Replacing cheap white switches and sockets with expensive ones

[HareintheBluebells]

We're renovating a house and I'm trying to decide what to do about switches and sockets.

At the moment it has cheap white plastic throughout. I've been looking at various aged brass etc but really I just want switches that aren't a feature but that feel good quality and pleasant to use. So I've started wondering about replacing the current cheap white plastic with slightly nicer white metal, eg socketstore.co.uk/products/sockets-and-switches/white/contour-white

Has anyone done this and did it make a difference? I have a whole house to do so I can't go very expensive- need nearly a hundred sockets as it is! Don't know whether I'll feel a mug to spend the money replacing white with white.

If there are any brands you'd recommend, please let me know. We need the screwed sort due to wonky old walls.

I changed all my sockets. OK haven't done the whole house yet My walls are very wonky and I used these but with white switches:

www.broughtons.com/store/category/3/521/bakelite/

The price racks up very quickly!

They look lovely but OMG the cost. Plus once you've started there's no going back.

Our house is modern so we have some white switches (good quality but will be replaced at some point), stainless steel in the kitchen and glass touch switches elsewhere (from a company called Retrotouch who also do rocker switches). Expensive but I love them!

I'm still upgrading switches and sockets. Unfortunately, the thing that works best in our house is 'aged bronze' finish, and these are by Forbes & Lomax/Elesi. In some parts of the house, B&Q looks fine (still a bronze sort of finish). The sloppy, lazy toads who owned our house previously just jammed wall-mounted boxes in lots of places, so installing new fittings has often involved chasing into walls and skirting boards to sink the boxes and allow flat fronts.

It's absolutely worth it to me, because I"m the sort of person who sweats the small stuff. Although, as these are things that you use every day, and are the 'touch points' of the house (ditto taps, door and cupboard handles, proper steel curtain rails that allow the curtains to glide smoothly into place), you could argue they aren't small at all.

It's an opportunity to install dimmers if you don't have them already, which adds a lot more flexibility to your lighting plan. And USB charging points into the plug sockets.

I think these touches make a house look well-cared for, thought-through and pulled together, and I would be clocking them in a house I was considering buying.

In our last house we replaced all the white sockets and switches with brushed chrome. Looked so much nicer.
House we are in now was a new build and we upgraded that to have a shiny silver.
Wouldn't hesitate.

We just used a wholesale electrical website. Unfortunately I cant remember the name as was a few years ago now.

TLC Electrical is a good source. Horrible website, but good products. And knowledgeable staff if you have a branch you can get to.

The contoured white plastic are a significant improvement without the cost of metal. Plus the very slight flex can really help with wonky walls.

@AnnaMagnani i didn’t know you could still get Bakelite, I love them.

I'd shop[ around as that seems expensive. We use tlc-direct.co.uk (and have a trade account)

Several important things to bear in mind, some of the low profile styles of metal designer switches require a deeper back box than traditional raised designs. This is a particular issue with dimmers.

You need to ensure there is an operational earth at the switch/fitting location, the fact there is an earth wire there does not mean it is connected correctly elsewhere, so for safety a loop impedance test should be carried out for every fitting and the figure obtained should be under the maximum permissable Zs for the protective device on the circuit (fuse, MCB etc).

In cases where the backbox is metal, an earth fly wire should be added between the new metal accessory and the back box to ensure both are sufficiently earthed.

We have these www.switch-lighting.co.uk/knightsbridge-screwless-matt-white-13a-2g-dp-double-switched-socket-sfr9000mw_13158?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6rCgBhDVARIsAK1kGPLGi7weGR3GLyQHME-8rQgjKSHGc2_bV8OScUTt8ilj806RjgxlZv4aAlJVEALw_wcB
I really like how understated they are. Personally not a fan of "feature" sockets

We've done the opposite! Had white plastic ones put into our new house after discovering we hated metal (expensive looking?!) ones in our rental house. They showed every mark and with a child in the house seemed to need cleaning all the time!

We’re just replacing all the light switches with brushed brass flat plates with dolly switches. It looks so much better

Just to echo pp, the back boxes could make a big difference to how easy this will be to do, might be worth shitting the power off and having a look in a few, depth of back box and wire colour/condition - you could easily find yourself open a rabbit warren by needing deeper back boxes, outdated /insufficient earthing options and possibly even deciding you need to rewire.

We're upgrading all in our house to these as we do each room.

The toggle light switches give me a great deal of pleasure every time I use them. They look so good.

https://www.ukelectricalsupplies.com/varilight-ultraflat-brushed-brass-1-gang-10a-2-way-toggle-switch.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIk6vUv9zUQIVksftCh0XfQCdEAQYAiABEgKwnPDD_BwE

https://www.ukelectricalsupplies.com/varilight-ultraflat-brushed-brass-2-gang-13a-dp-switched-socket-with-white-insert.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-IKskdzUQIVmLPtCh1MJAfIEAQYASABEgJTyvDD_BwE

I don't like the ones you've posted sorry. Think you could get much nicer ones for a similar price.

We've got brushed grey metal (can't really call it chrome) in the kitchen. But we decided to keep plain white in other rooms so they're less visually intrusive.

You can get nicer white plastic ones . MK.

We put these in
www.se.com/uk/en/product/GU1412TPW/ultimate-screwless-flat-plate-2way-switch-1-gang-white-metal/?%3Frange=60837-ultimate&parent-subcategory-id=5620&filter=business-5-residential-and-small-business&selected-node-id=12146852492

They are lovely and simple - white metal with a dolly switch (which is very satisfying to use). Visually they go in with our period house, but they don't feel like they are too try hard or oldy-worldy. The are excellent quality so I'd definitely recommend.

I have never understood making a feature of light switches and sockets. I want them to be as invisible as possible. We have used MK white plastic throughout.

We're just putting white plastic switches in our completely white new house but the trouble is that against the white walls they look a dingy white. Does anyone know if there are different shades of white plastic switches? I opted for plastic as I wanted something easy to clean.

What about something like BG Evolve Pearlescent White? May not match brilliant white wall colour but the finish has a bit of pearlescence to it (as the name suggests), so may look more like a deliberate style choice?

I've also used Hamilton Hartland CFX White range, which looks on a brighter side of white and is smart, but a bit pricey and requires dead level walls.

Thanks, I'll look at those.