Cost of rewiring and putting central heating in

agl55

Hi,

I'm a first time buyer and my budget for buying a house is around £70-90,000. Houses in the area I want to normally too much for me, but a 3 bed, back-to-back terrace has come up for sale that's £80k in the perfect area.

It's easy to see why it's so much cheaper- needs complete modernisation. It would need to have central heating put in and would possibly need rewiring.

All the other stuff (fitting the kitchen/bathroom; decorating; possible plastering etc.) my boyfriend and I can do and my parents are well-versed in sorting houses out, so that bit's fine.

What I want to know is this:

(a) how much would it cost to rewire a 3 bedroom house?
(b) how much would it cost a plumber to put central heating in if I can get the boiler through the green deal (which I've checked and I'm eligible)?
(c) Am I better off going for somewhere more expensive in an area I'm not familiar with or that keen on that doesn't need quite as much (but will still need renovating) instead of buying somewhere in a great area cheaply, but with possible hidden costs?


Thanks!

G_M

agl55 wrote: »

Hi,
...

What I want to know is this:

(a) how much would it cost to rewire a 3 bedroom house?
£2-£3K? Ask here (but give fuller details of the property)
(b) how much would it cost a plumber to put central heating in if I can get the boiler through the green deal (which I've checked and I'm eligible)?
If you mean the Green Deal ECO scheme it includes installation. But expect to have to fight to get it, and to wait.
Or ask here.
(c) Am I better off going for somewhere more expensive in an area I'm not familiar with or that keen on that doesn't need quite as much (but will still need renovating) instead of buying somewhere in a great area cheaply, but with possible hidden costs?
Thanks!

Only you can decide where you want to make your long term home, or how much renovation/risk you are prepared to take on.

ruggedtoast

I would guess about £2500 -£3000 for a full rewire and around £3500 for rad installation. Very roughly.

ACG

I had my house rewired a GCH installed about 18 months ago. I was able to call in a favour on the GCH as my gf's dad worked for national grid but it wasnt cheap.

(a) how much would it cost to rewire a 3 bedroom house?
Mine cost about £1800-1900

(b) how much would it cost a plumber to put central heating in if I can get the boiler through the green deal (which I've checked and I'm eligible)?
Fitting was free, to get it connected to the mains was about £200 because i dug the trench from the house to the mains and fitted all the piping for it right up to the edge of my property.

I would imagine you would be looking at best part of £2-3k depending on the number of radiators etc.

(c) Am I better off going for somewhere more expensive in an area I'm not familiar with or that keen on that doesn't need quite as much (but will still need renovating) instead of buying somewhere in a great area cheaply, but with possible hidden costs?

Personally i would rather have the worst house in the best area than the best house in the worst area.

agl55

Thanks for the responses, guys. I thought it'd be quite a bit more than this, so that's good to know.

If installation of the central heating is also through the Green Deal, that'd be great. We don't mind waiting for it. There's a gas fire in the living room and we can always get heaters for other rooms until it's sorted.

I agree with you, ACG, I think we would prefer to be somewhere nice with a house to do up than somewhere awful and save some money on these two things.

Just one more question: would it be cheaper for me to buy radiators or to leave that to the plumber?

Thanks for the help!

AGL

Dan-Dan

radiators are cheap as chips , scewfix and the like...

Twiggy_34

agl55 wrote: »

Just one more question: would it be cheaper for me to buy radiators or to leave that to the plumber?

We had a bunch of rewiring work done in our 2 bed, 3 storey flat which we bought just under 2 years ago. I don't have the details to hand but think it cost between £1 & £2k. There was one main section that needed rewiring due to having about half a dozen junction boxes, full rewiring of the kitchen, installation of a new fuse board, some additional sockets fitted, replacement of a couple of light switches and a shaving light.

The flat already had central heating but we did want an extra radiator fitted. It's worth discussing with the plumber directly in case they are able to get a better deal than you, but in our instance our plumber advised us what radiator to get and the cost at Screwfix was a perfectly reasonable price. The advantage of buying it ourselves was that we were able to get cashback through Quidco at the time, which we wouldn't have been able to get if the plumber had bought it for us.

Good luck!

ACG

Buy the radiators yourself.
You can shop around, your plumber will just go to wherever.

Make sure you check what radiators you need (as in sizes), too small and you will be sat in a cold room with yout boiler working overtime. Too big and its a waste of money.

captainhindsight_2

agl55 wrote: »

Thanks for the responses, guys. I thought it'd be quite a bit more than this, so that's good to know.

If installation of the central heating is also through the Green Deal, that'd be great. We don't mind waiting for it. There's a gas fire in the living room and we can always get heaters for other rooms until it's sorted.

I agree with you, ACG, I think we would prefer to be somewhere nice with a house to do up than somewhere awful and save some money on these two things.

Just one more question: would it be cheaper for me to buy radiators or to leave that to the plumber?

Thanks for the help!

AGL

Leave the radiators to the plumber, its just creating an unnecessary job by you buying them.

The plumber gets trade prices, if you get the wrong ones not enough etc.. they or you have got to go out and get them wasting time (which you will have to pay for) if you let the plumber give you a quote for labour and materials the price will be fixed and won't change, if you start interfering and trying to help it just creates loads of unnecessary uncertainty.

Also if you getting the work done through ECO or the Green Deal the installer is regulated and will have to buy all the materials from an approved supplier any way so won't be able to use what you buy.

fluffpot

Don't forget to factor in the fact that you won't be able to live in the property while this work is being done so might need to rent somewhere else

Mallotum_X

fluffpot wrote: »

Don't forget to factor in the fact that you won't be able to live in the property while this work is being done so might need to rent somewhere else

Do it in the summer, so dont need the central heating to work.

We lived through a rewire, perfectly possible and spark left part of the electric on until the last minute so wasnt actually without power. Rewire is only a couple of days or so. If you plan on doing it as soon as you get the place dont move everything in if you can and dont unpack.