Stoke St Michael is a high Mendip village of stone cottages and farms in quarrying country, a short way east of Oakhill. Up here the weather tests outside lights and sockets, farm buildings need sound supplies, and older stone houses need wiring that is checked rather than assumed. Our electricians cover the village for lighting, faults, alarms, inspections and new boards, each priced as a fixed figure.
Stoke St Michael sits up on the Mendip plateau among the farms and quarries that shape this part of Somerset. Its houses are mostly stone cottages and farmhouses, with barns and working buildings around them. The stone is thick and the rooms are often low on the ground floor and awkward under the roof, which affects where cables can go and how lighting is laid out.
What we expect to find in houses like these is a mixture of eras. The main circuits may have been replaced at some point, while lighting on the upper floor, a supply to a garage, or a circuit in a back extension is older and has never been tested. That is why our first recommendation for any house that has changed hands, or has not been looked at in years, is an inspection: it tells you exactly which parts are fine and which are not, so you only pay to fix what needs fixing.
Exposed sites are hard on anything fixed to the outside of a building. Wind-driven rain finds its way into cheap fittings, sockets fitted without the right seals collect water, and lights mounted on a gable take the full force of the weather. When an outdoor circuit starts tripping, a fitting full of water is one of the usual suspects.
For outside work we use fittings rated for the location, entries sealed properly, and RCD protection on every outdoor circuit. Security floodlights go on stone or clad walls with the cable run protected rather than left loose, and PIR or dusk-to-dawn control is set up before we leave. Outbuildings, workshops and stables get an armoured supply with a local isolator and metal-clad sockets. Our garden and outdoor electrics page has more detail, and for car charging on a farm or a long drive see EV charger installation.
A lot of the smaller jobs we do in Mendip houses are about lighting: moving a set of downlights and a dimmer, adding a wall light, replacing a fitting over a stairwell where you cannot reach from a normal ladder. Two-way switching on stairs and landings is common, and moving a dimmer from one end of a two-way circuit to the other needs the circuit worked out properly first, not guessed at.
Faults are the other regular call. A socket circuit that trips as soon as it is reset usually has damage somewhere along the cable. We find the faulty section by testing between points; sometimes the right answer is to remove that section and feed the sockets from the other end, which avoids pulling up floors for the sake of one length of cable. For everyday work of this kind, see our domestic electrician page.
Stoke St Michael is about two miles east of Oakhill and about three and a half miles north-east of Shepton Mallet. It falls under our Oakhill area page, which covers the villages on this side of the Mendips, and our Shepton Mallet page for the town services. We work from our Mid Somerset base and price by the job, never by the hour.
Leigh-on-Mendip lies about three miles east of Oakhill and about five miles north-east of Shepton Mallet, further out along the same high ground as Stoke St Michael. It is another village of stone cottages and farms in quarrying country, so the same priorities apply: weatherproof outside fittings, armoured supplies to farm buildings, and an inspection before any big change to an older house.
Holcombe and Ashwick are among Oakhill's immediate neighbours. In Holcombe this year we moved six downlights and a dimmer to the other end of a two-way circuit, and on a separate Sunday call-out found a damaged section of cable on a tripping socket circuit, removed it and fed the sockets from the other end, which avoided lifting floors to replace the whole run.
Binegar is about two miles north-west of Oakhill and Gurney Slade a little closer, both about four miles north of Shepton Mallet. They share Stoke St Michael's high Mendip character of stone cottages and farms. The requests we would expect from there are fault-finding, consumer unit upgrades away from older boards, and interlinked heat and CO alarms in cottages heated by wood burners or oil boilers.
Doulting is on the A361 about two miles east of Shepton Mallet and about three miles south of Oakhill. Its freestone built Wells Cathedral, and its stone cottages, farmhouses and tithe barn mean the work there is similar to Stoke St Michael's: outbuilding supplies, board replacements with proper earthing checks, and inspections of houses that have been wired in several stages over many decades.
Real jobs from this year in the villages closest to Stoke St Michael. No names or addresses.
We don't publish a price list, because no two houses are the same. Alarm installs, landlord visits and rewires are each priced on the property in front of us: how many circuits there are, how the house is built and how easy the access is. We look first, then give you a fixed written price, with VAT shown on its own line.
Leave your details and a line about the job. We will ring you back to talk it through and arrange a survey or a written price.
Yes. Stoke St Michael is in BA3, about two miles east of Oakhill, and we work across Oakhill, Holcombe and the surrounding Mendip villages. Call 07889 334849 or send an enquiry with a description and a few photos. Small jobs can often be priced from the pictures; bigger ones need a survey, after which you get a fixed written price with VAT shown separately.
Usually water getting into the fitting, the cable entry or a junction box outside, which lets current leak to earth and trips the RCD. On high, exposed ground it is a common reason for an outdoor circuit to trip. We test the circuit to confirm where the leak is, then replace the fitting or the connection with one suited to the position and seal the entries properly. If the light has no RCD protection at all, that needs putting right too.
Yes. Two-way and intermediate switching on stairs and landings can be wired in a few different ways, so we trace how yours is connected before changing anything. Then the dimmer or new switch goes where you want it, and the circuit is tested afterwards. We did exactly this in nearby Holcombe this year, moving six downlights and a dimmer to the other end of a two-way circuit.
Yes. We bring the right access equipment, which for a tall stairwell can mean large ladders set up over the stairs, and replace or reposition the fitting safely. At a house in Oakhill we replaced a stairwell light on two-way switching this way. If it is a fitting you dread changing a lamp in, it is worth asking whether a longer-life LED fitting would save you the trouble next time.
For a tenancy, an EICR at intervals of no more than five years, a copy to each tenant within 28 days, and any remedial work the report requires done within 28 days. A smoke alarm on each storey with living accommodation, and a CO alarm in any living room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker, such as a wood burner or boiler. Our single-let pack covers all of that in one visit.
Priced by the job, not by the hour. A written, fixed price after a survey, NAPIT certification on every notifiable job.
07889 334849