Multi-Unit Residential
Electrical Contractor for Multi-Unit Builds. On Your Programme, Not Ours.
Pre-plaster, and pre-energisation. Everywhere else the electrical package should be moving alongside your programme rather than gating it. This page sets out exactly how we sequence a multi-unit scheme, plot by plot, from load calculation to the certificate a buyer’s solicitor asks for.
Multi-unit residential delivery, sequenced to your programme and certified plot by plot.
Critical Path
Two points where the electrical contractor can genuinely stop everyone else
Most of the electrical package runs in parallel with other trades. Two moments do not, and knowing which two is the difference between a sub-contractor who fits into a programme and one who has to be managed through it.
The plasterer gate
First fix complete and inspected per plot. Miss it and the cost is not the cable, it is the chasing, the making good and the decorating in a plot that was finished.
The energisation gate
Certification per unit before the network operator will energise. No amount of programme pressure moves this one, which is why it cannot be left to the last fortnight.
The Sequence
Six stages, and the trade interface at each one
This is the sequence we run on a multi-unit scheme. What matters on a development is not the stages themselves, since every electrical contractor has the same six. It is who owns the handover between them.
Stage 00
Specification and connection strategy
Before ground is broken
Load calculation per unit type and for the scheme as a whole decides the size of the incoming supply, and that in turn decides which connection process applies and how long it takes. Connection applications are a lead-time item rather than a paperwork item. They belong in the programme at the same point as the drainage design, not at the point somebody wants power on. Where a scheme has multiple unit types we agree a standard spec per type up front, because a mid-programme change to unit type C is a change to every unit type C that follows it.
Stage 01
First fix
After the frame and roof, before the plasterer
Cable routes, back boxes, containment, and the drops for every socket, switch and light. On a multi-unit scheme this is the stage where repetition pays: the same unit type gets the same setting-out every time, so a crew moving from plot 14 to plot 15 is not re-reading a drawing. We coordinate the joist zone with the plumbing and mechanical first fix before either goes in. Notching and drilling positions are a shared constraint, and a retrospective disagreement about them is expensive for both trades.
Stage 02
Pre-plaster inspection
The first genuine gate
This is one of only two points in the programme where the electrical contractor can genuinely stop everyone else. Once the plasterer starts, anything missed is a chase into new plaster and a decorating cost that did not need to exist. So first fix is inspected and signed off as complete per plot before the plasterer is released, and if a plot is not ready we say so rather than letting it be closed up and dealt with later.
Stage 03
Second fix
After plastering, alongside kitchens and joinery
Accessories, distribution board, and the terminations. Second fix runs into the kitchen fitter and the joiner more than any other trade, because appliance positions and unit layouts decide where the outlets end up. We sequence around the kitchen install rather than through it. Going in before the units are set means working twice, and going in too late holds up the snag.
Stage 04
Testing and certification, unit by unit
The second gate, and the one people underestimate
Every unit is inspected, tested and certified individually. Continuity, insulation resistance, polarity, earth fault loop impedance and RCD operation, with the results recorded per plot. This is the stage that gets compressed when a programme slips, and it is the one stage that cannot be compressed, because the certificate is what the network operator looks for before energising a new connection. On a scheme of any size, testing has to run alongside the install rather than as a phase at the end.
Stage 05
Energisation and handover pack
Ahead of the solicitor, not behind them
Certificate, test results and as-built documentation per unit, assembled as a file rather than a folder of paperwork someone has to chase. A buyer's solicitor will ask for the electrical certificate on closing, and a missing one for a single plot delays that plot's sale rather than the scheme's. It is the cheapest problem on this list to avoid and one of the most common to encounter.
Reference Project
Dublin Residential Development
Full electrical package, first fix to completion
Complete electrical installation across a 90-unit residential development in Dublin. Full first-fix, second-fix, DB boards, testing, and Safe Electric certification on every unit.
- First and second fix across every plot
- Distribution boards and sub-mains
- EV-ready ducting designed in at first fix
- Safe Electric certification per unit
What a scheme this size actually teaches
That the hard part is not the wiring, it is the repeatability. Doing the same job 90 times without the standard drifting is a system rather than an effort, and the system is what we brought back to every job since, including the ones that are a single house.
