Self isolation - day 1 - Packing down 

Finally Tom! Been waiting for a video for ages

I just got back from Australia working for a small electrical company, they used tradify. It was really good, they had a PA who put all the jobs in and it allowed the engineers to invoice the clients on site.

All the best Tom, stay safe!!

man sometimes i just watch your videos to calm down, your voice is better than therapy. keep up the good work.

Hello Thomas, I'm a electrician from the US and I was just in London for the first time. (Bucket list). London is beautiful. Keep posting videos my friend. Take care.

Them boxes will never move with expanding foam , foam is great stuff 👌 myself and dad are only doing callouts only in these difficult times , got an empty flat to rewire in bexhill but we are going to leave it as there’s people above we don’t wanna upset

Thomas please stay safe buddy. All the best we went into lock down today. Regards and well wishes from Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Ive not been outside since Sunday, actually loving it

Nice to see you online. Keep safe and well buddy

More impressions please. That was brilliant. 🇨🇦👍

I saw one of your vans in Lewisham last week ! Keep up the good work!

Thanks Tom Stay safe and all the best

Always good practice to change both elements at the same time. I've done quite a few but I prefer to leave it to a good plumber. Stay safe Tom and keep your distance 😘👍.

Wow Tom. Puts things into perspective

Love your vids keep it up!!

This video has saved me from boredom!

Best of luck. Stay safe, look forward to videos of you rescuing cats from trees.

i will be surprised if the plasterers dont screw either a cable or a pipe in that flat when boarding the ceiling

Safety is paramount Tom stay safe

Perfect diagnostic to failed immersion heater. Thomas !👍🏻

See you today over by the cricket ground, queens terrace. Glad to see your out still working mate

We've just started using one called Freedcamp for our engineering divisions. Whilst its had a bit of a learning curve it has been pretty useful if the info has been input onto the system correctly.

Just covering callouts/emergencies only myself for social housing , not been called out yet but we have to phone the tenant before entering their home and have them move into another room before we enter, wear ppe gloves mask coveralls etc and after the job has been fixed leave and phone them to say they can leave the room.

ServiceM8 can’t recommend it enough. Quotes, invoices, add pictures to individual job, notes scheduling, directions, texts the client. Really good system and keeps getting better. Great for 1 man bands or companies, we’ve got 15 guys across London and South East., does everything you can think of and more. Only down side is they stick with IOS so they don’t have to worry about different platforms. Which makes sense to me. I’m not paid by them BTW 😂 Keep up the good videos Tom ⚡️

Stay safe Tom, and everyone else here

Hi Tom, we used Tradify for 3 years and now moving over to servicem8. Both very good and will save huge amounts of time. Stay safe!

best of luck coping with a difficult time . Keep strong.

when testing the immersion to see if the element has gone you can do a continuity test between line and neutral on the element and it should be around 17-19 Ohms if not you know that is shorted or died. Top tip from from a great knob head!

After years of cable tying stuff to roof rack I eventually got rhino pipe and ladder hooks,highly recommend👍🏻

I find the outlook calendar is very good for the lads on the road. I have one shared with everyone to look at and they see what jobs they have and where they are next and it can be linked with one note for keeping lists of gear needed for jobs etc

Take care out there Thomas.

Tom I’m an electrician in Newcastle upon Tyne we use workforce to manage all of our jobs and addresses we have never had any issues with it 👍

Hope you manage to keep your business afloat during this crazy period. I know many self-employed trades guys are in real trouble. All the best.

Microsoft Outlook calendars. Main email to office and mirrored to phone. You can also synchronise Apple calendars and Contact lists across multi devices with outlook. Mark the contacts by the job number and details are easy to retrieve. Now items in calendars will appear on lock screen with an announcement or sound.

So I'm an electrician in the US that does mainly residential work/ troubleshooting, and have recently started watching your videos. It's really interesting to see the similarities and differences between. Anyways, you seen like you do squared away work and enjoy the your videos, keep it up

I work for a small company and we use ‘my office’ by intuitive solutions ltd for all our bookings, works great, never failed on us and can create a database of customers so you always have addresses and phone numbers on you, plus details of previous works done by other engineers which can be added whilst on site. It is very well priced too, Might be worth a look. Stay safe out there Tom 😁 love the vids

Nice to here you making it clear between essential and none essential I work for a larger firm and they really are abusing this grey area that’s seems to have been created we are carrying out work this just not essential in the slightest and I have never felt so under pressure to be at work

15:00 Tom Nagy just turned into Tom Hanks from The Terminal. You need to do more of these, they're hilarious.

4:31 .. that cut clip had me in stitches for a good hour

Tom how you doing with the whole situation will you and your tam be going into lock down or will you still bee working doing emergency call outs. if you are indeed going into lock down will you get help from the government to subsidise employee wages ?

