Anything else I should get done in a rewire? HDMI, etc.

Megarobbie

I'm in the process of buying a 3 bedroom house. The electrics look very old (the vendor has lived there for over 20 years and I don't think he's had work done on it during that time). As a result I'm intending to get the house rewired before we move our furniture in (subject to advice from an electrician).

My question is, is there anything else I should get done beyond the wiring, new lights and extra plug sockets? Is it worth me getting HDMI sockets, and if so, what do they connect to (the usual aerial?) Anything else it might be worth me getting installed while the work is being done?

I need to redecorate the whole place, so now is the ideal time to be fiddling around in the walls.

Thanks in advance for your help.

MX5huggy

I don't think you want HDMI sockets, generally you don't use HDMI room to room (its more from TV receiver to TV).

You do however want to think about your TV signal and where you want the TV for Freesat/Sky you want 2 connections to your Dish. Other systems I am not that up on.

You also want a telephone socket (or a network connection back to your router in another room) near the TV so that yon can have your TV box connected to the internet (even if this is not something you do now you are likely to want to).

absent_dad

A few years ago I would have agreed but today things are a bit different, wifi this and wifi that.

Phones, I can buy a 3 phone set with 1 base unit and place 1 phone socket near the tv so no need to run cables all over the place...also dont forget you can only run 5 phones off one input, it's to do with the REN, anymore and the phones wont ring.

Edit - Just checked with wiki - 'maximum of 4 is allowed on any (BT) line.

Most routers now can adequately cover the house so no need for a lan set up, this isn't something an amature can do but to plug and play a wireless card into the back of your pc yea no problem, most laptops come wifi enabled.

The only reason you would need to hardwire everything is for security, so if this isn't an issue why the expense.

Tv cables usually come off the dish/aeriel and into each room via the outside so no burying them in the walls. Each multi room box will need its own feed off the dish/aeriel, otherwise you will have to watch whatever the main box is viewing. The HDMI cable is only for receiver to tv so unless you have the tv on the other side of the room from the sky box/freeview box?

You may want to conside, if you are hanging the tv on the wall, that you may want to bury the cables leading up to it.

Hope this helps

Tucker

I recently had an extension and whilst the electrics were being done I also ran telephone, TV and satalite cabling to the rear of the TV.

I also bought good quality speaker wire and put this in to each corner of the room for my surround sound system, again to prevent trailing speaker wire under floor coverings.

Definitely get more sockets put in. You really can't have too many, so go over the top.

I had 5 doubles added to my living room as it only had two doubles and one single. When you work out how many plugs you have these days for TV & sat gear, lights, PC's, Wii, printers, routers, landline phones, laptops, digital photo frames etc....... and then there's the things you add periodically, hoovers, irons, chargers and so on.....You need a minimum of 10 to 15 sockets in your living room to avoid using extension leads.

mkaibear

Megarobbie wrote: »

I'm in the process of buying a 3 bedroom house. The electrics look very old (the vendor has lived there for over 20 years and I don't think he's had work done on it during that time). As a result I'm intending to get the house rewired before we move our furniture in (subject to advice from an electrician).

My question is, is there anything else I should get done beyond the wiring, new lights and extra plug sockets? Is it worth me getting HDMI sockets, and if so, what do they connect to (the usual aerial?) Anything else it might be worth me getting installed while the work is being done?

I need to redecorate the whole place, so now is the ideal time to be fiddling around in the walls.

Thanks in advance for your help.

OK, assuming a sparky has said you need to get the rewiring done, here are a few tips (from someone who's just had a rewire done to an ok standard but wishes he'd had this advice before he got started...)

1) Get 3 quotes. We did - picked the cheapest, which might've been a mistake...

2) Get in writing how long it's going to take as part of the quote. It shouldn't take much more than 2 weeks for a 3-bed house unless it's made of stone! Ours took us 11 weeks

The quote we went for was a grand cheaper than any others. However taking into account the additional costs of renting for 2 months we were out of pocket!

3) Arrange to pay in stages and keep at least 10% back at the end for snagging. I'd suggest 20% advance, 35% half way through, 35% at the end, 10% for snagging. Or if you can get away with it, 45% half way through, 45% at the end, 10% for snagging.
...or if you can get away with it, 100% after snagging

4) Plan what you want *now*. You will always need more sockets than you think you will. You will always need more "ways" in your board than you think you will. The more you have the more flexibility you have!

Let's see - we have across two RCDs;

Upstairs Socket Ring
Downstairs Socket Ring
Extension Socket Ring
Upstairs Lighting
Downstairs Lighting
Extension Lighting
Outdoors Lighting
Oven Spur (10mm cable)
Master Shower (10mm cable)
En-suite shower (10mm cable)

(we've picked 10mm cables for the latter three because it gives us maximum flexibility in putting new stuff in later - uber-showers or really good ovens

We've also got on RCBOs (MCBs with integrated RCDs);

Outdoor Socket (single spur but set up so can be converted to ring when we do the shed)
Fridge/Freezer

And on a non-RCD protected circuit;

Smoke & Fire Alarms

Sockets: I specced 8 doubles in the living room (and have used 12 of them thus far(!), 4 doubles in the dining room, 4 doubles in the kitchen (though I am regretting this and wish I'd gone for 8 doubles!), 4 doubles in the master bedroom, 4 doubles in the spare bedroom, 4 doubles in the back single / hoof room, and 4 doubles in the front single / study.

