Living in a house while rewiring happens.

[CrackleMauve]

Hi. We have to get our house completely rewired as the current wiring is a complete cowboy job and just not safe. We moved in recently and discovered the extent of the problem. Kind of glad we realised before doing any redecorating.

Just had an electrician round today to quote. He's saying it could take 7-10 days to do and asked if we'd be living here. I have a 2 year old and work part-time, husband works full-time.

I'm just wondering how much of a nightmare it's going to be trying to live here while they rewire? We don't have anywhere else to stay locally, so the only alternative would be to try and take time off work and go stay with family the other end of the country. We also have cats. I'm thinking wherever we go, the cats should probably go in a cattery for the duration. Otherwise I'm anticipating "cat trapped under floorboard" fun.

Grateful for any tips on coping with having the house rewired you have, and definitely views on whether we stay or go.

We are about to find out! Two kids, one not crawling yet, and an absolute shit hole of a house.

Just out of interest how much have you been quoted?

there will be more dust and dirt than you could imagine. move out!! wrap up all posessions and consider storage. could you book a holiday flat?

See this thread

Get out! Get out!

We stayed in the house through it. Never again. And that was before kids. The cat under the floorboards thing - yep, that happened.

Oh god. Now I am a bit worried. The entire place needs redecorating and new carpets anyway, so that's fine. Holiday let not feasible as we're in London and it would be so expensive. At least we've just moved in so lots of stuff still in boxes anyway, less to hide from dust!

I think perhaps it would be wise to book a week off work. I do a 3 day week so if it started on a Monday, the kid and I could go away for all that week plus 2 days the following week.

On quotes, not had it through yet so waiting to hear.

Our electrician actually said he'd have refused to do the work at all if we'd stayed in the house! I just can't imagine having lived in during the work, it would have been total hell...sorry!

The dust will be totally horrific. I just did a half house rewire - house was un inhabited and I had to sweep the floors with a broom and wipe mm of dust from every surface - every day. Get the kids out of the environment as much as you can.

it will be easier for the electrician if you are away, as he will not have to put floorboards back for you to walk on, and will not need to provide lighting, cooking and hot water circuits untill he is finished.

Boxes and wardrobes will not be enough to keep the dust out, you need to seal the boxes and/or their contents in plastic taped shut. The polythene storage crates with lids are useful, but you need to tape round the lids, or put the stuff in plastic bags inside the crate. You have to vacuum and sponge the crates and boxes before you open them, or dust will spill onto the contents. take as much stuff out of the house as possible before he starts work, including carpets, wardrobes and kitchen appliances. TVs, computers and other electronic devices can be ruined by plaster and cement dust which will get in through the cooling slots and be attracted by static.

remove or hide your hoover and its attachments in different places, and buy a Canister vac from a DIY shed. A wet and dry will be more useful. They come with a pleated cartridge filter, buy a spare, and also some of the big paper bags that go inside the drum, as they will catch thge plaster dust and prevent clogging the filter. You can brush the plaster dust off a filter, but it is a dirty job.

Good electricians are not usually good plasterers, so find someone more skilled to make good.

The quick way to cut the channels is with an angle grinder which is what makes all the dust. If your electrician will cut them by hand with a club hammer and bolster it'll take a little longer but will cut down dramatically on the dust.

a wall-chasing machine is first-class at making dust, though it may have an attachment for a vac hose.

I agree about the bolster option.

We lived in ours while it was being done, but it was the first job after moving in so we were still living out of boxes which made it easier. Luckily the house is big so we were able to keep out of the electrician's way.

He didn't do it all in one go; he left the kitchen and bathroom because they were scheduled for replacement at a later date (but he made sure the circuit board/RCB etc he installed would cater for that) so that made things easier. Also, as we are in a bungalow, he managed to do a lot via the loft so there wasn't too much floorboard disruption.

He used a hammer and bolster to chase the walls. And yes, my hoover very quickly gave up the ghost with all the plaster dust.

I can report back on this now as the rewiring has happened. In the end I went to stay with family for the week with toddler, and my husband stayed at home. The disruption was actually less than we thought, we got away with covering a lot of stuff in dust sheets. The electricians were very good at cleaning up after themselves before they left for the day.

Even so, the entire place was covered in a fine layer of plaster dust and husband spent a lot of the weekend wiping everything down. Definitely wouldn't have wanted to be here with a toddler. Apparently one evening he ended up sitting on the stairs to eat dinner because all the dining room chairs were dusty and the sofa was all wrapped up to protect it from dust. Awwww.