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Original poster

Can you live in a house while it’s having a full rewire

49 replies

Nik2015 · 25/11/2022 22:48

Thinking of a doing a rewire. Can we live in it?
They do the first fix and then come back when the plaster is dry!
I have no clue if we can live in it in between?

OP posts:
gamerchick · 25/11/2022 22:51

I had to leave the house for the day after packing everything up in boxes put in the middle of the room. Came back to a building site and the plasterers came back another day.

Next time I'm temporarily staying somewhere else. Awful experience.

RampantIvy · 25/11/2022 22:56

We lived through a rewire. We camped in the bedroom and the kitchen. We had loads of other stuff done as well. I am never buying another doer upper again.

Original poster
Nik2015 · 25/11/2022 23:02

We’re buying a doer upper…am I making a huge mistake?

OP posts:
MetellaInHortoEst · 25/11/2022 23:03

Nik2015 · 25/11/2022 23:02

We’re buying a doer upper…am I making a huge mistake?

Itll probably pay off in spades if you can grit your teeth through the tough bits.

MiniMaxi · 25/11/2022 23:03

I wouldn’t. We tried to have ours done just before we moved in, they ran over so finished after. Dust EVERYWHERE - really fine, wheeze inducing dust - and you likely won’t have electricity (no cooking, no heating, no lights). If there’s any way to avoid it please do yourself a favour!

anotheropinion · 25/11/2022 23:11

Who's living in it?

Two healthy adults, both ok with back-to-basics camping? Probably fine?

Couple of toddlers? Probably not fine?

Original poster
Nik2015 · 25/11/2022 23:12

2 healthy adults a a 7 year old. All the rentals are 3k for a month!

OP posts:
RedHouseWins · 25/11/2022 23:14

We did, however it was a big old Victorian house so the wires needed chasing and it took 5 months! We were able to move around the house and always had a temporary kitchen and then slept in the living room for a week or so.

We managed and it was ok, but I'm not itching to do it again!

Flossflower · 25/11/2022 23:15

We did but it was just me and my husband and we did have spare room to manoeuvre things around. We had planned to eat out every lunch time for a while, as there was no electricity. Unfortunately, this turned out to be just before the beginning of covid and lock down. The electricians had to leave as soon as all the wiring was done but I had to wait months before they were allowed to come back in and do the plastering and nail floorboards down.

Flossflower · 25/11/2022 23:17

I think a good compromise, instead of renting, would be to put as much of your furniture and belongings in storage as you can.

Floydthebarber · 25/11/2022 23:21

I'm glad op asked this! Two adults, two dc in a two bedroom house. We downsized so it is a house with a lot of stuff in it. We need everything rewired. I thought we'd have to be somewhere else, this has confirmed it.

How long does the rewire take?

TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams · 25/11/2022 23:43

We did and managed fine with a toddler. It was done in stages and I don't remember ever being without basic electrics and cooking facilities in the evening. Trickier if working from home.

A doer upper is hard work to live through in situ but in my experience totally worth it. A considerate builder helps.

Netaporter · 26/11/2022 02:56

You can live in it but it’ll take much longer and you might not get an electrician who wants to do it over a job where the rooms are empty so they price that into the job. Electricians and builders/plasterers do not carefully move your stuff whilst they crack on nor do they do a full hoover at the end of every day. Your stuff ends up full of dust and bits of wall and globs of plaster. Nor do they work on one room at a time as cables have to be pulled from one room to another, floorboards lifted etc. A full rewire in a house with lathes or ‘live’ (failing plaster) walls is the worst because the mess can be extraordinary. Whilst they’ll say the opposite, no contractor thinks ‘I’ll just wash my hands before moving this sofa’ not close the doors to other rooms whilst they bash a wall 😂 Put your stuff in storage and get a cheaper rental and do the work in the summer months to reduce the energy costs of drying plaster etc…not spending the money on a short term rental is often a false economy when you add up the more expensive quote for the work being more aggravation from the contractors pov and then the damage to your stuff and the hotel rooms when you fancy just sleeping somewhere clean for the night!

