Cost of Rewiring and GCH..

[downtothesea]

More seaside travails.... from sea to countryside, to flats and back again to sea!

Now looking at a bungalow on the south coast but it needs everything doing to it.

It's very wee... 3 rooms + kitchen + bathroom.

Anyone had any recent experience with having a full rewire and installing gas central heating (one rad per room and a new boiler)?

Any prices would be helpful as hopefully they can be pro rata'ed by number of rooms.

We are rewiring a 3 bed detached as part of wider renovation and extension. The rewire will be £3.5k which includes lots of sockets, chrome switches and CAT 5 computer connections.

The new GFCH is about £5k which includes a new boiler.

DH (a spark) would charge around £3000 for a standard 2 bed, 1 reception. This was for a 1930s bungalow to my fussy standards but without chrome fittings:

• reception = 10 double sockets
• hallway = 2 double sockets
• bedrooms = 4 double sockets each
• kitchen = 8 double sockets plus sockets/switches for appliances plus under cabinet lighting
• power in loft
• shaver socket in bathroom & extractor fan

Central heating in a different 2 bed bungalow about 12 months ago cost £2500 - new boiler, radiators in all rooms including hallway and towel radiator in the bathroom.

We are in eat midlands.

Thats east midlands not eat midlands!

We have bought a couple of bungalows, fully renovated then sold them so these numbers are fresh in our heads!

The rewire was total, not a single centimetre of the old wiring was used (I am fussy!).

If existing wiring can be used then the cost could be less. An inspection report would give you a clear idea as to what problems there are in the existing system.

We were expecting 3-400 thousand for 3 bedroomed house re-wiring - cost £5500 that was the best quote and we had to move me and DC out for over a week. It was all new wiring and fuse box - had not been touched since built in 1960s.

Boiler - which did have to be moved and 3 radiators cost 3,500 again more than we initially thought.

We are in the Midlands and we did a lot of shopping round and went for cheapest quotes - though since read central heating installing in area are higher than national average for no apparent reason.

Best of getting actual quotes or asking people in your location.

killing Time out of interest did you use an independant electrician or someone from a larger company? My DH is a one man band and we have noticed that for some reason people want to use a big firm for jobs like rewires. Not sure why, if you have the work done by a one man band then you will get the electrician every single day not the apprentice.

Same question about the gas fitter - one man band or a larger company?

small semi, we had GCH and a boiler in for £2800 and a full rewire for £2000 5 years ago in 2006.

oh sorry rooms,
central heating - kick space heater was about £300 in kitchen
2 rads in lounge/diner
1 rad in hall
1 rad in each of 3 bedrooms
1 towel rad in bathroom
1 condensing boiler
£2800 or could have been a bit less actually now i come to think about it....

rewire included new fuse box and all rewiring to whole house as above, included breakers etc, new light switches but did not include kitchen as had extension built that was done seperately but cant recall what it cost...

Thanks all - very, very helpful. It really adds up when you then factor in a new bathroom (thinking of an economy model at about £2000), a new kitchen (maybe same price again) and then, because it's really wee and we would really want one more room, looking at adding a small conservatory (no idea how much!) or one of those garden/studio rooms at about £7k.
Think we'd be looking at about £20,000 on top of the original purchase price, plus all the hassle and mess and mental anguish - might be back to the drawing board again

GnomeDePlume
killing Time out of interest did you use an independent electrician or someone from a larger company?

Large companies through not through choice - could get no recommendations but lots of warning about doggy companies /workers in area and a lot of smaller companies either did not turn up or after looking at jobs never put a quote in.

Had smaller companies recommended for bathroom re-fit and the have given best quotes but still come in higher than what others have suggested - they were thinking 2000 best quote 4000 - though that includes everything.

killingTime - thank you, useful information. DH is independent, qualified, registered, honest, trustworthy, gives loads of sensible advice for free, always turns up on time, gives detailed written quotes no later than the day after a site visit and quite often on the same day. Unfortunately he cant get the work and is thinking of jacking it in and going and working in a warehouse.

Not a rant but I'm trying to work out how to join DH up with the people who want work as what we are doing now isnt doing the job.

downtothesea - on the other hand if you do the work you will end up with what you want:

• your own choice of kitchen and bathroom
• brand new CH and electrics, all lovely and safe, guaranteed (literally)
• sockets and light switches where you want them

And there is enormous satisfaction to be had in turning a wreck into a home.

We've recently had a re-wire on a massive 5 bed 5 reception detached victorian. We got three quotes.

One man band - £2.5k
Medium sized business, local but youngish £5k
Large established reputable, but a bunch of arrogant tossers £11k

Time quoted was one week from the first, and 5 weeks for the others. We ran a mile from the one man band when he mentioned checking something on the internet. Went with the mid sized and priced company, and though it took much longer than they'd expected (due to lath and plaster) they didn't put the price up. We were also lucky because all the space meant we didn't have to move out, just move to different bits of the house. In a smaller house I'd move out for at least the worst of it if you could - or go on holiday.

We struggled to get small businesses even to quote for the full re-wire because it was just going to tie them up for too long.

Our new central heating was complicated and big, so I'll not bore you with the figures on that.

GnomeDePlume, we're in the East Mids, if we ever sell our house I may be in contact re some work for your DH!

We asked everyone we knew or came into contact with - asked on another parenting site as had not discovered mumsnet then- looked in local paper, also tried a website that was supposed to match jobs with trades people.

Now I have a friend whose DH is an electrician - and while he'd not want a whole house re-wire job he knows alot of people in the trade - in fact good for whole range of contacts. If we'd been nearer family - would have been near friends and family in various parts of building trade and they would have know people interested in the work.

It was unbelievable frustrating needing the work done actually having the finance and finding it so hard to get anyone interested.

I'd agree downtothesea with GnomeDePlume it does have a level of satisfaction getting a house turned round - but living with house in meantime can be very frustrating if it the home. It would be worth it for a forever house - unfortunately our current house is not that.

GnomedePlume - another one here who may be interested in the future (not a lot of use now I know).

We are moving to East Midlands and are hoping to do a single storey extension so would be looking for the electrics to be done. And some jobs sorted out that the survey picked up.

I will PM you when the purchase/plans go through in case your DH is interested & if it is in your area.

Thank you Sushiqueen. Feel free to post here as well. Even if out of his area DH is always more than happy to make suggestions/give advice. He has done a couple of full propert renovations so has also some good general experience.

Thank you also Stanausauruswrecks. Feel free to post here or PM if all you want is advice as well. DH is always happy to give advice where he can.

Killing time- were you happy with the work done?