Churches & Houses of Worship
Heated pews, lighting and rewires, worked through the faculty and diocese
The Lake Electrical team works in parish churches, chapels and houses of worship across the South East. Heated pews that warm the congregation rather than the roof, lighting that cuts a bill the PCC worries about, and the rewiring an old church needs, worked through the faculty and diocese.
A NICEIC approved contractor, SafeContractor accredited, with DBS-checked engineers, trading since 2008.
Church electricians across East Sussex, Kent, Surrey and the South East
We are an electrical contractor based in Battle in East Sussex, working in churches across Kent, East Sussex, Surrey and the wider South East. Three things bring a parish to us most often. A heating system nobody can defend at a PCC meeting, where heated pews earn their place. A lighting bill that is the largest figure in the accounts, where our LED lighting upgrades start with a free survey. And wiring at the end of its life, or an EICR that has come back unsatisfactory. The rest sits across our services.
Wiring added in layers, with nothing written down
The electrics in an old church are rarely one installation. They are four or five, laid over each other across decades and almost none of it recorded. A board in the vestry is fed from something nobody has traced, three ways labelled in pencil and two not at all. The heating runs for two days to make the nave bearable for two hours, and most of that warmth sits above the tie beams.
The last report came back thick with limitations, and that is usually a question of price. A cheap EICR is priced per circuit, and the engineer gets about five minutes on each one, which in a building altered by a century of different hands tells you very little. Then you pay again for a remedial to find out what you have, and we have seen a £500 report turn into a £10,000 remedial bill.
Doing it correctly starts with writing the installation down. We trace what is there, record the circuits and what they feed, and leave the parish a schedule it owns. Every observation is coded to BS 7671 and explained in a sentence that can be read at a PCC meeting. Routes and fixings are agreed with your church architect first, and the work is planned across the church year, with Advent, Holy Week and Easter out of the programme before we start.
What changes in the church
A nine o’clock service where the heating went on twenty minutes earlier and the congregation are warm, coats off. A nave lit one way for a service, another for a concert, and plain for the cleaners on a Tuesday.
What we do in a church
Faculty, the DAC and your church architect
A church is not consented like an office. In the Church of England the work goes through the faculty jurisdiction, so permission comes from the diocese, with the Diocesan Advisory Committee advising and the chancellor granting the faculty. Smaller items can go through the lower lists with the archdeacon’s written permission. The statement of need and the statement of significance carry more weight alongside a proposal that says what will be fixed to what, where cable will run, and how it could come out later without leaving a mark. We write that technical part alongside your architect. We cannot approve anything and do not pretend otherwise. What we can do is plan for the timescale, because a scheme the PCC wants finished by Easter is a conversation to start before Advent. Where the parish wants sound or a hearing loop too, that is handled by our sister company, OBAV, so both go into one application.
Accredited and experienced in church buildings
NICEIC approved contractor. SafeContractor accredited. DBS-checked engineers, which matters in a building used by children’s groups. Trading since 2008, with every inspection and installation carried out to BS 7671. [[CONFIRM: how many church projects you have completed, which parishes can be named, and whether you have taken a scheme through a full faculty application]]
Recent work
What clients say
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Why clients choose the Lake Electrical team
Church work is decided by a committee and paid for by a congregation, so it matters who turns up. Lake Electrical is family run and owner led, and the owners run the jobs themselves, so whoever walks the building with your architect prices it and is answerable for it. Call in working hours and you get a person in the office, not a voicemail. Our engineers have all been with us at least two years.
We tell a PCC what the building needs rather than only what was asked for, including when the lighting will save more than the heating. We are not the cheapest, and we are straight about that. You are paying for an engineer who understands an old building and a report that holds up when the archdeacon reads it.
Church electrical questions answered
How church work is priced, and whether a visit comes first
The visit comes first. An old church cannot be priced from a description, because the age of the wiring, the access to the tower and chancel and what the last electrician left behind all change the work. You then get a full cost, itemised so the PCC can approve it in stages.
Whether we work through the faculty application
We write the technical part of it alongside your architect and work to the diocese’s timescale, which is longer than anything else we work to.
How often a church needs an EICR
Most commercial premises are on a five year cycle, but a church is not a typical commercial building, so the engineer records the date for the next inspection, and in practice the insurer or the diocese fixes it.
What can be fixed to the fabric of a listed church
Less than most contractors assume, and it is agreed with your architect rather than by an electrician with a drill. In practice that means existing routes and existing holes, and work that can come out later without damage.
Request a quote for your church
A few details is enough for us to come back with a price, usually the same day.
Planning electrical work in a church? Request a quote. Prefer a chat first? Get in touch, or call the team on [[NAP: phone number]], Mon to Fri, 8am to 5pm.
We work across Kent, East Sussex, Surrey and the wider South East.