House rewiring in London

Most houses were wired for how people lived when they were built. Two sockets in a bedroom, one in the hall, a single pendant per room, and nothing at all where the television, the router, the desk and the four chargers now live.

Rewiring replaces the cabling, the accessories and usually the consumer unit — but the part that decides whether you are happy with it is the layout. Where the sockets go, how the lighting is switched, and which rooms need more than they have.

Full or partial

A full rewire replaces the wiring throughout the property. A partial rewire deals with the parts that need it — often the upstairs lighting circuit, an old kitchen, or a section that was extended and never brought up to the rest of the house.

Not every house that has been quoted for a full rewire needs one. An inspection and test will show what the existing installation is actually like, and it is worth knowing before committing to the larger job.

What the work involves

• Walking the house with you room by room, agreeing socket and switch positions
• Lifting floors and chasing walls to run new cable
• First fix — the cabling, back boxes and containment go in
• Plastering and making good, then second fix — accessories and fittings
• A new consumer unit, with every circuit protected and labelled
• Testing the whole installation and issuing the certification

Signs a house may need rewiring

• Rubber, fabric or lead-sheathed cable anywhere in the house
• Round-pin sockets, or brown bakelite switches and sockets
• A fuse board with rewireable fuse wire
• No earth at the lighting points
• Extension leads doing permanent work in every room
• Circuits that have been extended repeatedly by different hands

Living through it

A rewire is disruptive and it would be dishonest to say otherwise. Floors come up, walls are chased, and there is dust. What can be controlled is how it is managed: work contained to the rooms in progress, dust sheets down, power kept on where it can be, and the house left liveable at the end of each day.

Where a rewire is being done alongside a kitchen, a bathroom or a lighting scheme, the sequence matters. It is far cheaper to agree where the downlights go before the ceilings are boarded than after they are painted.

Why rewiring must be done properly

A rewire is the entire electrical system of a home, installed once and then hidden inside the walls for the next forty years. Cable sizes, circuit protection, earthing and bonding, and the testing that proves it all works are the substance of the job. All of it is carried out to the 18th Edition wiring regulations and certified on completion.

Rewiring across London

Full and partial rewires are carried out for homeowners across London, including flats and period property where cable routes need more thought than usual. Start by describing the property, its age and what has already been done to it.