We use sim pro management system. Fully mobile for engineers and office staff. Well worth using

Love ur vlog,top man👍🏻

Google calendar works great. Set time, day and location. You can even set different colors for different types of jobs or workers.

Keep safe Thomas.

From safe isolation to self isolation we have done it all !

Hi Tom, possible fix for booking system is using Google Calendar. The name could have important details and then the location of the job and description with extra information in. Then also you can add google docs or sheets to the calendar event. Just one calendar with your events on then the calendar can be shared with everyone who needs it. Possibly use gsuite Hope that helps

Great video, we only just met Laura, now there is Sarah, you will have to get her on camera, before you replace her 😂. I totally agree with sticking the back box's in, dry lining adhesive is very good too, can be a little messy, but sets well. Anyone who says they will come loose, obviously doesn't know what they are doing. Keep up the good work, stay safe.

Hey Tom, great vid. Also, whats with the white marc/lump below your right eye? Stay safe.

Regarding expandable foam and it's strength. I once took out a 9" wide door lining that had been put in with Expandable Foam. The language wasn't pleasant to say the least. I have never struggled so much removing a bit of wood in all my life. The wood was splitting away rather than the bond breaking. It is plenty strong enough.

Changed loads of immersion heaters. Are usually OK cold but once start to warm up the insulation starts to break down internally and trips out. Bottom element can take a while to drain specially if a lot of limescale in the bottom of the tank. .

@ Thomas Nagy, Did you not try Simpro? We use that here, it is problematic every now and then, but 9 times out of 10, you can schedule a lot of jobs for multiple people within your company. Good to see you back, mate, I got stopped by a cop this morning, asking me where I was going, I told him I was going to rebuild a switchboard in a dairy shed after it caught fire last night. Cable and parts are a real problem at this end of the lock-down, I hate to think how it's going to be in 4 or so weeks. It's just like the supermarkets, except, there is no Twin and Earth or Neutral-Screened in the common sizes anyware in town. And the thing that really pisses me off is, you have to stand at the door with your N95 mask on and ask them if they have such and such part, cable, whatever and it's almost like Carol saying "Computer says no". What great times we live in.......

Self employed sparky also out of work now 😔 no income, stay safe everyone.. It will get better. Time to sort my screws out 😁

Try team up calendar for booking jobs in mate. Highly recommended 👍🏻

Service Fusion man. Integrates with quick books and is designed for service companies. It also allows you to run payments on the job site.

If you want to keep on top of scheduling and job management Tradify is great and it's what we have been using for a few years now or servicem8 is good but more complex, it has far more features than Tradify. Have you seen the gorilla adhesive in a tube, brilliant stuff ! That will fix your boxes.

We use Google calendar for work schedules. We shared each other calendars and allowed each other to edit. You can add events from the app or desktop. For payments we use a service called splink it comes with a app on the phone and we can send payment request to phone numbers and email addresses. It also sends a reminder everyday if they haven't paid. You can also setup recurring payments for contract customer that are paying you monthly. We've found this allot more convenient than direct debits and chip and pin machine. Before splink we were using a machine like yours from company called sumup. Check out splink we haven't looked back . Being using for about 8 months now. No issues.

Great video as always Tom, you mention Harry, is he your new apprentice? Have I missed something or have we not met him yet? 👍

Tom you could have just checked the resistance of the heating element. It should be between 15- 25 ohms. Above that indicates a faulty heating element. Great work and excellent channel.

Hey Tom! Good video as always. Question. Do you think this is going to have a similar impact as the 2008 recession / cause another recession? I remember hearing you say in an older video when the recession hit it was like your phone just switched off. Do you think you're in a better place position now than then? I'm currently working from home and have heard from friends and family that they have either barely enough savings to last for too long or have been left go. (a friend of mine, her boyfriend has just been let go from his welding job today) I would be interested in your thoughts. I Hope things go well for you during this difficult time.

Have you tried ServiceM8 for your booking system? Works for us

Are you actually going to do these daily I hope so that will be so cool

Use salesforce . You can record customer data , it has a job portal it can generate quotes etc , its amazing. You will have to develop it but its worth it.

How do you get on driving and parking in London, it's probably as challenging as the work itself?

Tried the foam filler to secure my boxes and they are solid, thanks for the tip! What company do you use for the chip and pin?

To clarify the governments terminology. "Self-isolating" = I am staying at home because I, or someone I live with, has symptoms "Shielding" = I am staying at home because I, or someone I live with, is in one of the very high risk groups "Social-distancing" = I am staying at home because I do not want to catch or spread anything and it's the right thing to do (i.e everyone not in the other two groups) You are not isolating if you don't have symptoms, or have not had contact with someone that does. You are just social distancing. People please stop confusing the terminology, you can still go to the shops for food when social distancing, those who are isolating must not go out at all for any reason. Confusing the terminology leads to people who are potentially infectious going out when they really shouldn't. More specifically for tradesmen these definitions become more important. You may perform urgent/essential work for those who are "social distancing". You may only perform work that is immediately life-threatening for those isolating, or shielding, with specific precautions as provided by your trade body. This is because you, or they will be particularly at risk. You may work according to the above if you are social distancing. You MUST NOT WORK if you are self-isolating, as you will spread disease. You should be self isolating if you have, or a family member has, symptoms. You must do this for 7 days, or until symptoms subside, if you live alone. For 14 days for everyone in the household of someone showing symptoms. If a member of the household gets symptoms towards the end of that 14 day period they should isolate for at least 7 days or until symptoms subside.

Some tradesmen in the USA are telling customers they will only attend to what you call 'breakdowns' if there is no one else in the house when they arrive. Just leave the door unlocked and leave, and they'll lock up behind them. However, a major problem is supply houses closing.

Hi Tom, I use field motion for my jobs. They are put on at a PC in the office and how urgent can be set and this comes on to my tablet. Also you can have forms designed. I hope this might be useful

I use xero and can save customers details on there, also have a thing that is called projects through it which is great and once you log address it works with your gps on phone to book you on site and leaving site if you are charging hourly rate

Hey Tom....why can't you use anchors to mount those metal boxes?

You can still carry on working, especially if job is empty, can still work in occupied as well, just use the right ppe.

Just signed up to Tradify Tom after seeing Nick Bundy and Dan of DSS use it. Looks good. The day after I signed up Boris dropped the bombshell 🙈

stay safe mate

A 4:55 the old school "red plugs and screws" were good enough for me OH yea!

Google calendar is great for booking, share with all ppl and syncs very nice and quick... They just click on the location and the GPS already give directions.... No need for any ££ fancy systems I guess. Also does have notes, where I usually post some info on materials, requirements etc for the boys..

14:15 where can i get hold of a container like that?

Hi Tom, try using GSM Task for booking on your jobs. My company use it to assign work to everyone. You can upload job details, client info, addresses and the client even gets a text message when you are on route to the address with an eta. Might be worth a try. Harry

Has to be a sum up machine for me Tom , no monthly rental , you buy the terminal (cheap) , and only 1.69% charge paid quickly into bank , keep tools safe , they make you money , us self employed guys have no clue what we are gonna do , I finish Friday as most of my suppliers are already closed , plenty to do at home , stay safe !!!!😷😷😷😷 cheers

Check this 35mm downlights don’t have transformers mate because the fitting will fit but you won’t be able to fit the drivers in after plaster boarding

where your cables run through the timber 3 x 2 a bit too close for comfort and hole diameter seems to be close to same size as timber! and when plasterers screw board up they will more than likely screw your cables?? would it have not been easier to channel above the timber your opinions?

Hi Tom ServiceM8. Its the only app you’ll ever need. Works great for tradies.

Do you not come under the builders senerio which at the moment is allowed?

Who wants to bet Tom makes it one day in the house before he's sat in his van outside his house :)

What's the walkie talkie thing above your head in the van?

14:50 I'm not a tradesman but could they assume the installatiion is finished and couldn't therefore labeling it "not done / unfinished" with some painters tape (or something else) help solve the problem?

I'd be applying sanitizer to the keypad of your chip and pin unit, too. Good way to spread germs between people is money and keypads.

Nice jobs

Great that you have a chip and pin terminal, just remember the unit you have cost the supplier less than £300, most suppliers have a nasty habit charging you more than the cost of the thing each year in rental. Learned this from a mate that sells them.

Try google calendar for bookings. You can add address and it will sync to all devices right away. You can add notes if you ever get called back Edit, get a microsoft365 account and you get loads of apps that you can use. At work we use teams all the time and microsoft planner. 1Tb of onedrive storage and loads of other apps

Hi Tom, company I used to work for a while back used an app called ‘jobber’, seemed to work well and I never had any problems

After hearing about the troubles with a booking system. Have you tried workforce. This works great with our guys

Are plumbers allowed to disconnect and reconnect electrical feed(s) to the tank/heater? Living in Canada, my first call would be a plumber /hvac'er to fix the heating not an electrician. I do HVAC and work on 600v 3 phase and below all the time as it pertains to the HVAC equipment.

Hi Tom what wire stripper do you use as standard?

Is expanding foam safe in contact with PVC cable? Heard PVC must be separated from polystyrene, wonder if the same applies to foam?

My concern taking on where somebody left it, would be that you become responsible for all of it when completed.

I'm watching this video whilst stranded abroad.

1:44 - That cable running over the top of that copper pipe towards the top left is really making my skin crawl! In all seriousness though, stay safe, and hope all goes well with the business.

What's that under ur right eye ?

Have you had hassle from builders to get you to work where they are ignoring guidelines and working on residential extensions/ loft conversions?

Job logic is a good app to work on