Cost of rewiring a 2 / 3 bed terraced house

gwernybwch · 3 Jul 2013

Hi all,

Sorry, another ‘how much does it cost’ thread.

I’m trying to get a feel for how much it costs to rewire a 2 / 3 bed terraced house (less the kitchen). The specification is pretty much as follows (basic white fittings) -
27 Double Sockets
12 Light Switches
8 Single Lights
1 Bathroom Light circuit including shaving socket, heater and extractor fan
Mains powered smoke detectors (4 of)
1 Consumer Unit
1 Certificate

There are a few websites that give a ballpark figure for a rewire, but my circumstances are different in so much the house is gutted therefore there is no need for a sparky to lift floorboards, chase the wires into plaster etc (I would have thought that this is a large proportion of a rewire work?), just to do the rewiring.

I’ve got a couple of quotes so far (a) £3820 (including VAT) and (b) £3000 (including VAT)

Also again as an estimate, how many man hours would it take to rewire a 2 / 3 bed house?

I’m not great fan of touching anything electrical, but is it relatively easy to a DIY’er to pull out the old wiring?

Location: Mid Wales

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Taylortwocities · 3 Jul 2013

Untitled

Taylortwocities
17 Apr 2008
30

You cannot guess this sort of thing. There are too many variables.

The best guide I can give is the cost would be about the same as a second-hand car. Does that help? I thought not.

Your best bet would be to find three competent, registered electricians from here
http://www.electricsaferegister.co.uk
and get some quotes.

Draw up a detailed list of what you want in each room first!

RF Lighting · 3 Jul 2013

I'll do it for £6k

RogerBoyle · 3 Jul 2013

Taylortwocities said:
Untitled

Taylortwocities

17 Apr 2008

30

You cannot guess this sort of thing. There are too many variables.

The best guide I can give is the cost would be about the same as a second-hand car. Does that help? I thought not.

Your best bet would be to find three competent, registered electricians from here
http://www.electricsaferegister.co.uk
and get some quotes.

Draw up a detailed list of what you want in each room first!

Can I ask why you recommended the electric safe register
as opposed to the NICEIC ???

Just curious is all especially as I have carried out a search on my post code and 5 of the results that turned up were people/companies that I wouldn't trust to change a light bulb never mind do a rewire ..

RF Lighting · 3 Jul 2013

NICEIC are not the only scheme providers. There are plently of really good elecsa / napit etc. registed sparks, just as there are plenty of dreadful NICEIC registered sparks.

RogerBoyle · 3 Jul 2013

Agreed all schemes have their good and bad

But I'd never heard of this scheme so I did a search with the post code search
Not that many came up but like I said 5 that did I wouldnt touch with a barge pole.

Isn't NICEIC the biggest of the scheme providers

Taylortwocities · 3 Jul 2013

RogerBoyle said:
Can I ask why you recommended the electric safe register
as opposed to the NICEIC ???

I recommend that people use ElectricSafe register because it is open to ANY registered electrician from ANY of the registration bodies (NICEIC included).

The register that NICEIC have (lately) set up is restricted to NICEIC/ECA and ELECSA members only.

I thought that closed shop practices were a thing of the past..

RF Lighting · 3 Jul 2013

Probably in the commecial / industrial sectors, but probably on a par with elecsa and napit for domestic.

EFLImpudence · 3 Jul 2013

Taylortwocities said:
I thought that closed shop practices were a thing of the past..

I don't think that is really a case of a closed shop.

However, as Napit allows all scheme members to appear on Electricsafe, which judging by the name of it, I would think, indicates they 'got in' first, I do think it is a poor show and unnecessary restrictive practice by NICEIC/ECA.

ban-all-sheds · 4 Jul 2013

gwernybwch said:
I’m trying to get a feel for how much it costs to rewire a 2 / 3 bed terraced house (less the kitchen).

About the same as a second-hand car.

Luckyphil · 6 Jul 2013

gwernybwch said:
Hi all,

Sorry, another ‘how much does it cost’ thread.

