House Re-wire?

nickperry68

Sounds like you will have to put in a new consumer unit regardless.... that is not a job for an amateur and should only be carried out by a fully qualified electrician BUT is it practical/are you competent enough to do the rewiring yourself under the guidance of a qualified electrician. Putting in rings for sockets and lighting is not beyond most people with some DIY experience and as long as you follow the regs and don't cut corners is perfectly legal - I also found it quite satisfying. I've done three properties this way (to be fair, they were being extensively decorated at the same time as well) - and I would stress I then paid for it to be properly inspected and tested by a qualified electrician who then put the CU in and signed the whole lot off...

Smodlet

OP, is there really no way you can just tell the vendor that you love the house but the state of the wiring is such that you need to drop your offer by £3-5K? The vendor must know the age of the wiring, surely? What price peace of mind? Do you want to have to be afraid every time you turn the iron on?

Either they are serious about selling or they are not. Do they have other offers? Maybe you could drop Brexit into the conversation at some point? Are you FTBs? If you walk away, their next buyer may be in a chain... and they may get an even lower offer.

I have lived through two complete rewires and can tell you there is no substitute for feeling safe and knowing you have added value to your home. I wish you luck.

PMurphy

Just bumping this thread slightly. I see that there have been a few threads since mine. I was wondering how much the cost would differ if I (and friends/family) do the "grunt work", lifted the carpets and floor boards, did the chasing etc.

Compared to having a sparky come in and do all that work as well?

I'm going to ring a few electricians for rough quotes over the next few days.

As far as I'm aware the house is still on the market.

There is a question about the cost of adding a new radiator or 2 upstairs too. Any idea how much it would cost to run 2 new radiators in. There is currently only 1 upstairs, it would have to be done when the rewire was taking place as boards would have to come etc. Just ball park figures.

Risteard

nickperry68 wrote: »

I then paid for it to be properly inspected and tested by a qualified electrician who then put the CU in and signed the whole lot off...

They can't sign off what they haven't done - which will be made very clear in the "Extent of the installation work covered" box on the Electrical Installation Certificate.

To use a three signature form then to sign for Inspection & Testing only they would have to be present during erection and not just on completion of the Construction phase. They can't otherwise inspect concealed cables, and connected loads can make full testing impracticable afterwards.

PMurphy

Risteard wrote: »

They can't sign off what they haven't done - which will be made very clear in the "Extent of the installation work covered" box on the Electrical Installation Certificate.

To use a three signature form then to sign for Inspection & Testing only they would have to be present during erection and not just on completion of the Construction phase. They can't otherwise inspect concealed cables, and connected loads can make full testing impracticable afterwards.

I will say, my brother in law rewired his entire house (minus the fitting of a CSU) and the electrician had a full walk around with him to sign off everything, before the plasterer came in to patch up the walls etc. They were quoted £4 - £6k for a full rewire. That said they live in Bristol, in a much older house. My BIL recons, all in and including sign off, the rewire cost him to do between £1k-£1500.


Personally, I thought this was quite expensive, although I have no real knowledge of rewiring, £4k+ plus seems steep for a 3 storey 2 bed.

Risteard

PMurphy wrote: »

the electrician had a full walk around with him to sign off everything, before the plasterer came in to patch up the walls etc.

So was a 3 signature certificate used with your brother-in-law signing for Design and for Construction, and the Electrician signing only for Inspection and Testing (the implication being that he was able to FULLY inspect and test during erection of the installation)? (Quite how this could be done in one visit is unclear however.)

pioneer22

Can't you get a loan to cover the cost of the rewire? TBH if you can afford 3k for the house you should look elsewhere as previously mentioned.

Imagine if the survey threw up something else that needed doing.