INSTALLING THE ELECTRICS

1 Not being a qualified electrician, Rob can’t connect the electrical wiring to the mains, but he can fit a consumer unit, several LED lights and power sockets. With advice from an electrician, he bought and fitted a consumer unit in the garage.

2 Checking the main garage door could be closed without fouling the consumer unit was conducted before going any further. Fortunately, there is plenty of space between the door and the consumer unit.

3 Slim LED tubes were fitted across the two long walls of the inspection pit to help with illumination. Hand-held LED worklights may prove to be more effective, but some permanent illumination is required for seeing where you are going.

4 Short lengths of wood were secured to the insides of the garage walls with wall plugs before sockets and switches were fitted. Due to the shape of the garage walls, the wiring can be fed into the backs of the sockets and switches.

5 Four 60-watt LED battens were fitted inside the roof of the garage. Each produces 7200 lumens, which should be sufficient light, but Rob also decided to add a couple of Draper 30-watt floodlights, which produce 1950 lumens each.

6 Electrician Pete Haddon connected the electrics to the fusebox in the house and routed the appropriate cabling from the consumer unit to the lights and sockets. Luckily, the cable had already been fed into the garage and through to the inspection pit.

7 Once all of the wiring had been fitted and tested, Rob was left to apply white plastic trunking to tidy it up. This is self-adhesive, so it can be stuck to the walls and helps to hide most of the wires.