Scheme Type
An apartment scheme carries obligations a housing estate does not
Forty houses and forty apartments are not the same electrical package, and the difference is not the wiring inside the dwelling. It is everything outside it. A multi-unit building brings communal areas, landlord supplies, riser and containment strategy, and a set of life-safety systems that a housing estate simply does not have.
Where units in the scheme will be let, and on most apartment developments some will be, the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 add specific requirements for multi-unit buildings: a suitable fire detection and alarm system, a fire blanket, an emergency evacuation plan, and emergency lighting in the common areas. The emergency lighting element is a design calculation to I.S. 3217, not a fitting count, and the fire detection and alarm system is certified separately to I.S. 3218 with its own commissioning documentation and its own service cycle.
The practical consequence for a programme is that the communal package has its own sequence, its own certification and its own sign-off, running in parallel to the per-unit work rather than inside it. Schemes get caught out when the communal systems are treated as a small add-on to the apartment fit-out and then turn out to need their own commissioning window before anyone can occupy the building.
The same life-safety standards and their separate certification are set out in more detail on our commercial page, along with the periodic inspection duty that lands on whoever ends up managing the building.
Snagging & Handover
What happens after the last plot is finished
Electrical snags on a residential scheme are overwhelmingly the same handful of items: an accessory damaged by a following trade, a light or socket that ended up in a position the buyer queries, a faceplate marked during decoration. Almost none of them are wiring faults, because the wiring was tested before the walls closed. Knowing that shapes how snagging should be run: as a finishing exercise with a short turnaround, not as a re-investigation.
We work snags per plot against the same schedule the testing was recorded on, so an item can be traced back to the circuit and the test result rather than argued about. Where a snag is genuinely ours, it gets fixed. Where it is damage caused after our second fix, we will say so plainly and price the repair rather than absorb it silently or dispute it at the end. That conversation is far cheaper had once, in the open, than relitigated across forty plots.
The handover file matters just as much as the snag list. Per plot: the Safe Electric certificate, the test results behind it, and the as-built documentation. Assembled as the work completes rather than compiled retrospectively, because a certificate chased six months later is a certificate that holds up a sale.
Programme Risk
Five things that go wrong on residential schemes, and how we handle each
None of these are hypothetical and none of them are unique to us. What differs between contractors is whether they are named at tender stage or discovered at handover.
| The risk | How we handle it |
|---|---|
| Spec drift between unit types | A change agreed verbally on plot 6 that never reaches the drawing shows up as an inconsistency on plots 7 through 40. We price and confirm variations per unit type in writing, so the standard that gets built is the standard that was agreed. |
| Preceding trades running late | Our sequence assumes the frame, roof and blockwork land when the programme says. When they do not, the honest options are re-sequencing plots, resourcing up, or accepting the slip. We would rather present those three than quietly promise the original date. |
| Testing compressed into the last fortnight | The single most common cause of a delayed handover on a residential scheme. Testing runs per plot alongside the install so the documentation is complete when the work is, not two weeks afterwards. |
| EV and heating loads added late | EV pre-cabling and heat pump provision change the load calculation and sometimes the supply size. Added at design stage they cost very little; added after first fix they are a rework item on every plot that has already been closed up. |
| One plot missing its certificate at closing | Delays that sale, not the scheme. Certification tracked per plot from the start means the gap gets found in week three rather than by a solicitor in week thirty. |
The Package
What’s Included
Load calculation and electrical specification per unit type and for the scheme
Connection application support and coordination with the network operator
First fix, second fix, distribution boards and sub-mains across every plot
Coordination of the joist zone with mechanical and plumbing first fix
Phased mobilisation across blocks or phases, resourced to the build programme
Inspection, testing and certification per unit, not per scheme
EV-ready provision and heating load allowance designed in rather than retrofitted
Complete handover file per plot: certificate, test results, as-built documentation
Resourcing
The number quoted at tender is the number that turns up
We run a 10-strong crew. On a phased scheme that means dedicated crews per block with mobilisation matched to your sequence, and the capacity to hold other work while a development is running. It also means we are honest about the ceiling: there is a size of scheme where the right answer is that we are not the contractor for it, and we would rather say that at tender than discover it in month four.
