My house is being rewired next week. Not sure what to expect

[Jasmin82]

As the title says, my house is being rewired next week. The electricians called earlier to confirm what day they would start work and how long it would take. Like an idiot, I forgot to ask about what exactly to expect. Resident Collie is going into kennels for most of it as she stresses out easily when there's work being carried out on the house. She doesn't stress out about kennels.
However, I'm not entirely sure what to expect. I'll be staying at the house (have an invitation to stay with a friend, but the travel is too expensive right now and Resident Collie would still need to go into kennels as their place doesn't allow dogs). I know that the electric gets turned off while they're working, but, do the turn it back on when they go home at the end of the day? The house is all electric so, if the power isn't turned back on until the work has finished (estimate is 10-12 days), I'm kind of stuck.

All the Airbnb type places near me that allow dogs work out more expensive than the cost of her in kennels plus me travelling to my friend. The work is being estimated by the electrician to take 10-12 days. If I put Resident Collie in kennels for 14 days it's £266. Cheapest flights to my friend start at £41 return, but that's with EasyJet so, by the time I add on the luggage allowance and choose my seats, it's just under £100. So almost £400. The cheapest Airbnb type place near me that allows dogs is almost £500.
If I could spread of the cost of the flights, I'd be staying with my friend.

DH and I lived in our newly bought house while it was completed rewired.

It was dreadfully dusty and messy but when they left each evening we managed to cook a meal, have a shower or a strip wash before bed (after hoovering it first). It's not pleasant but definitely endurable.

We had almost no furniture though - just a coffee table that we sat on, and a double bed, and a TV. That's all.

My top tip - clear the decks. Hire storage if needs be. Sleep on a camp bed. The dust will take a good month to settle finally, so don't bother decorating till at least a month has passed.

I had my place done about 2 years ago and we’re fortunate to be able to move out, it took 5days, we left on the Monday morning and we’re back on Friday night. The electrician said it would take twice as long if he had to reconnect us every night.

Sorry OP, you clearly have no alternative and it’s going to be bloody miserable, the photo is when I came home after day 2 to pick up a few bits. If I stood in my kitchen on the ground floor I could see the loft hatch on my kids 1st floor bedroom ceiling.

100% pack up everything though even if you have to stay there.
Pack everything into the loft or shed.

Cover bed with dust sheets - move your bedding in use into your car each day. Put bag of clothes and essentials in the car also each day.

I would honestly try and go without electricity for 3 days at least to speed it up without having to be reconnected. Buy ready made food from supermarkets ie meal deals, or eat out in local cafe/ Mac Donald’s until late. Mac Donald’s sell hot drinks fairly reasonable prices. If you have flask would neighbour or cafe fill with hot water for you.
Go to swimming pool to use showers and swim to pass time as well somewhere warm

It will be very dirty and messy (less so if it’s surface mounted). Cover everything with dust sheets. I absolutely cannot see though, why it’s taking 10-12 days? That is a ridiculously long time, unless you live in a castle!!! But it doesn’t sound like you do? Max 3 days for the actual rewire (and that’s if you’ve got solid walls that are hard to chase out) two days for plastering (ifs it’s council funded I would assume it will only be plaster patching?), a day for that to dry, then decs?

very noisy and messy.

you can't stay in the house whilst work is going on. no electricity and mess/dust everywhere.

hide the hoover (unless you want a new one) the dust will kill it.

and regatding dust: your electronics will not like it. put sensitive things like laptops, computers into a crate with a lid (really useful box) so that they don't get damaged.

the people doing the wiring are not decorators. you might need to sandcand paint where they have been.

I had a large Victorian house rewired some years ago, did not move out, lots of dust just inconvenient, nothing to get dramatic about it, maybe I was lucky.

When ours was done they pulled the wires through when they took out the old ones. New fuse box etc.

I don't currently have a car to store anything in. Long story short, there was an expensive fail of an MOT and the car was worth less than the work to get it through the MOT. Accessing my loft is a no go at the moment and no shed.

I'm also not sure why it's been quoted 10-12 days, unless they were quoting for a timescale that involves working around a grumpy old collie with a propensity for locking herself in the bathroom. Or they were quoting a worst case scenario to give themselves wiggle room if the wiring is worse than first diagnosed.

Spoke with my friend early this morning. We have worked something out that means I'll be at home the first day and morning of the second and then away until the middle of the following week. Hopefully by the end of the first day, I'll have a better idea of the timescale. If they're done before I'm back from my friend's it's all good, if not, I'll just have to deal with it.

That's good you will be away for some of it.

I had my 3 bed terraced house rewired and it took longer than 10-12 days, although they took their time with it! But I would say that's about right. It's a lot of work!

Time scale depends on things like having to move stuff away from sockets.

If you have floorboards and they are going to lift them.

Do the channeling thing

pull out old wires and push through new ones.

Think because it’s all concrete here and they did the pull and push it was a quick job with hardly any inconvenience or mess.

@Jasmin82 you could always contact them and ask what prep work you need to do and the method they will be using.

My DF was a sparky and regularly did full rewires. It is much quicker if they can just get on with it without you there.

But he also did a full rewire of my DGPs house and they were living it in. They had the power back on for the evening meal and evening. Consequently it took much longer. I remember it taking up the whole of my then summer holidays from school.

Lots of mess and dust, lots!

You can live around it. It's only temporary and whilst not ideal, it's do-able. I'm probably quite biased as my DP is an electrician but he seems to be extremely tidy and even in our own place, tidied up as much as possible every night. I was 8 months pregnant when he did ours. We didn't have lights in the bathroom but he would switch everything else back on every day.

My DP has this huge hoover thing that he uses whilst chasing the walls to avoid so much dust. I don't know if that is standard or not.

Something that will make it easier is if you can clear the room or move furniture so they don't have to. Anything that means they spend less time moving things and accessing cables will speed things up.

Can you not try your best to travel with hand luggage only? It’s not too long and will keep down the cost. Also if it is only you then you don’t need to choose a seat just take what you are given. If you do this then the flights will be at the cheaper end.

I'm a wheelchair user. Leaving my seat selection to the airline can end up with me being put in the aisle seat. Not a problem when the rest of the row is free. However, when it isn't, it kind of makes it difficult for the people sitting in the middle and window seats as I can't stand to let them past so they're stuck trying to shuffle/climb over me to reach their seat and again when we get to the destination. Picking my own means I can choose the window seat and not inconvenience other people on the row. The last time I left it up to the airline, they put me in a window seat near the front of the plane. Only problem was that boarding was at the rear of the plane. On that occasion, as the flight wasn't full, the cabin crew switched me to a window seat towards the rear of the plane.

I'd do hand luggage only if it wasn't for the smallest case I have falling outside the dimensions for the large hand luggage, so has to be classed as hold luggage. And my small hand luggage is too small for more than a change of clothes, my purse and my phone. I'm not sure my friend is going to be too keen on me running their washing machine that often. And no, layering up isn't an option, I feel suffocated just adding a coat when I go out.

Dust everywhere!!! Don’t underestimate it. We had a full rewire about 4 years ago and broke the vacuum because we were hoovering so much. The air was brown for weeks after the electrician had left. In fact, we were still finding small piles of dust that we’d missed in the corners of rooms for about 6 months!! We had to move out the entire two weeks he was there as there was no way we could have lived like that.

Then of course the chasing out. Your house will look a mess because of all that (unless you’re getting it plastered at the same time) I hated it.