Schools & Education
Rewires and upgrades, planned around the holidays so we are finished before term starts
The Lake Electrical team works on school and academy estates across the South East, carrying out rewires, upgrades and new installations planned around term time, so we are in and finished during the holidays. EICRs and fixed wire testing, LED lighting, sports hall heating and board upgrades, scoped in the term before so the building is ready for the first morning back.
A NICEIC approved contractor, SafeContractor accredited, with DBS-checked engineers, working on education sites since 2008.
School electrical contractor across the South East
We are an electrical contractor based in Battle in East Sussex, working as a school electrical contractor across Kent, East Sussex, Surrey and the wider South East, for maintained schools, academies, trusts and independent schools. Private schools suit us well, with longer breaks to work in. Schools are one of the sectors this business is built around, because a school estate needs the testing, lighting, heating, power and cabling in our services while the children are elsewhere.
Why a school job is measured against the first day of term
Every school job is measured against one date, and nobody remembers which Monday in August the work began. We agree the scope in the term before, walking the building while it is in use, so the rooms, the isolations and the areas staying open for holiday clubs are settled first. Long lead items are ordered straight away, because switchgear arriving in week two of a six week programme costs the whole programme. We say at the outset which parts can be handed over in stages, so a hall or a block comes back into use as it is certified.
When the cheapest quote becomes the most expensive job
A cheap EICR is priced per circuit, and the engineer gets about five minutes on each one. That is not long enough to work out what a circuit in a science block actually does, so it comes back as a page of limitations, and then you pay again for a remedial to find out what you have. We have seen a £500 report turn into a £10,000 remedial bill, which is not a figure a business manager wants to take to governors in March.
The rest follows from it. The observations arrive as a list of C2s with nothing to say which one matters, so nothing gets budgeted and the same items appear three years later. Then in August two contractors arrive on the same Monday, each told the science block is theirs.
An estate maintained to a plan differs in every one of those places. The inspection is planned around the timetable, with the rooms available, so the report covers the school. Each observation is coded and explained in a sentence a governor can follow, with urgent work separated from work that can wait.
What a planned school programme gives you
A site manager who gets the science block back on the Thursday he was promised. A business manager who can defend a spending plan to governors line by line. A sports hall warm enough for a Saturday fixture without heating it all day.
What we do in a school
We also install data cabling and access points in classrooms and EV charging for staff parking and a minibus. The audio visual side, where a hall needs sound or PA, is handled by our sister company, OBAV, so both sit on one job.
Safeguarding, accreditation and working on a school site
NICEIC approved contractor. SafeContractor accredited. DBS-checked engineers. Trading since 2008. On site that means engineers who sign in and out and close off a working area from children rather than leaving it taped. [[CONFIRM: at what level your engineers are DBS checked, and whether any education framework, local authority or trust supplier registration can be named]]
Recent work
What clients say
[placeholder — review 1]
[placeholder — review 2]
[placeholder — review 3]
Why clients choose the Lake Electrical team
Lake Electrical is family run and owner led, and the owners run the jobs themselves, so the person who agreed your holiday dates in June is the one answerable for the handover in August. 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 you what the building needs, including the item you were not asking about and the item that can wait a year. We are not the cheapest, and we are straight about that. You are paying for work carried out to the regulations, a date the school can plan around, and engineers who understand what they are looking at.
School electrical questions answered
Whether you work in the school holidays and around term time
Yes, and most of our school work is planned that way. Larger jobs go into the summer holiday, with the scope agreed in the term before, while smaller work fits half terms, Christmas and Easter. In term we work evenings, weekends and single rooms taken out of use by arrangement.
How schools buy this work, and whether you respond to tenders
Yes to tenders, and we are comfortable with the documentation. We quote for schools directly, for trusts and local authorities through their own purchasing routes, and for main contractors. The figure taken to a finance committee is the figure at the end of the job.
How often a school needs an EICR, and what an unsatisfactory result means
Most commercial premises, schools included, need one every five years. The inspecting engineer also records a recommended date for the next inspection, so a science block and a sports hall are not necessarily on the same cycle. An unsatisfactory outcome means at least one C1, C2 or FI was recorded, which concerns specific items rather than the whole school, and the remedial work that clears it is quoted separately.
Plan your holiday programme
A few details is enough for us to come back with a price, usually the same day.
Planning work for the holidays? Arrange an EICR. 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.