Re-wire

[FirstDD19]

How much seems appropriate for a full house re-wire? 3500 sq ft? £10,000-15,000?

Also, is it messy? Skirting boards etc?

Depends on area of the country and how many sockets and lights etc
I would say 10k in the south east would be fair

3500 sq ft seems rather large.

jokingly, a rewire costs the same as a second-hand car.

So it varies with what make, what size and how good.

It is (usually) extremely dusty because they will have to chase out your walls. There is a special dust-making machine used by many electricians. It's sometimes possible to have a powerful builders vac attached to it with a hose, but the dust will still be bad.

If you have never seen builders dust before, seal all your posessions (wrapped in plastic bags) into plastic crates with tight-fitting lids, including the stuff in wardrobes and drawers, and have a carpetfitter lift and roll your carpets. Take down the curtains. Electronic items such as TVs and PCs will be ruined by the dust. Wrap your beds in polythene sheeting. Put masking tape round all the room doors to reduce the dust getting in. Buy your own builders vac and clean up each night. Put down clean dustsheets to walk from bathroom to bedroom after your shower.

Or stay in a Travellodge for the week.

lock your household vac in the boot of your car and don't let them near it.

Most electricians will saw your floors up to get access. If you are fussy about such things, try to find a good local carpenter who will fit new boards afterwards that will look good and not squeak.

They will also have to work in your loft to get at the upstairs ceiling lamps. Your loft may be dirty.

The best time to have a house rewired is just after you've bought it, before you move in and fill it with furniture or do any decorating. Even if you have to pay the removals company to store your stuff for a week.

Electricians are not plasterers or decorators. Some can fill chases and backboxes neatly, but I'd budget for someone more skilled to tidy up after them. you are planning to pay quite a lot so you want a really nice job.

Echo what PigletJohn has said.
It's very dusty - think red brick dust everywhere.
We were fortunate in that we could rewire before moving in, so no furniture etc to get ruined.
Took longer and cost more than expected. The risk is you start adding sockets, wall lights etc on top of the initial quote and then the price goes up. But it's well worth designing a lighting plan and where you want your sockets carefully as it is far easier to do it from the outset than change later.

Our house is 80 square metres (3 bed semi) and we paid £3k last year. We went away for the week, leaving everything boxed up, and they used dust sheets.

Do not underestimate the hassle! Not just the dust but making good the new channels in the walls, carpets having to be lifted and put back, the works. It is filthy and horrible.

On the plus side, it's also a good time to get lots of minor bits done like new light fittings, doorbells, mains wired smoke alarms, etc..,,

We had a rewire earlier this year whilst we were living there. He had a machine that sucked all of the dust up when he was chasing and he covered anything left in rooms. There was a thin layer of dust at times but wasn't bad at all. We went out in the morning and came back for the children's bedtime. Electrician tidied up every evening and we came back to a tidy house.
Obviously it took longer because he had to tidy everything away, clean and then get everything out the next day.
Ours was around 4k for a 4 bed detached house

I'm with @Floridasunset with the right electricians it shouldn't be too messy. I run a heating and electrical contractors in the NW and about 3-4K is reasonable, about a weeks work and our engineers tidy up every night. It's 75/25 people being in the house (25% aren't living there).
And also don't forget to make sure you use a registered contractor and get it signed off under Part P.

DH can charge anything from 3k - 10k depending on the property, the work involved, how many of them will be doing it and the timescale it's needed in (he may subcontract out some if the customer needs it quicker) also depends on the state, if they're not living there and having all the walls replastered as part of a refurb for example it'd be much easier a job for him than coming into a fully decorated house with you living there while he does it. We are in the NE

My electricians advised me to make sure I was out of the house while they worked , the exact phrase was " you don't want to see what we have to do to your house". They did clear up every evening , but I could tell it was pretty awful while it was going on!

3 bed semi here and ours cost £3k. It's very messy and dirty.
Best thing to do is pack as if your moving out, or put tape around cupboard doors etc to stop dust getting in. They shouldn't need to rip skirting off but they will make a hole above it to feed wires behind, same for under coving to get wires above. Carpets will come up too.
If theres any new light switches to go in they'll chase them into the wall and put filler over it.