House rewire advice

typeractive

Hi everyone – hope you’re enjoying the Bank Holiday!

I’m at a daunting stage with my house renovation. I’m at the point where I need to get an electrician and I worry that I may get some dodge pot that doesn’t do a great job! I’ve done the usual and asked around but I can’t seem to get any great recommendations.

My house is:
3 bed + loft conversion (which I’ve started).
Living room
Dining room
Kitchen
Bathroom
1 en suite in master bedroom
Garage.

I want a full house rewire as the electrics are shoddy as hell! The house is unoccupied and in a state of being totally stripped down. So it’s ideal for any contractor really as they can whiz around without having to remove carpets, furniture etc etc.

I want everything doing – sockets, lights, tv/aerial, hard wired fire alarms, alarm system (possibly basic cctv at the rear of the house), outside security light, extractor fans in en suite and bathroom, provision for electric garage door, new RCD board (I think that’s what it’s called).

I don’t want the electrician to do any plastering – I have that sorted. I’m happy to do a lot of the chasing into the plaster if I can too.

I need to decide upon where I want items to be and what kind of lights I want / plug sockets and the rest. I’m finding it a bit difficult at the moment to envisage everything and I want some inspiration.

I’ve had a few quotes from the mybuilder site and they come in from between £600 (which I’m highly suspicious of) to £2,000 – granted these are off a basic idea, and nobody has seen the job. I like the sound of the chap that has quoted the higher figure as they’re NIC registered and all that, though they are based quite far away 60miles plus, I’d like someone local to do the work really for obvious reasons.

Does anyone have any good advice, e.g. rough idea of what I should be paying? Any good sites to buy switches and lights from etc? I want lots of little spot lights in most the rooms, so I figure buying those in bulk would be a good idea, along with sockets and switches?

Any advice would be super of where to look for inspiration etc
Cheers!

JANELUVI

Hi, why don't you look on checkatrade to find recommended electricians in your area or whatever the governing body for electricians is may have local people listed.

When I had a re-wire done a couple of years ago I was told the cost of a basic re-wire was approx. £1000 a bedroom but that was all the lighting and sockets and not the extras you want. I paid £1700 for a 2 bed bungalow.

Hope that helps.

KillerWatt

The average price for a standard 3 bed rewire is around £2,500, and that is the sparks supplying the materials. However there is no "making good" to be done by the sound of it, so that can shave a few quid off.

However you are asking for extras that aren't normally done to be included (garage door power, fire alarms, etc), that's gonna kick the price back up to around the £2,500 mark again.

The above is a rough estimate based on what you have posted, whoever takes it on will (if they are sensible) want to see the job (or plans at the very least) before they nail the price down for you (but you're in the right ballpark pricewise for what you describe with full certs at the end of it).


PS

What's your postcode? (it makes a difference)

baldelectrician

Check the firm out before you use them;

You should use a competent person for the work, links below
In Scotland:
Individuals registered;
http://www.sbsa.gov.uk/register/ListAC.asp
Companies
http://www.sbsa.gov.uk/register/SearchRegCo.asp?T=Construction
In England and Wales:
http://www.competentperson.co.uk

The companies may say they are registered, but may not actually be.

Only use a registered firm as they will be vetted, and have a complaints procedure

A price for the works would be in the £2000-£2400 band, depending on what the spec is

ps steer clear of someone who omits a fire alarm when quoting as they should be installed

typeractive

KillerWatt wrote: »

The average price for a standard 3 bed rewire is around £2,500, and that is the sparks supplying the materials.

Hi KillerWatt! Thanks for the reply! When you state materials, do you mean all the sockets, light switches, wires, light bulbs etc? As I'm currently looking at the cost of buying things like the sockets and switches.

However there is no "making good" to be done by the sound of it, so that can shave a few quid off.

You're correct - there is no making things neat and tidy again, just accessing areas and putting them back to how they were.

However you are asking for extras that aren't normally done to be included (garage door power, fire alarms, etc), that's gonna kick the price back up to around the £2,500 mark again.

Right, when I say garage door power I mean just a socket ready to connect up a remote garage door. The fire alarms are needed as I'm doing a loft conversion.

