and fix the exact position of every point, switch and light, which is the moment to walk it through on site because moving a switch later means opening a wall. Fit-off happens after painting, when everything is installed and tested. The other early question is whether the existing board can carry the new load, because that can change the scope.
Almost always, yes. A ducted system is a substantial continuous load and it needs its own dedicated circuit back to the switchboard, correctly sized for the unit, rather than sharing with general power. The second question is whether your board has room and whether the main supply can carry it alongside everything else. On a Strathmore home from the 1930s to 50s that has never had its supply reviewed, that is worth checking before the HVAC installer books in, because discovering it on install day usually means delays and a second trade back on site.
For rental providers in Victoria there are two electrical obligations worth knowing. An electrical safety check has to be carried out by a licensed electrician every two years, covering all fixed wiring, switches, outlets and appliances supplied with the property, and you have to keep a record of when it was done. Smoke alarms must also be tested annually and kept in working order. We do both, and give you dated documentation each time so the record exists if it is ever asked for. If the check turns up something that needs work, we quote it separately rather than bundling it in.
It is worth having looked at. A brief dip when something with a big start-up draw kicks in can be normal, but persistent dimming or flickering often points to voltage drop from an undersized or overloaded supply, or to a loose or deteriorating connection somewhere in the installation — and a loose connection generates heat, which is the part that matters. There is also a less common but more serious cause involving a failing neutral, which can put appliances at risk. It is not something to guess at from the symptom, so we test at the board and at the affected circuits to find out which it actually is.
Not on the list? We cover Melbourne & all of Victoria — call 0432 520 620 or send through the details for a written quote.
Get a Quote