When to rewire

[StillTryingtoBuy]

We are due to move into our house in early February. It a fixer upper but livable - well, we’re going to live in it anyway!

We’re having central heating put in before we move in and later this year we’ll be moving the bathroom upstairs and fitting a new kitchen. Should we rewire now while the house is empty and central heating is going in? Or wait until we are renovating? We’ve had an electrician in and he’s said we could do some essential bits now (new fuse board and a few small jobs) but we’ll need to rewire at some point in the next 5 years. He’s also said it would be about £7k to rewire (London, small 3 bed Victorian terrace) which is more than we expected.

Advise welcome!

Require immediately. It's very disruptive and messy.

Rewire!

I'd say before you move in of you can. You'll have all boards up etc for heating. Although it'll mess up the walls where the wires go in so don't know of that would be annoying? Does the 7k include making good after?

Am v.interested to hear what others think about cost as we're looking to rewire ours. It's bigger but we're SE not London. Out of interest how long did he think it would take?

Do it first but get some more quotes.

Before. We’ve just five it whilst living in the house and it was horrendous

Do it before. They’ll likely have to chase into the walls and it creates a hideous amount of dust. Walls will need re finishing so do it early.

Before you move in. The dust and the dust did I mention the dust.

Afterwards it's will take forever for the dust to settle.

We moved out

I'm in the Midlands but have just been given a ball park figure of £1.8k-£2.5k to rewire 3 bed semi and detached garage. Even by London prices your price is a lot.

Get it done first and preferably whilst you are not living there

Before you move in. Also factor in the cost of plastering if you're having cables channelled into the walls.

The price is really so much more than we expected. It doesn’t include VAT or making good after.

Thanks for all the votes for before. Hopefully we can find someone more reasonably priced to do it.

Sorry, another thing - would we be better off getting it done when we redo the kitchen and bathroom if we end up moving out for a period then anyway? As in will we end up redoing significant parts while we do up the kitchen and fit a new bathroom anyway?

I think if at all possible get your electrics and c/h done before anything is in the house ie before you move in. They’re both really disruptive jobs and it’s just easier to complete (and clean after) with an empty place, as it may involve lifting floorboards as well as all the dust and plastering work.

I asked DH (used to be an electrician). His advice is to get it all done in one go but.... really think about what you will want. Dont stint on sockets. If you are planning an electric shower get the cabling in now. Include things like sockets and lights in the loft. Allow for an extractor fan where you plan the bathroom to be.

Dont spend out on fancy fittings, go for good quality but standard. You wont yet know what your finished decor will be.

Electrics and plumbing are in the walls so getting them in is messy. Better to get the mess all done at the start.

Do they work room by room? And where do they start? Downstairs or up?

Having lived through a rewire while at home and then again when DH and I bought our current home which was a complete rip out and start again it was easier 2nd time round when we weren't living through it. If you can OP do it before you move in. It also enabled us to get more sockets in, cables chased for when we did the bathroom & kitchen and let is add / swap things prior to decorating etc. Think we were 7k all in that was 6 years ago. Enjoy your renovations 😊 ❤️

@whyohwhyohwhyohwhywhy

Do they work room by room? And where do they start? Downstairs or up?

In a rewire you start with the consumer unit (fuse box). Put sockets in close by for kettle, radio and extension lead for power tools. Then work circuit by circuit: upstairs lighting, downstairs lighting, upstairs sockets, downstairs sockets, kitchen circuit etc etc.

In this approach you cant really live there while this is going on as it shouldnt be used until tested and signed off.

@StillTryingtoBuy within reason, get as many circuits as possible. This means that you dont end up with the whole house being plunged into darkness if a lightbulb blows.

Helpful thanks!! And how long does it take? Do they literally replace every wire and take the old ones out?

If you are going for a complete rewire then the electrician should not be using any of the existing cable. They may not remove it if it is more disruptive to do so but should remove it if its presence is likely to be confusing for subsequent work. DH's preference was to leave old wiring obviously safe (ie terminated and not hidden) if it couldnt be removed. Old cable should not be left running next to new cable. There is a danger of it becoming live accidentally.

DH would do a full rewire in about a week in a 3 bed terrace working on his own but this would not include making good.

The best time for a rewire is before you expend time and money on decoration and floor coverings: the rewire will affect all these.

Think carefully about any major changes you'll be making later in terms of where you'll need power supplies for things like showers, oven, hob etc. It'll be much easier later if cable can be run for these things at the same time everything else is done.

Before you move in - it's so much easier as it creates so much dust etc. We were doing a similar house renovation to you and it was easier as floorboards already up to get to the central heating pipes in etc.

We couldn't afford to install a new kitchen at that point but it was rewired, just the electrician stuck cables, sockets etc on top of the existing tiles and these were then properly chased into walls when we had the kitchen done several years later.

Rewire now, you'll have floor boards up for pipe runs so get it done all at the same time. At least then you can concentrate on getting the cosmetics done afterwards.
I'd expect a rewire to cost 4.5k-5k. Not sure on London premium though. I paid 3k 13years ago in North U.k for similar property.

£7k in London does not surprise me.

Electricians like to say that "rewiring a house costs the same as buying a second-hand car."

Ours was about £5k 12 years ago for a 4 bed detached, with the work taking place alongside new central heating etc.

Before before before. We didn’t have the opportunity to do this and not only is it messy and dusty, but imagine all your furniture in a house, then add all the builders’ equipment – piles of the radiators, tools, all the electrical stuff, etc, where does it all go? You end up wasting so much time – and paying for that time – hanging dust sheets and dust doors and shifting furniture back and forth. Then you don’t get sockets in the exact place you want because there’s a load of furniture and equipment in the way.

Get it all done now, but get plans drawn up for bathroom and kitchen too so you can have those rooms wired too even if you don’t refit for a while.

Takes six months for the dust to settle.