RAINSh0wers · 26/11/2022 08:44

Our electricians offered a cheaper price if we weren’t in the house-I guess it meant they could get on with it and not worry about the state it was in at the end of each day.

NoIncomeTaxNoVAT · 26/11/2022 08:48

Have they told you how long it will take them?

Our full wire took 10days so we went to stay with family for a week and then had a couple of nights in a hotel. It is SO dusty and noisy, you will also need to cover everything and move everything away from the walls for the cables to be chased.

Having just lived through doing a loft conversion onsite, i wouldn't do it.

beaconofsanity · 26/11/2022 08:58

Did it with a 1 year old and pregnant with dc2, not just the rewire bit replumbing, adding central heating, moving the kitchen, top to bottom decorating and blowing out an exterior wall for bifolds. Yes it was messy but we survived!

Original poster
Nik2015 · 26/11/2022 09:29

It’s a house we’re buying, so would need to get it done as soon as we get the keys. Also needs a new boiler, bathroom, kitchen, windows, door and plastering. Am beginning to think this is a mad idea, but there’s no houses round here that are done and what we want.
That is the cheapest rental we can get…!!!

OP posts:
Original poster
Nik2015 · 26/11/2022 09:31

Also, do you think getting separate trades in ourselves is better that using a builder to oversee?
We’ve found a decent plumber (will fit the bathroom), electrician, roofer. Just need a plasterer.

OP posts:
LassoOfTruth · 26/11/2022 09:40

We did, so yes, but if you can I’d recommend having somewhere to decamp to. We did a full rewire, with a baby and a toddler, both of whom were at daycare/preschool some of the time thankfully. They kind of went from room to room as much as possible with the plasterers following. It was survivable but really dusty and noisy because they had to do lots of drilling through thick stone walls in our case!

LassoOfTruth · 26/11/2022 09:44

Currently living here upstairs, with a temporary kitchen in a bedroom, while the whole of the downstairs has been excavated etc and had underfloor heating installed (no central heating previously). It’s not been easy but we’ve been okay. And yesterday the biomass boiler got fired up for the first time and it’s actually WARM in this house of horrors for the first time ever! It’ll be worth it in the end, good luck!

Pollywoddles · 26/11/2022 09:45

I’m in the middle of it now, no way could we live there but I have an 8.5 month old.

tealandteal · 26/11/2022 09:56

We lived in ours (2bed) through the rewire. They did a room at a time and switched the power back on to the main bits of the house overnight. They did have to do loads of very loud drilling and it did make a lot of dust but they were good at cleaning up. We then had the plasterers in, and while the electricians were there we had the boiler serviced. It was condemned! So then we had that replaced. Do you have an electric shower? That helped to get through the wait of the boiler being replaced.

Redterror · 26/11/2022 11:01

We did it. Our electricians were excellent, they did it in stages and were amazing at cleaning up at the end of the day. Yes there is dust, a lot of it, but it wasn't by any means unliveable. DH works from home so he had to deal with the noise and the power cuts but he managed.

itsonlynovemberfgs · 26/11/2022 11:10

I couldn’t t have when I had my house rewired and new boiler and pipe work before I moved in last year.

floor boards up, so much mess and the dust constantly in the air

as the house was empty he was able to crack on and get the worst bits done in a week and I stayed in an air bnb. No way would I have wanted to be living there. he did say if I needed to he’d make sure there was a temporary electricity supply downstairs but I didn’t want to.

When I moved in, he did still have to finish the second fix upstairs but that wasn’t the messy bit so wasn’t a problem.

Lemoncurd · 26/11/2022 11:14

If you haven't yet moved in, it would make sense to get it done before you do. We did this 15 years ago, electricians said they wouldn't do it if we were living there as it would take twice as long/cost more as they would need to tidy up each day, make safe and do extra work so we had a supply. They rewired the house in 2 weeks. We had 2 new bathrooms put in, cloakroom, some work to the kitchen (retiling after the rewire) redecoration throughout before we moved in. Took about 5 weeks, but we'd never get the trades that quickly in these times.