Cost To Rewire A House In The UK | Home Rewire Cost UK | Rewire Cost Home House UK

How Much Is A Home Electrical Rewire in the UK ?

If you have found this website then you are already aware you may need a Full Home Electrical Rewire.

We will take you through the reasons why, the warning signs you may need a full rewire, what is involved in a Home Electrical Rewire, and finally the cost’s involved detailing the process of how life will be during the Home Rewire.

We have over 24 years experience in Home Rewires, we know the pitt falls, the level of work required to complete a quality home rewire so we present ourselves to you to show you what is involved.
Why Do We Need A Home Electrical Rewire ?

The reason why you need a home electrical rewire can come from several sources. You may have had a Electrical Installation Condition Report conducted or Electrical Home Survey and the report stated a Full House Rewire was required. You may be selling your home, buying a home, rewiring your current home or be looking for a relative that needs a full electrical rewire.

Either way let’s start at the beginning and look at the three most common reasons why you need a full electrical home rewire.
TRS Wiring present

TRS wiring. This was rubber housed wiring installed between the 1950’s – 1960’s, it was superseded with PVC and it stands for tough rubber sheath.

This wiring also comes in the form of a solid outer aluminium sheath, again it is very old wiring superseded with pvc wiring.

The problem with these types of wiring is it will now be breaking down in its current state, literally exposing the inner live and neutral cores. If disturbed ie someone tries to remove a socket face or light switch face it can explode in your hands as both cores short together between live and neutral or touch the earth core within it if it has one so please get a competent electrician to check this out and our advice is remove this wiring immediately for electrical safety.
PVC DIY wiring

DIY wiring changing the original electrical layout of the original wiring to a state which is beyond economical repair and dangerous.

Lets face it, when DIY husband’s, family friends anyone without electrical training gets involved with electrics it can be a recipe for disaster. Not only do they end up altering the original electrical installation but sometimes they adapt it that much and that badly over time that electricians have to draw a line under it as it is beyond economical repair to actually put it right resulting in the advice that a full rewire is required to fix it.

This combined with older wiring can mean the advice to rewire is advisable to ensure compliance with the latest wiring regulations BS7671 and peace of mind.
Old Fuse Box

Old rewirable fuse box – commonly known as the Wylex BS3036 fuse box. The presence of this is a indication the property is 1960’s to 1970’s wired. It does not necessarily mean you need a full rewire tho.

You may get away with a replacement RCBO or Dual RCD Fuse box if the wiring is PVC and each cable for lighting and power has the presence of the earth cable within it also commonly known as the CPC.

Now listen up, in the 1960’s when electricians wired the lighting circuits in houses the PVC cabling did not always have the earth core present in the twin and earth cable, this means your current pvc wiring may be ok or may not be ok resulting in just the lighting circuits being rewired.

Old minimum standards of Electrical points to today’s modern living standards.

How many sockets & lights you need in your new Home.

Back in the good old days the 1960’s when rock n roll was king and mobile phones did not exist you got a very simple electrical rewire package consisting of one socket in the corner of the room in every room and one light switch and one light pendant. This was what we call the “old school” rewire spec. So if you have a house that has one socket in one room only and you are scratching your head as to the reason why you have such a limited amount of sockets per room then this is the answer. Either that or the person rewiring it after the original spec was very tight and like extension leads a lot…

Today’s electrical minimum standards for the amount of sockets and lights you need is somewhat different, literally. Have a look behind your tv now as you see it, I bet you have one or two sockets with a long extension lead behind the tv because you have a sky box, a dvd player, surround sound system, dongle box, play station, xbox, hard drive, landline phone power adapter all plugged in, yes?, read on. Lets take a moment to add these up, 8 power points equating to 4 x twin sockets actually required behind the tv alone.

Extension leads can be dangerous and we do not advise the use of them to compensate for the lack of sockets in any circumstance. Any reputable electrician will snag this on a Home Electrical Survey or Electrical Installation Condition report because if you think about it, the extension lead is rated at 13 amps only and if you plug8 appliances into it they can get very warm. You should not reply on the 13 amp fuse in its plug top to blow before you fix the problem.

