Replace pull chord lights in bathroom

[Netnot]

Hello, we are looking to buy a property and it has pull chord lights in the bedrooms. We are not sure if it is a huge cost to replace that with a wall switch. We are new to all this and have no idea on the cost to make such changes. I am assuming it will require creating way for the wires to the new switch on the wall so potentially a fairly big replastering and decoration job involved? Please if anyone can suggest the potential cost to carry out the replacements. Thanks.

I would get an electrician in once you own the property to get a quote for changing to spotlights in the bathroom. Will cost a few hundred but improve the property.

As a quick win, you could replace the bulb with a smart bulb and disconnect the pull cord - I did this in my home office as a quick fix (I wanted some shelving where the pull cord dropped, so would be inaccessible). If you have an Alexa (or other smart device in the room), it's just a case of "Alexa turn on bedroom light" or "Alexa, set bedroom light to 20%"

There are rules about bathroom lights in the UK. I believe that the switch must be a chord OR outside the room. Others will know more but please do some research

It's not a big job but will require that of an electrician. They'll take the wires from the ceiling and will need to make a small channel in the wall and chase a new wire down for a wall switch. Please don't just remove them yourself as you'd have a live wire up in your ceiling space. The job isn't that big so you might find the harder thing is finding an electrician that will come for such a small job. Maybe see if there's any other jobs you'd need doing at the same time to make it seem more interesting for them. Hardest thing about home renovation is finding someone to come take the job 🙄

@Twiglets1 @MathiasBroucek OP said bedrooms not bathroom

look at the thread title though.

Oops. OK now I’m confused too!

Is it bedrooms or bathroom? If it’s bathroom, it’s likely on a cord because it isn’t possible to fit the switch outside - as a pp said, electrical regulations don’t allow the switch to be inside the bathroom….

It's a common myth that light switches can't be inside bathrooms - they can, if they meet certain requirements. A bathroom is separated into different electrical zones (0, 1, 2 and 3) - based on distance from outer edge of bath/shower/sink, etc. So in a small bathroom it is likely that a switches couldn't be fitted due to zones. However, in a larger bathroom it is possible.

sorry for the confusion, it is in both bedrooms and bathrooms.

For safety the switch should be outside the bathroom, water and electricity don't mix. It may be easy to channel across the ceiling and down the wall and then drill through the wall to position the switch on the outside, just depending on the room layout. Get an electrician to do it if you are not competent with electrics. Bedrooms should be easy to just run channels to where you want the switches and running small conduits and cables, it shouldn't require major re-plastering just filling over the channels.

That's all true, but unless it's a very large bathroom the required distance may put the switch in an inconvenient place, like behind the door.

Title said Bathrooms.
But I'd get an Electrician to change the bedroom to a switch and put spotlights if that's what you want.