Rewiring a House: When It's Necessary and What It Costs
Rewiring is disruptive and expensive, and it is sometimes sold on the basis of the property's age rather than the condition of the installation. Age is a prompt to inspect, not a reason to rewire.
Start with an inspection
An electrical installation condition report is carried out by a qualified electrician and assesses the whole system against current standards. It costs a few hundred and produces coded observations.
Codes indicating danger present or potentially dangerous require action. Improvement recommendations do not. A report full of the latter and none of the former does not justify a rewire.
Landlords in many jurisdictions are legally required to obtain these periodically, and buyers should commission one before purchase on any older property.
What genuinely indicates rewiring
Rubber, lead or fabric-insulated cable. These predate modern PVC and degrade, becoming brittle and eventually exposing conductors. Their presence is a strong indicator.
No earthing on lighting circuits, which was common in older installations and prevents fitting metal fittings safely.
An old fuse box with rewirable fuses and no residual current protection. Sometimes the consumer unit alone can be replaced, which is far cheaper, but only if the circuits behind it are sound.
Too few sockets, leading to permanent extension leads. Not a safety defect in itself, but a practical reason people rewire.
What it involves
Cables run within walls and under floors, so a full rewire means lifting floorboards, chasing channels into plaster and making good afterwards. Making good is a significant part of the cost and is sometimes excluded from quotes.
Expect the property to be substantially unusable for one to two weeks for a typical house, longer for larger properties. Living there during the work is possible but unpleasant.
A partial rewire — replacing specific circuits while retaining sound ones — is sometimes appropriate and considerably cheaper.
Getting comparable quotes
Specify the number of sockets and light points you want per room, because quotes vary hugely depending on assumptions. More sockets cost more and are worth specifying now rather than adding later.
Confirm whether the price includes making good plaster, redecoration, lifting and relaying floor coverings, and a new consumer unit.
Ask what certification you will receive on completion. You should get an electrical installation certificate and, where required, notification to building control. Without those, the work is unverified and can complicate sale or insurance.
Choosing an electrician
Use someone registered with the relevant competent person scheme for your country, which allows them to self-certify work to building control.
Check the registration on the scheme's own website rather than trusting a logo on a van. Registration is verifiable in seconds and is the single most useful check available.
Timing
Rewiring during a renovation, before decorating and while floors are up anyway, costs far less in making good than doing it as a standalone job. If a wider project is planned, sequence the electrics into it.
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