Where a programme compresses, resourcing up is usually possible. It is a price and a conversation, not a free adjustment, and presenting it that way is the difference between a realistic recovery plan and a promise that quietly does not hold.
Through all of it you deal with Jamie directly. On a development the value of a single point of contact is not customer service, it is that the person you ring is the person who can change what happens on site tomorrow morning.
Building one-off houses or working with self-builders rather than running a scheme? The new build page covers the single-dwelling side, including the design-stage decisions and the connection process. For fit-outs and non-residential work, see commercial.
Who You’re Dealing With
Why this job is safe with us
We deliver full electrical packages from first fix to final cert, including a 90-unit residential development in Dublin, certified unit by unit. The same crew and the same standard run a one-off house.
Safe Electric registered
Registration A6700
Verifiable on the public register
Public liability insurance
Up to €6.5M
Cover in place on every job
Crew size
10 electricians
Trading since 2021
Fixed-price quote
Within 48 hours
WhatsApp replies within the hour, Mon–Fri
Largest completed package
90-unit residential development, Dublin
Full electrical package, first fix to completion · Completed 2026
FAQ
Multi-Unit Residential: Common Questions
How do you fit into an existing build programme?
We work to your dates. First fix goes in once the frame and roof are up and before the plasterers; second fix follows once the walls are closed and the kitchens are set; testing and certification run per plot alongside the install. We map those stages against your programme at the start and flag where the electrical work genuinely sits on the critical path, which is at two points only: pre-plaster and pre-energisation.
What resourcing do you put on a multi-unit scheme?
We run a 10-strong crew and resource to the programme rather than to a fixed headcount. On a phased scheme that means dedicated crews per block with mobilisation matched to your sequence. The number quoted at tender is the number that turns up. If a compressed programme needs more, that is a conversation and a price rather than a promise.
Do you certify per unit or per development?
Per unit, every time. Each dwelling gets its own inspection, its own test results and its own certificate. That matters commercially as well as legally. A certificate is what the network operator wants before energising a connection and what a buyer's solicitor asks for on closing, so a missing one holds up an individual sale.
Who coordinates with the network operator on connections?
We handle the electrical side and coordinate with whoever is managing the connection application. The point worth making early is that a connection is a lead-time item with its own process, and the size of the supply decides which process applies. It belongs in the programme alongside the other utility applications, not at the point where somebody wants power on site.
How do you handle variations mid-programme?
Priced and confirmed in writing, per unit type. The failure mode on a residential scheme is a change agreed on site for one plot that never reaches the drawing and then shows up as an inconsistency across every plot that follows. Confirming variations against the unit type rather than the plot is what stops that.
What is the largest scheme you have completed?
A 90-unit residential development in Dublin, covering the full electrical package from first fix through to Safe Electric certification on every unit, completed 2026. What that demonstrates is repeatability under programme pressure: the same job done 90 times without the standard drifting, and 90 sets of test results that stand up to validation.
Can you allow for EV charging and heat pumps in the design?
Yes, and it should be decided at design stage. EV provision and heat pump loads change the per-unit load calculation and can change the supply size for the scheme. Designed in, they cost very little. Retrofitted after first fix, they are a rework item on every plot already closed up.
Do you work outside Wexford?
We are based in Wexford and work across Leinster, including Dublin. On a development we put a crew on site for the duration rather than travelling daily, which is why distance is rarely the deciding factor on a scheme of any size.
How quickly can you price a scheme?
Send the drawings and the specification and you get a fixed price within 48 hours for a straightforward scheme. For anything with multiple unit types, phasing or an existing installation involved, we will want to walk the site first. The price is only as good as what it accounts for.
Related
Where to go next
Tendering a scheme?
Send drawings, the specification and your programme. Fixed price within 48 hours, with the sequencing mapped against your dates rather than ours.
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