The above is a rough estimate based on what you have posted, whoever takes it on will (if they are sensible) want to see the job (or plans at the very least) before they nail the price down for you (but you're in the right ballpark pricewise for what you describe with full certs at the end of it).

That's really helpful. I thought it would be more than this actually! If it costs that much for a firm to do it 'legitimately' then I would be happy to pay this sort of figure approx. I was originally looking for someone that would maybe do it for cash to bring the price down. I have a friend that ended up paying around 7k!! not sure if that was on the books or not - granted the house is much larger than mine, but still - it frightens me!

PS

What's your postcode? (it makes a difference)

I'm based near Darlington (North East).

typeractive

baldelectrician wrote: »

Check the firm out before you use them;

You should use a competent person for the work, links below

In England and Wales:
http://www.competentperson.co.uk

The companies may say they are registered, but may not actually be.

Only use a registered firm as they will be vetted, and have a complaints procedure

I will indeed check - I was on that site earlier today, and I think I have looked at it a while ago. I couldn't quite get the search to look for people close to me - that would be really handy. It looks like you have to know the name of the contractor before searching?

A price for the works would be in the £2000-£2400 band, depending on what the spec is

Right. Again - does your ROUGH estimate take into account stuff like supplying all the sockets etc?

ps steer clear of someone who omits a fire alarm when quoting as they should be installed

I will do! I need them hard wiring into the house. I want it all to be done correctly.

typeractive

I wish you lot lived closer to me - I know we're not allowed to look for work on here, but giving your free advice and helping each other out is great! I'd be much more trusting in giving one of you lot the work to do.

I've been looking at sockets today. Everyone harps on about the brushed chrome ones, though to be honest I don't think I'm so much of a fan. The cost in comparison to the normal white ones is amazing!

Not really sure what to go for here. I will be buying in bulk as I want the house to have all the same plugs throughout - it makes sense. By my workings I think I will need approx 45 double plug sockets to complete the house! At the moment in the living room there are 10 double sockets (yes 20 plug sockets!!!) You can tell it's all been bodged to hell! Of course I knew this before buying the place. The frightening thing is I think I will need around 6 or 7 double sockets myself in this one room!!! Am I mad? In todays use of technology, surely people need more sockets?

If I do go for the plain white plastic ones I want decent quality ones - kind of hard to describe but sometimes you can switch an appliance off and just know the plastic box is thin / cheap manufactured as when it clicks you think it's gonna break! I don't want crap! Any decent suggestions of good sites for decent and cheap fittings, or shoud I leave this upto whoever does the work?

I'm also on the hunt for nice lights! I think most rooms will end up with the little downlights / spot lights, as I'm quite indecisive on picking nice lights! lol

Keep the advice coming guys!
:beer:

Mankysteve

I would look at cat6 Ethernet cabling as well i know there's wireless nowadays and people say its not worth but Ethernet so much nicer plus with the right adapter its can be used for HDTV signal as well and your telephone.

baldelectrician

I use GET acessories and Hager consumer units (used MK till recently but had more than the odd faulty MCB so switched to Hager. Wish I had switched years ago- excellent quality)

I find most chrome sockets are of an inferior quality. I have taken out plastic and replaced with chrome (customer bought) only to have them fail in a short time.

If you get quotes give each perosn quoting a detailed spec, and be prepared to listen to advice (check out advice as some contractors may try to convince you that certain inferior brands are better than they really are to make a higher margin)

for lights check out JCC Lighting and Firstlight, also Aurora.

cheers
stewart

typeractive

cheers Stewart!

I'll check all those links out! can I not convince ya to come and work over my way for a bit? :P lol

I'll keep posting back as I go along!
:beer::beer:

typeractive

jimmo wrote: »

If you were considering a cash job to bring the price down what you really mean is that if the person who does the work for you is deliberately fiddling his Income Tax, VAT or both you expect a share of his ill gotten gains.
Call me old fashioned if you like, but I find it hard to believe that a fully qualified electrician who is fiddling his taxes would be prepared to issue a safety certificate for work done on a fiddle, too much danger of being caught.
I would go one step further and suggest that if someone is prepared to do a cash job and give you a safety certificate you really should be worried that the safety certificate will be no more legitimate than his Tax Return.

Yep, understand and point taken.
Cheers:beer: