Cafés, restaurants and takeaways in Cardiff — inspection, remedials and installs

Cardiff sits inside the area we cover daily, so cafés, restaurants and takeaways here is routine work rather than a special trip.

Catering premises put more sustained load on an installation than almost any other small commercial site. Every circuit affected is identified and labelled, which makes the next person's job — and yours — considerably easier. Around CF10–CF24 it is coffee machines and dishwashers that decides how long the visit takes.

Property in Cardiff varies street to street, so the honest answer to "what will it cost" is that it depends on load assessment before adding fryers, ovens or refrigeration — checkable in under an hour. Anything else found on the day is raised with you before it is touched.

Where an installation has been extended over decades, the sensible approach is to establish a baseline before adding anything else to it. It is one reason we quote after the survey rather than over the phone.

On Victorian and Edwardian terraces across Cathays and Roath in particular, coffee machines and dishwashers on shared RCDs, where combined tends to shape the plan more than the specification does. The materials rarely change; the route and the access do. That is checked with instruments, not by eye.

Photographs of anything hidden are taken as standard, because you should not have to take our word for what is above the ceiling. That detail is what a proper survey is for.

Access, timing and tenants are all workable — say what you need when you book. You are welcome to watch the tests being taken and ask what each one means.

Total connected kitchen load exceeding the supply capacity, leading. The symptom is the same whichever cause is behind it, so we measure.

Coffee machines and dishwashers on shared RCDs, where combined is worth checking on any Victorian and Edwardian terraces across Cathays and Roath of that age.

On the Cardiff side of the A470 and A48 this is a familiar one: extraction and interlock systems added piecemeal.

Grease and steam degrading accessories — cheap to confirm with instruments, expensive to assume.

Load assessment before adding fryers, ovens or refrigeration — the part of the job that protects the rest of it.

Across CF10–CF24 properties we dedicated circuits and local isolation for each fixed kitchen the same way every time.

Kitchen-appropriate accessories, IP-rated where washdown or vapour requires it — arranged around tenants or trading hours if needed.

We finish with extract fan supplies and interlock wiring coordinated with the ventilation and email the paperwork the same evening.

Fixed wire testing and emergency lighting for the customer-facing, so nothing is left to be discovered on a second visit.

This page is written for Cardiff specifically — Cardiff Council area, CF10–CF24.