Re-Wiring Your House

FAQs About Re-Wiring Your House

Re-wiring your home is one of the biggest electrical jobs you can undertake. You'll want to be absolutely sure you house actually needs re-wiring as it's an investment into your home. So, here's some questions to help you establish if your house needs re-wiring. We recommend that you also ask a fully-qualified electrician to confirm your findings.

Q.1 Has your house been rewired in the last 25- 30 years? If the answer is no, then you're going to need to call an electrician to establish if a re-wire is needed, and the answer will probably be yes. 

Q.2 Have you looked in the fuse box? Your electrician may call this a consumer unit. What colour are the fuses in the fuse box? If they're white then call an electrician, you're going to need a re-wire.  If you have a mix of different sockets and switches you might need a re-wire, but only an electrician can say for definite. When you have different style switches and sockets its a sign that your home has been partially re-wired in the past. An electrician will tell you whether you need to have a re-wire, or whether they can partially re-wire and update your system. the easiest, quickest and most economical option is to fully re-wire. If you have a partial re-wire you're delaying the inevitable and you will still need to pay for a re-wire in the not too distant future. 

Q.3 What colour are your electrical cables? Modern electrical wiring has white or grey PCVu insulating cable. Other colours of wiring indicate that your wiring was done some time ago. Call your electrician for advice.

Q.4 What's covering your wire? If you see rubber insulating cable or lead insulated cable then you need to call your electrician and confirm you need to re-wire. 

Q.5  When else is re-wiring needed? According to Homebuilding.co.uk "If you plan major remodelling work that constitutes a material alteration as defined by the Building Regulations, it is likely that you will need to rewire part, if not all, of the property, including upgrading the consumer unit (fuse box)."

Q.6 I'm buying a house, how do I know if a re-wire is needed? If your new home is over 25 years old, then it's most likely it will need re-wiring. The previous owner may have done it, and the details of this would possibly be in your survey. An electrician can do a conditioning report for you, just ring let them know you need a conditioning report and find out how much it will be. Getting this done gives you some leverage on negotiating the sale price of the house.

Q.7 How much does it cost to re-wire a 2 bedroom house? Each home is different and an electrician can't give an accurate quote until they've looked at the consumer unit, the cabling and other things. A ball-park figure would be £3,000 for a 2 bedroom house, but do call your electrician and have them look over the property first.