Rewiring houses - considerations?

girl_withno_name

We've recently moved into our first home and were looking to get some additional sockets put in, etc.. apparently our circuit board needs updating and, when considering the other costs of the work we want, we may be better off considering rewiring the house.

I'm just trying to think through the knock-on effects and costs of having this done...
- I guess we'd be without electricity for some/all of the time the work was being carried out? If so then we may need to go away for some time...
- I imagine that the whole house would need re-plastering afterwards?
- Would they need to take up carpets? And would this mean that we'd need to replace the carpets afterwards? What about any tiles in bathrooms/kitchen?

- Is there anything else that we'd potentially have to spend out on as a result?

Having just bought the property, the decoration is obviously still in someone else's style so we were planning on changing that anyway (although room by room) and the carpets seem to be good quality but again not really our taste so might've looked at changing these at some point too... just concerned that we're going to end up with a bulk outgoing if we rewire and if so, then we'll need to reconsider our budget, what we can afford when and what can be put off for now to free up some cash.

Happy-Days_3

Full re-wire is one of the most disruptive things you can do....

• Walls will need to be chased = Lots of dust and mess - Gets everywhere
• Walls need to be made good - don't need whole rooms replastering, but will need to be redecorated after.
• They will need access to floorboards, so carpets need to come up. But you can re-use them.
• If you already have your furniture in, that adds a lot of extra work as someone will forever be moving furniture / carpets to get to all the required points.

Don't underestimate the mess or the cost. Are you sure you need a re-wire? Can't they just add the plug sockets? It won't be cheap. A re-wire in a lived in house will be more pricey. Then the making good if done properly will cost. Then the decorating.

Really, the time to do it would have been post purchase, but before moving in. I wouldn't want a re-wire while I was living in the house!

If you do it, then while it is being done, might as well get extra sockets (can't have too many), get phone cables in to several rooms, think about where you want your TV and Sky cable points, also if you are in to your IT any other ethernet type ports, maybe an external socket for the garden, any elec underfloor heating points )if you re-do bathroom in future might want one), any external lights. Get them all done in the one hit. Anything cable or elec related, think of it now and get them all in and done.

It won't be cheap! But only way you will find out is via quotes.

Also, don't forget to ensure they are Part P qualified and that you will get a Part P certificate - get that written in to any contract, you will have problems selling your house in future without it.

girl_withno_name

We are currently living in the property - a rewire wasn't even a consideration until yesterday, let alone before we moved in!

We were looking for the new / additional sockets to be chased, so guess there'd be mess in two rooms... maybe a third depending on how the outside electrics were added. Although the rewire would mean the same mess across pretty much every room.

Since we haven't lived here long and bought the property off an older couple, we were planning to redecorate anyway - although a rewire may require this to happen quicker than originally anticipated (or to live with the 'make good' state for a while)

As far as I understand, we don't need to rewire - the electrician mentioned it because we want some work done and have been told that we need an RCD protection type consumer unit - apparently by the time we tot up those costs then it might be worth rewiring now (rather than getting work done now and needing to rewire in 10-20 years time)

Happy-Days_3

Get him, plus 2 others to quote for a) only the extras you want plus the rcd unit and b) a total re-wire. But be sure the re-wire quote includes them doing all the leg work on furniture carpets etc while you are still living in the property.

Personally I just don't see the point once you are in. Take your fridge. Now. It works fine. Why go through hassle of emptying it, moving it, having the work done, then patching it all back up and for the end result being it works again?

Get the different quotes, I wager there is a much bigger difference between the quotes than you may expect.

Swipe

Just get the new circuit boards put in and extra sockets added. Why go through an unnecessary and expensive re-wire unless it is absolutely necessary?

macman

You don't have to vacate the property, though it will make things easier and quicker for the sparky if you do. If not they can normally work on one zone or circuit at a time, so you won't be without power or light completely.

LEJC

Our full rewire took about a week to complete...we were not living in the house but certain electricals were maintained,done on a zone system,so our fidge wasnt disrupted etc..

The cost for us was just short of £4000,so its not something to undertake unless absolutely necessary....because the house was empty it did mean that they could do the work quicker but at times it seemed as if every floorboard was up and afterwards as others have said the dust and mess was everywhere...we were renovating the property anyway so we had most of the wallpaper stripped off and so the plastering over the chasing in was then incorporatede in the total reskim of the walls and ceilings!! which then cost an additional £1500

If you can get away with just replacing whats necessary then I wouldnt say you need to go down the total rewire route...you could easily end up spending far more money than you had anticipated as very often you start to do a job and uncover something else that needs doing as well

A.Penny.Saved

Try and work out the approximate age of the wiring. If the earth wire is green rather than Green and Yellow then the wiring is fairly old, done before 1977. If it's rubber coated wiring rather than PVC then it is probably even older. That would need replacing.

From what you have said, it doesn't sound like it is that old, otherwise you would of been informed about it when you had a survey done.

Check the electric shower cabling, because you might want that uprated to handle more powerful showers. There are different sized power cables which can only support showers up to certain sizes, 8.5 Kwatt is what one size of cable supports. It would be best to get that done now in case you ever want to increase the showers electrical power at a later date. That would need cabling back to the electric meter and therefore could mean cutting channels to add the wiring which can be fairly big.

Think ahead to any changes to your bathroom for shower on/off pulls and possibly radiator electrical heating elements for the normal hot water radiators so that the heating doesn't need to be on to provide some heat to the bathroom.

girl_withno_name

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

Try and work out the approximate age of the wiring. If the earth wire is green rather than Green and Yellow then the wiring is fairly old, done before 1977. If it's rubber coated wiring rather than PVC then it is probably even older. That would need replacing.

From what you have said, it doesn't sound like it is that old, otherwise you would of been informed about it when you had a survey done.

Check the electric shower cabling, because you might want that uprated to handle more powerful showers. There are different sized power cables which can only support showers up to certain sizes, 8.5 Kwatt is what one size of cable supports. It would be best to get that done now in case you ever want to increase the showers electrical power at a later date. That would need cabling back to the electric meter and therefore could mean cutting channels to add the wiring which can be fairly big.

Think ahead to any changes to your bathroom for shower on/off pulls and possibly radiator electrical heating elements for the normal hot water radiators so that the heating doesn't need to be on to provide some heat to the bathroom.

The property was built in 1983, so it sounds like we shouldn't even have fairly old wiring...

macman

Then it's approaching 30 years old now...

fluffpot

Who was it who suggested complete rewiring? If it was an electrician, I might try and find a new one...

The best way forward (and the approach I take with my customers) is to have all the existing wiring tested and that way you will know if it's on the way out or good for some time more. Even if some bits are bad, these can be replaced without doing the whole lot. I would always do a full test and inspect (also called EICR - Electrical Condition Installation Report) before a fuse board upgrade anyhow to make sure there are no underlying faults.

I also encourage clients to move out for at least a few days if the whole house is being rewired - this makes it quicker (and cheaper) and believe you me, you do not want to try and live in a house that's being rewired...unless you love the taste of dust!

Get a couple of quotes on the testing and come back to us with the findings...

Oh - just read your later posts - trust me a rewire will cost a lot more than fuse board upgrade and few extra sockets - and that's just the electrical side - there are also other costs to consider like re plastering, redecorating. Obv I don't know the property but rewires are generally done only when the existing wiring is coming to the end of it's life OR the electrics you want differ so much from what's there, that it's cheaper/easier to start again rather than add on.

Sounds like your sparky might be looking for work.... did he mention testing the existing stuff? I doubt you'll be in the house in 10-20 years time.... so leave the next rewire to someone else!