Planning a re-wire

note3

We are having our house rewired and it commences tomorrow. We've mapped where we want everything like plugs, phone sockets, tv and phone but are concerned we will not have enough plugs or will have forgotten things.

If you were having your house rewired what would be on your must have list or what would you consider?

We have also said to rewire to same height as current regulations - would you do the same? (Apparently as it's not a new build we can have the plugs any height we desire)

It's lovely to have this opportunity but feels stressful too as I have no idea about all this!

Owain_Moneysaver

A few higher sockets can be handy as they don't get hidden behind furniture.

I have bedhead lights on 2-way switching from the bedhead and the door.

5amp sockets round the lounge for table lights, switched from the door.

Smoke alarms throughout.

Door entry intercom in the hall and in the main bedroom.

Outside lights.

Emergency battery back up lighting in the hall and kitchen.

Heedtheadvice

Consider making many of the sockets doubles.
Where you have tech equipment such as TV, hifi, computers, charging locations install plenty.

If you have a garden get some external waterproof sockets installed even on a house outside wall and have them switched from indoors.

If in any doubt, provided cost is not an issue, even get cables or trunking run in, where you might possibly need them in future. So much easier doing it all in one job, little extra cost upfront, big savings later (provided they are in the correct locations!) and far less mess!

trailingspouse

If in doubt, put more in. And don't forget to leave 'empty' ones for things that aren't plugged in all the time (eg the hoover). I find it's handy to have a socket in the hall and another on the landing so that I can hoover all the rooms without having to unplug and plug in too often.

When I had my house rewired, the electrician and I spent the first 2 hours doing a very detailed walk-through of everything, from where I wanted light switches to whether I wanted him to put in a burglar alarm while he was at it.

What about shaver point in the bathroom, heated towel rail, plinth heaters in the kitchen, outside lights, automatic garage door, outdoor sockets, sockets higher up if you use a room as an office (saves crawling under the desk).

d0nkeyk0ng

I agree with the above. In this day and age of modern technology, you need more sockets than you think you need. Our house was rewired at some point in the past ten years by the previous owners. We have:
- single socket downstairs landing and upstairs landing (useful for vacuum cleaner)
- living room has four double sockets, one in each corner. Allows flexibility of layout. We have our TV in a corner opposite to where the previous owners did. I have had to trail an antenna around the perimeter of the room.
- dining room has two double sockets and a single socket.
- kitchen has a double socket, and a cooker fuse plus single socket. There's also a socket in one of the cupboards for the fishwasher. I would love to have more sockets here.
- utility room has two double sockets, and four single sockets for appliances (washing machine, dryer, fridge, microwave). The utility room is the way into the garden. I'd love to have an outdoor socket for garden tools eg lawnmower (ours is too small for petrol). In the future, I plan to have this done as well as maybe a socket in the garden shed, and some sort of wiring for garden lights.
- bedrooms all have two double sockets. I wish there were more as the locations can be tricky to access.
- garage - a double socket in the farthest corner. I'd wAnt at least a double in each corner for flexibility of layout.

Also look at ethernet connections throughout the rooms instead of relying on wifi.

note3

Thanks very much everyone. I am scribbling notes to discuss with electrician and add to our plans

Owain_Moneysaver

d0nkeyk0ng wrote: »

- kitchen has a double socket, and a cooker fuse plus single socket. There's also a socket in one of the cupboards for the fishwasher. I would love to have more sockets here.
- bedrooms all have two double sockets. I wish there were more as the locations can be tricky to access.

I've just rewired the 2nd bedroom with 8 doubles, and I've already got 3 extension leads in because they're hidden behind furniture (although to be fair I did plan to use extension leads up to the desk anyway). Behind the desk in the other room I've got a strip of 5 doubles. You can get them with USB charging points in now too, which can be neat.

14 doubles in the kitchen plus extractor fan, cooker and fan-heater points, and under-unit strip lighting (separately switched)

Strider590

All sockets doubles, extra sockets near the TV, possibly a number of them on a fused spur with multiple sockets, which would be like having an extension socket inside the wall.(this would be really nice for turning off everything at once and keeping floor space clutter free).

Senseicads

Can I also add my vote in for getting some of the plugs with USB connections added in! We decorated our bedroom and switched them out for plugs with these and they are sooo useful!!

Strider590

Senseicads wrote: »

Can I also add my vote in for getting some of the plugs with USB connections added in! We decorated our bedroom and switched them out for plugs with these and they are sooo useful!!

I'm dead against these for reasons of safety.

They are effectively cheap Chinese made USB charger/adaptors, built into a wall socket where you cannot disconnect them.
Giving how many of the former have a habit of going up in flames, the later automatically seems bad.

Ganga

d0nkeyk0ng wrote: »

I agree with the above. In this day and age of modern technology, you need more sockets than you think you need. Our house was rewired at some point in the past ten years by the previous owners. We have:
- single socket downstairs landing and upstairs landing (useful for vacuum cleaner)
- living room has four double sockets, one in each corner. Allows flexibility of layout. We have our TV in a corner opposite to where the previous owners did. I have had to trail an antenna around the perimeter of the room.
- dining room has two double sockets and a single socket.
- kitchen has a double socket, and a cooker fuse plus single socket. There's also a socket in one of the cupboards for the fishwasher. I would love to have more sockets here.
- utility room has two double sockets, and four single sockets for appliances (washing machine, dryer, fridge, microwave). The utility room is the way into the garden. I'd love to have an outdoor socket for garden tools eg lawnmower (ours is too small for petrol). In the future, I plan to have this done as well as maybe a socket in the garden shed, and some sort of wiring for garden lights.
- bedrooms all have two double sockets. I wish there were more as the locations can be tricky to access.
- garage - a double socket in the farthest corner. I'd wAnt at least a double in each corner for flexibility of layout.

Also look at ethernet connections throughout the rooms instead of relying on wifi.

A typo or am i missing something?:rotfl: