Cost of a rewire

[ViaRia01]

We are looking at moving to a house that requires a rewire - can anyone give an estimate/ how much they were quoted for the same job?

It’s a ‘small’ 5 bed house, by which I mean it has three bedrooms plus two very small box rooms. It’s in bucks.

I can’t really go around getting quotes as it’s not our house. We’re decided whether or not to view it. Trying to figure out how much work / investment it would need just to get started.

The rest of the house needs modernising but that could be done over time. The require needs addressing right away.

I had a 3 bedroom house in Bury St Edmunds rewired 18 months ago for £7850.

Bumping for you as I have a relative that will be needing that done too shortly. And the roof done. House is 1950s so it’s all starting to need work.

I had a medium sized 4 bed rewired in 2015 and that cost £6k.Assuming things double every 10 years (except salaries), I think you'll be looking at 10-12k£

@RentalWoesNotFun Our roof was relined and reslated in 2022, a basic rectangle measuring 40' x 22', including scaffolding and having two chimneys reflashed, which cost £20k.

There was a recent thread on here about a 5 bed in the south and they’d been quoted £18k
id say you are looking at £12-15k as a minimum depending on number of distribution
boards, kitchen etc

Be aware that all the floors will need to be lifted and the walls will need to be channelled into to to add sockets or cabling. So you will also need to have the rooms replastered and any tiled laminate or stuck down floors replaced.
Does it really need a rewire as that is pretty unusual unless the whole property needs taking back to brick.
Most just need updating, so a new fuse box and consumer unit and maybe a couple of extra sockets adding in.

How old is the house, is the wiring the original old rubber wiring if before about 1970

Also rewiring cost will vary a lot if you are down south or in London so a rough location would be helpful.

Why are you so sure it needs a rewire?

The first thing I would do is have the electrics checked if you haven’t done this already - around £150 - and this will tell you if it actually needs a rewire.

Yes good points. I will need to factor in re plastering walls and redoing flooring. The condition of the rest of the house is “in need of modernisation “ so my thought was that as I can only do this room by room over a period of time (to spread the coets), if the rooms are just freshly plastered/ mist-coated, rather than awful peeling old wallpaper I think I can live with it for several years as we do the decorating bit by bit.

I really am not sure how old it it (how could I find out?) but yes I am assuming pre 1970

I bought a 1930, 3 bed terrace + extension and loft 2 years ago and it needed rewiring and a new fuse board unit. They also removed some light features in three rooms.

I was about 5K altogether. I am on the Kent coast.

I did it before I moved into the house so it was empty. It was easier for the electricians to do a job and made it a bit cheaper as well.

It’s in Buckinghamshire (mentioned in the OP!)

Good point. The estate agent has said it needs a rewire when I requested to view it. I assume they wouldn’t be putting off buyers unless they were absolutely sure!

The electrical survey is relatively cheap. Get one done and ask them to quote for the work at the same time.

If you are going to decorate a room at a time, you can also rewire and plaster a room at a time. It works out slightly more expensive than doing the whole lot at once and means you are in a partial building site for longer but you can save money by running the cables yourself and getting them checked or decorating yourself.

Ah, well this I didn’t know. I had thought that rewire meant everything re-done at once. Good to know, thank you

If you have a brick built house I would recommend doing it all at once if you can. The dust and mess is unbelievable!
we did ours in 2019 so the price we paid is probably irrelevant now but I’m still traumatised by the mess. The electrician did tell us to move out (which we did… thanks mum!) but still didn’t expect it to be as messy as it was.

Doing a room at a time isn’t really practical with a full re wire with new distribution boards

5k for large 4 bed - but I’m in Lancashire and everything is a bit cheaper!

Not true. You can get the new distribution board fitted and a new consumer unit if needed and then wire the old circuits into the new board and replace them a room at time.

We paid £3k for a large 4 bed in Berkshire area

@HennyPenny27
How recently? That is very cheap.

In 2022, not long after buying. Work was done really well and since then have used them for other small jobs. Don’t know how much it would be now, but likely still pretty reasonable.