What happens during a Home Electrical Rewire

What to expect.

The house carpets will be lifted up in each room
to gain access to lift the floor boards or chipboard floor underneath.
Wall chases from the ceiling down to light switches and sockets will be channelled in to a depth of 50mm if possible.
Wall chases up from the skirting boards to the sockets will be channelled in.
Light switch and socket back boxes will be chased into the brick work. Plastering up will be required!
Dust will be created and it will go everywhere no matter how much you dust sheet items.
Power to sockets and lights, cookers, showers could be redundant during the rewire.

So, we have covered the amount of sockets you actually need just behind the tv in the living room, now transfer this thought method to the rest of the house and think kitchen, bedroom. If you get into this mind set of knowing your electrical requirements in preperation for the home electrical rewire you will speed up the process for the chosen electrician and he will be impressed with you especially if you actually draw them out on a plan for them to see the actual location you want them.

What a quality Electrician conducting your Home Rewire can do to minimumise disruption during the Home Electrical Rewire so please request this in advance from them.

Shrink wrap furniture items and electrical items during the course of the rewire to protect them, yes this means living without them but better to protect them rather than damage them.
Advise you to remove as much furniture from the home as possible to speed up the process of the Home Electrical Rewire. You are paying for the rewire, if the Electricians are spending 3 hours a day moving furniture back and forth that is 3 hours of work not being done on the Home Rewire each day, this adds up. Utilise garage’s and family and friends.
Possibly advise you to move out during the course of the rewire as it is by far no means a pleasant environment to live in whilst it is going on, most of the time for families this is unavoidable so they have to grit their teeth and bear it through. Moving out will speed up the Home Rewire process.
A decent electrician will leave the existing sockets and lights power on each day and install a new system while leaving electricity on, this can be done in stages such as working from the top floor down ie install the upstairs sockets on its own circuit then plan a changeover day to kill the old socket circuit and rip out the wiring thus energizing the new circuit at the same time so the customer is not without, same goes for light too. Work from the top down is our advice that way you are working in stages.

How Much Does a Home Electrical Rewire Cost ?

The ultimate question on a Home Electrical Rewire is cost, How much does it cost to rewire the home and what should we expect as a general ball park specification in terms of how many sockets, light switches you get for the money you pay. Below is two standard prices derived from the industry, both prices are general home rewire specifications based on two different house sizes to give you an idea.
3 Bed Semi Rewire Price up to £4900
4 Bed House Rewire Price between £4700 – £5500

20 x Twin Sockets / Power points
1 x light and switch point in each room
1 x light and switch point in each room
2 x two way switching points, Hall & Stairs
1 x RCBO metal clad fire rated Fuse box
1 x 32 A dedicated oven supply
1 x 40 A Shower circuit supply
2 x Hard wired interlinked smoke detectors
All socket and light switches including all chases plastered up to finishing standards.
up to £4900

Our experts say

Expect to pay extra for out houses such as garage electrics as this involves cabling such with steel wire armoured from the house if it is separate, suspension wires from the house to the garage to support the armoured s.w.a cable can make this cheaper rather than digging up the driveway or garden so ask for a wire suspension kit, damp garages can mean IP rated equipment required in the garage such as weatherproof lights, switches and sockets! Expect to pay in the region of £400 to £500 for a dedicated garage cable from the fuse box, a garage fuse box, light switch, light and socket. Make sure the garage is on its own supply circuit breaker and on its own dedicated cable to save overloading other house circuits.

Spot lights have to fire and acoustic rated, this means they have a solid rear on the light fitting, bathroom lights have to be IP rated this means steam / water ingress protected light fittings, always opt for LED lamps as these come with a warranty. Expect to pay between £40 – £55 per down light supplied and fitted

Power Showers – Expect a variation of £225 if a power shower is required as quality branded power showers are pricey.