I’m trying to get a feel for how much it costs to rewire a 2 / 3 bed terraced house (less the kitchen). The specification is pretty much as follows (basic white fittings) -
27 Double Sockets
12 Light Switches
8 Single Lights
1 Bathroom Light circuit including shaving socket, heater and extractor fan
Mains powered smoke detectors (4 of)
1 Consumer Unit
1 Certificate

There are a few websites that give a ballpark figure for a rewire, but my circumstances are different in so much the house is gutted therefore there is no need for a sparky to lift floorboards, chase the wires into plaster etc (I would have thought that this is a large proportion of a rewire work?), just to do the rewiring.

I’ve got a couple of quotes so far (a) £3820 (including VAT) and (b) £3000 (including VAT)

Also again as an estimate, how many man hours would it take to rewire a 2 / 3 bed house?

I’m not great fan of touching anything electrical, but is it relatively easy to a DIY’er to pull out the old wiring?

Location: Mid Wales

Thanks in advance for any replies.

I`ve just priced a 2 up 2 down unoccupied Terraced House in South Manchester (roughly same spec) for a developer who I wanted "to get in with" , I priced it keenly at £1700-00 he said I was £170 overpriced I told him I`m not getting into a dutch auction , I priced it keenly because A I wanted more business off him and B - I had a couple of quiet weeks ahead (possibly)

Anyway , It does`nt seem like I`m doing it !

Lucky

Bluehair · 6 Jul 2013

Am I the only one that thinks 27 double sockets (excluding the kitchen) in a 2/3 bed house is odd/overkill? Although I am not saying ATM how many sockets I have got in my 3 bed house

Iggifer · 6 Jul 2013

no I don't think so, that's about what I have, and there's not enough

shagster · 7 Jul 2013

gwernybwch said:
Also again as an estimate, how many man hours would it take to rewire a 2 / 3 bed house?

For a 3-bed it's unlikely to take much longer than 5 days. No idea why nobody else wants to estimate this - I rang a spark and he estimated £3000 over the phone on the basis that it was a 3-bed semi before he even saw the house. Once he viewed it he just confirmed the £3000

I would say your £3000 quote is going to be worst-case £750 materials i.e. £2250 labour, which gives a rate of £450 a day, *if* he gets on with it. Bearing in mind my spark chased in one day, routed wire in one day and capped in another, in a house larger than yours I don't think anyone's doing you any favours based on the easy access you have under the flooring. You could consider paying someone a day-rate instead of fixed price, but get it straight how certification will work - you don't want any surprises at the end of the job.

gwernybwch · 7 Jul 2013

Bluehair said:
Am I the only one that thinks 27 double sockets (excluding the kitchen) in a 2/3 bed house is odd/overkill? Although I am not saying ATM how many sockets I have got in my 3 bed house

You’d be surprised how many you need!
I counted up how many I used currently and counted 12 single points and was in my living room only (TV, DVD, Sky, Playstation, CD Player, Amp, Landline, mobile charger, Laptop, Fishtank x2, lampshade)! Being as I hacked all the plaster off, I don’t see the point in skimping on the rewiring now.

Luckyphil said:
I`ve just priced a 2 up 2 down unoccupied Terraced House in South Manchester (roughly same spec) for a developer who I wanted "to get in with" , I priced it keenly at £1700-00 he said I was £170 overpriced

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking around the £2k mark for a rewire so it is good to know that I don’t have wildly unrealistic expectations. Time to get some more estimates me thinks.

shagster said:
For a 3-bed it's unlikely to take much longer than 5 days. No idea why nobody else wants to estimate this

Thanks for the reply. I asked this so that I could kinda work backwards i.e. work out the cost of materials and then I would have a fair idea as what they were charging me on a daily rate.

shagster said:
I rang a spark and he estimated £3000 over the phone on the basis that it was a 3-bed semi before he even saw the house. I would say your £3000 quote is going to be worst-case £750 materials i.e. £2250 labour, which gives a rate of £450 a day, *if* he gets on with it.

Thanks for that, that is really useful.

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Cost of rewiring a 2 / 3 bed terraced house

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