Lights: I specced 1 ceiling / 4 wall lights in the living room (20'x10'), 2 ceiling / 6 wall lights in the dining room (20'x10'), 2 ceiling / 4 under cabinet in the kitchen, 1 ceiling in the study, 1 ceiling in the hoof room, 1 ceiling / 2 reading lights in the spare bedroom, 1 ceiling / 2 reading / 2 uplighters in the master bedroom.

If I was re-speccing at this point I would do;

2 CAT5e / CAT6 sockets in each room run to a central point (for network access, these can be tucked away in a corner but will become more important when it comes to sell the house, even if you don't use it!)
1 Phone socket in each room - you can have 4 "items" on a phone circuit but as many wires as you need.

Plus in the living room I'd put coax cables for aeriel from roof, plus at least 2 coax for Sky / Freesat. Similarly for anywhere else you want a TV (we're weird and only like having a TV in the living room!)

As others have said you don't need to worry about HDMI in the walls unless you have to connect, say, a Sky+HD box from one end of the room to a TV at the other.

Nilrem

Also, if you're having cabling done anyway (which generally involves making a mess of the plaster;)) it may be worth seeing about getting some empty trunking put in place as well (or if possible get the telephone cabling etc put in, in slightly larger than needed trunking), as that allows for future cabling to be put in place easily.

Personally even with wireless becoming more common, I'm still thoroughly of the opinion that you would probably want good networking cable in (it can be used for phones, speakers etc as well*), as wireless networking still has a very long way to go before it rivals the speed and ease of use use (not to mention reliability) of wired networking (and often consumer devices that can be networked by default have a wired port, with the wireless as either an option, or upgrade).

Also if possible where you're having TV's, put in good satellite cable, it can be terminated for either normal aerial connections, or satellite as need be which is often handy.


*Not to mention things like HDMI and USB extenders that can use network cable to send the signal longer distances than normal.

Megarobbie

Thanks for the advice everyone. Very informative.

spirit

mkaibear wrote: »

OK, assuming a sparky has said you need to get the rewiring done, here are a few tips (from someone who's just had a rewire done to an ok standard but wishes he'd had this advice before he got started...)

1) Get 3 quotes. We did - picked the cheapest, which might've been a mistake...

2) Get in writing how long it's going to take as part of the quote. It shouldn't take much more than 2 weeks for a 3-bed house unless it's made of stone! Ours took us 11 weeks

The quote we went for was a grand cheaper than any others. However taking into account the additional costs of renting for 2 months we were out of pocket!

3) Arrange to pay in stages and keep at least 10% back at the end for snagging. I'd suggest 20% advance, 35% half way through, 35% at the end, 10% for snagging. Or if you can get away with it, 45% half way through, 45% at the end, 10% for snagging.
...or if you can get away with it, 100% after snagging

4) Plan what you want *now*. You will always need more sockets than you think you will. You will always need more "ways" in your board than you think you will. The more you have the more flexibility you have!

Let's see - we have across two RCDs;

Upstairs Socket Ring
Downstairs Socket Ring
Extension Socket Ring
Upstairs Lighting
Downstairs Lighting
Extension Lighting
Outdoors Lighting
Oven Spur (10mm cable)
Master Shower (10mm cable)
En-suite shower (10mm cable)

(we've picked 10mm cables for the latter three because it gives us maximum flexibility in putting new stuff in later - uber-showers or really good ovens

We've also got on RCBOs (MCBs with integrated RCDs);

Outdoor Socket (single spur but set up so can be converted to ring when we do the shed)
Fridge/Freezer

And on a non-RCD protected circuit;

Smoke & Fire Alarms

Sockets: I specced 8 doubles in the living room (and have used 12 of them thus far(!), 4 doubles in the dining room, 4 doubles in the kitchen (though I am regretting this and wish I'd gone for 8 doubles!), 4 doubles in the master bedroom, 4 doubles in the spare bedroom, 4 doubles in the back single / hoof room, and 4 doubles in the front single / study.

Lights: I specced 1 ceiling / 4 wall lights in the living room (20'x10'), 2 ceiling / 6 wall lights in the dining room (20'x10'), 2 ceiling / 4 under cabinet in the kitchen, 1 ceiling in the study, 1 ceiling in the hoof room, 1 ceiling / 2 reading lights in the spare bedroom, 1 ceiling / 2 reading / 2 uplighters in the master bedroom.

If I was re-speccing at this point I would do;

2 CAT5e / CAT6 sockets in each room run to a central point (for network access, these can be tucked away in a corner but will become more important when it comes to sell the house, even if you don't use it!)
1 Phone socket in each room - you can have 4 "items" on a phone circuit but as many wires as you need.

Plus in the living room I'd put coax cables for aeriel from roof, plus at least 2 coax for Sky / Freesat. Similarly for anywhere else you want a TV (we're weird and only like having a TV in the living room!)

As others have said you don't need to worry about HDMI in the walls unless you have to connect, say, a Sky+HD box from one end of the room to a TV at the other.

Very useful post for me too, so thank you. Am having a sparky come round on saturday to quote for a rewire. Had 2 other quotes, 1 for just an upgrade for sockets and consumer unit etc, the other for a full re=wire. both came in at £2.5k.

How much did yours cost by the way?

RICHLILL

Just had my house rewired by a friend from the local. Four bed house including all new steel switches and sockets, spots, accent lights, intruder and smoke alarms, bathroom fan and new consumer unit. It cost £1400 for materials which he got at cost and he wanted £500 for doing it. I had removed all plaster from the walls and ceilings prior to him so it only took him a couple of days. Got all official paperwork to back it up too.

Bargain I reckon!