25 x Twin Sockets / Power points
1 x light and switch point in each room
1 x light and switch point in each room
2 x two way switching points, Hall & Stairs
1 x RCBO metal clad fire rated Fuse box
1 x 32 A dedicated oven supply
1 x 40 A Shower circuit supply
2 x Hard wired interlinked smoke detectors
All socket and light switches including all chases plastered up to finishing standards.

£4700 – £5500

Our experts say

Expect to pay extra for out houses such as garage electrics as this involves cabling such as steel wire armoured from the house, damp garages can mean IP rated equipment required in the garage such as weatherproof lights, switches and sockets! Expect to pay in the region of £400 to £500 for a dedicated garage cable from the fuse box, a garage fuse box, light switch, light and socket.

Spot lights have to fire and acoustic rated, this means they have a solid rear on the light fitting, bathroom lights have to be IP rated this means steam / water ingress protected light fittings, always opt for LED lamps as these come with a warranty. Expect to pay between £40 – £55 per down light supplied and fitted

Power Showers – Expect a variation of £225 if a power shower is required as quality branded power showers are pricey.

Ok so now you have the basic costings of how much a Home Electrical Rewire can cost, now lets make sure you get what you need down in writing so you and the electrician knows what you expect and you can check you get the Home Electrical Rewire specification you pay for!

This means get the electrician to break down his invoice per room so you know how many sockets, tv points, phone points, lights are in each room, this way you can walk round each room once completed and tick them off the list to make sure you have had them installed.

Our Expert say

“Don’t be afraid to haggle over extra sockets and switches during the negotiation stage, most will charge you anything from £45 per extra socket upto £85 per socket, remember the more sockets you have the cheaper they become as the electricians already have the floors up so adding them whilst the floors are up is easier and cheaper them adding them once they have been placed back down again”

Think outside the box at this stage, do you want a intruder alarm system installing at the same time ? Outside LED security lights ?, outside power sockets ? extra phone points ? data points from the home wifi router ? cables in the wall behind the television, all these things, sit down, draw it out and think what you need in advance. It is easier to add during the Home Electrical Rewire rather than after it is done.

Pictures of what to expect during the Home House Electrical Rewire as work in progress.

Now it is crunch time, you know you need a Home Electrical House Rewire ✔

You know what to expect during the Home Electrical house Rewire ✔

You know what to ask for from the Electrician ✔

You know what to expect in terms of price ✔

You are ready to contact a reputable Electrician to receive a quotation ✔

But wait, who and where do you find a reputable installation Electrician to conduct your new Home Electrical Rewire ?

We took the trouble out of going through the directories with our installers list, all installers are Part P approved electrical contractors with a proven track record of conducting quality home rewires. Check out each installer and email them for a quotation, remember what you have learned on this website and good luck with your Home Rewire.

If you need a Home Electrical Buyers survey in Yorkshire or a Electrical Home Sellers Survey In Yorkshire we recommend these guys, they are fantastic and give a detailed home electrical report for a fixed price based on the size of the house that requires the home electrical report. Visit them at

For Home Rewire Electricians please see below

Quality Home Electrical Rewires Leeds

Quality Home Electrical Rewires Bradford

Quality Home Electrical Rewires Wakefield

Quality Home Electrical Rewires Harrogate

Quality Home Electrical Rewires York

Electricians dedicated Home Rewire Pages can be found here.

Leeds area West Yorkshire

MPS Electrical Ltd – www.mps-electrical.com – 0113 3909670 – 10 Year Rewire warranty

MPS Operate throughout Yorkshire and been trading since 2010 with a proven track record on domestic home rewires, there reviews can be seen here https://electricianleeds.freeindex.co.uk

Electrical Services – www.electricians-leeds.com – info@electricianinleeds.co.uk

Number 1 Electricians In Leeds – www.electricians-leeds.co.uk – 07864 000951

Electrician In Leeds – http://www.electricianinleeds.co.uk/house-rewire.php

Wakefield area West Yorkshire