Rewiring - what needs to be done after?

[Rooster2021]

Im buying a house that needs a total rewire. We have been quoted 9K. It’s a 4 bed mid century townhouse - 60s.
We have budget for a refurb (the house is old, old carpets and wallpaper, needs to be totally redecorate) but it’s not that much. We plan to move in to a freshly painted house and live nicely for a few years then save for any big projects (kitchen, bathrooms).
the trouble is, the refurb quote is coming out very high (45K) and I wondered if we could scrap the plastering.
My question is, do we need to plaster post rewire? Or can the builders simply polyfil
holes and paint instead? How much damage is caused by a rewire?
TIA!

It’s a how long is a piece of string question. The electricians may be able to run cabling under floors and the such so no chasing out walls do they may need to chase multiple channels that will need filling. If you are adding additional power points then this will need more drilling and making good. The builders could polyfill for you I’m sure but they might not get the finish a plasterer would. It would perhaps be about £500 a room to reskim walls (without doing ceilings) depending on what part of the country you’re in. Answer is it could be loads of mess it could be very little. Did your quote not outline how many wires needed to be chased in / what power sockets were being added?

Electricians will fill the chases with bonding plaster. It's best to skim after...you could try and fill and sand after but you would likely see the chases

Thanks, that makes sense.
I'm trying to cut costs on this quote and a lot is skimming and plastering. I live in London (Beckenham) so costs are more. But 45K + VAT for just plastering and re painting / laying floors seems so high (we budgeted 30K).
Because we need a rewire it kind of opens up other jobs, but if we go back on ourselves we will waste money upfront.
I should get more quotes but I’ve been told by a few people ‘it’s about right’, so I’m fully expecting them to come back the same!

Some might be in conduit that the new cable can be threaded through but you can get away with filling and sanding and hardly noticeable
most sockets are behind furniture or not particularly visible the ones that are just sand film sand fill sand till right

45k is a massive amount can’t u do some of the work yourself

Could you paint yourself to save some money?

You can patch the bits where the rewire has been done but you will be able to see the repair.

That sounds expensive.

I had a full rewire, a new fuse board and old lighting removed and upgraded a year and a half ago (South East) and it was 5K for a 3 bed house.

You might need to re plaster/paint.

I also had to nail back some of the wood flooring in my house as they lifted everything to lay cables.

Very messy job :).

We paid 8.5k for full rewiring, same type of house. And about 20k on decoration, skimming walls, ceilings and painting. Putting new ceilings as well (not removing, just adding). Removing was separate as it has all asbestos due to artex.

Is it new floors? Why is it so expensive?

Hey, yeah I’ve worked on a few similar places and rewires can definitely cause more mess than you’d expect – especially in older houses where cables need to be chased into solid walls. You’ll likely end up with quite a few channels cut out for sockets, switches and lighting, plus holes here and there where they’ve had to get cables through floors and ceilings.
That said, full replastering isn’t always essential. If your walls are in decent condition otherwise, and the electricians are neat with their chases, you can usually get away with patching using bonding, filler (like Polyfilla), sanding, and a good mist coat before painting. It won’t be perfect, but for a “liveable and fresh” result it can do the job.
Just depends how tidy you want the finish to be. If the walls are already rough or blown in places, it might make sense to plaster, but if budget’s tight and you’re saving the bigger work for later, patching can be a good compromise for now.

The rewiring company usually states what level of finish you'll be left with, if they fill the channels themselves or bring in a plasterer to do it. Or neither. Check what your quote includes.

What @orangedream said.

My ds bought a house and rewired it last year. 3 bed rather than 4, but it cost under £3k.

Have you had any other quotes ?
Walls did not need replastering. The electrician made good any damage to plaster, incl where additional sockets put in, but electricians don't really ruin walls - they feed wires under floor boards and through the spaces wires already run through.

I'm guessing a huge part of that £45K is having new floors ?
As that seems huge.
I mean, ds (with help from family and friends) did all the decorating himself, but painting walls in an empty house isn't that big a job.

Where abouts do you live? We are in beckenham - so London prices basically. But it’s so expensive. It includes removal of wallpapers, carpets, some built in wardrobes. Prepping walls for skimming and skimming all walls and ceilings. Painting everywhere. Laying new floors (floors not included)
im now looking for individual quotes instead of going with a renovation company !

I wish we could do it ourselves. But DH has a stressful job and I have 2 little ones so there would be no time to actually do it. And any time dh took off he would make more working + paying someone if that makes sense! The rewire is coming out at 9K but that includes some repairs (the repairs alone cost around 3.5K) and the total including the take is 9K. So I guess the rewire alone could have been around 5.5K.

If you're paying £3.5k of the quote for repairs to walls and ceilings, I'd expect them to be bringing in a decorator or plasterer to fill and smooth all channels ready for painting. I wouldn't be paying that and expect to have to get another plasterer in afterwards.

Yeah if flooring labour included it would be 30-32k for us. Also SE London, more central than beckenham.

Rewiring should only be chasing relatively small channels into walls. It can be quite messy, but you should be able to make good after with something like Gyprock EasiFill. I've used that for all sorts of things, and it sands much better than actual plaster does so much easier for a non-pro to use.

I don't think you'd see the chases after - I haven't seen where I've used this and blended it into existing plaster. It depends a bit on what state your existing walls are. If the plaster is already fragile/blown then the rewiring might cause more damage than just some chases.