Old electrical wiring is common in homes throughout the UK. Hiring an electrician to rewire your home will keep your appliances running safely and reliably, and it could even add value to your home.
Rewiring your home is a sizeable project, especially given all the regulations and checks. But we think it’s a worthwhile investment in your home’s safety and value.
In this article, we’ll be covering how much it costs to rewire a house, what affects the cost of rewiring a house, how to save money on rewiring, whether or not you should get an Electrician Installation Condition Report (EICR) and how to find and hire an electrician.
If you’re considering upgrading your home’s electrics and aren’t sure where to start, keep reading to follow our simple guide to find out what to expect.
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How Much Does It Cost to Rewire a House?
Depending on the size of your house, the cost to rewire it will differ, as well as your geographic location.
To start, here’s a range of prices for different sized properties, with the price range showing what you’ll be likely to pay in the north of England as the lower price, with the higher end being more likely for London:
| Size of House | Estimated Cost | Time Required |
|---|---|---|
| One bedroom | £1,500 to £3,000 | 3 to 4 days |
| Two bedrooms | £2,000 to £3,500 | 4 to 5 days |
| Three bedrooms | £3,500 to £5,500 | 5 to 7 days |
| Four bedrooms | £5,500 to £7,500 | 7 to 8 days |
| Five bedrooms | £7,500 to £12,000 | 8 to 10 days |
One Bed Flat
On average, the cost of rewiring a one-bed flat ranges from £1,500 to £3,000. The cost could vary depending on your location and how easy it is to access your flat.
A straightforward job should take between three and four days to complete.
This will typically include:
- Renewing all the wiring from the electricity meter to the consumer unit
- Installing a new consumer unit
- Standard white finish electrical accessories such as socket outlets and switches
- Circuit testing and final installation certification.
It’s good to note that this price excludes plastering and decorating required to properly finish the job, and your electrician may be able to provide a quote for this type of work.
Two-Bed Terraced House
A total rewire of a two-bed terraced house including a kitchen and bathroom should cost between £2,000 and £3,500 depending on where you live in the UK and the size of the business you hire. An average of £2,750 is a commonly quoted price, with the job taking between four and five days to complete.
Three-Bed Semi-detached House
A total electrical rewiring project for a three-bed semi will involve removing old wiring and fittings and then running new cables and installing new fittings.
The price includes supplying a new consumer unit and assumes the work will be in an empty house. The price includes the minor plastering work required to fill in the holes chased in the wall for the conduit, with the homeowner still being responsible for painting and decorating.
The price for rewiring will be between £3,500 to £5,500 depending on regional variances across the UK, and you should expect the work to finish within five and seven days.
Four or Five-Bed Detached House
The bigger the house, the longer it will take an electrician to rewire. An average detached house with four bedrooms will have about ten rooms in total, including two bathrooms.
An electrician will need about seven to eight days to complete the rewire.
Expect to pay between £5,500 to £7,500 for the complete rewire of up to 10 rooms including replacing all the fixtures and wiring with new, and issue of a test certificate on completion.
For a large, 5-bed detached home, rewiring is likely to cost in the range of £7,500 to as much as £12,000.
Additional Jobs
If you have small electrical jobs needing completion, but something not as big as a complete rewire, you can easily get an electrician to provide a quote for small jobs to be completed at the same time as your rewire.
Maybe you have a plan to renew the consumer unit first, or you would like to install a couple of security lights around your home – asking to have them rolled into the overall cost of the rewire can help to lower the overall costs as opposed to booking in two separate projects with an electrician.
Here are some common jobs electricians can also do when rewiring:
- Replacing a light fitting – quotes should be between £30 and £50, and it should take under an hour to complete the job
- Consumer unit replacement – upgrading your consumer unit will allow you to install additional circuits and make other changes. For this job, electricians will charge anything from £300 to £450, and take up to a day to finish
- Instal an external security light with PIR motion sensor – the electrician will supply and fit a motion-activated security light. This type of job takes about 3 hours, costing between £80 and £120
- Upgrade kitchen lighting from fluorescent to LED downlights – this job takes an average of 5 to 8 hours, depending on the size of the kitchen. Average costs for the job are in the range of £250 to £400
Click To Get QuotesWhat Affects the Cost of Rewiring a House?
As with most home renovations, the costs for electrical rewiring will vary depending on some factors. These include:
- The size of your house – naturally, a three-bedroom house will cost more than a one-bedroom flat
- Whether the home is occupied during the rewiring, as electricians will work faster in an empty property
- The specification of fittings and fixtures you choose, such as stainless steel versus white PVC sockets
- The number of socket outlets and other extras, such as security lighting or outside power points
- Where you live in the UK because of regional variances in contractor costs across the country.
As shown with our price guide above, the closer your home is to London, the higher price you can expect to be charged.
Similarly, it’s good to remember that the electrical team will need somewhere to park during their stay, and if your home doesn’t have a driveway or free off-road parking, you’ll be expected to provide a parking permit for the project’s duration.
How Can I Save Money on Rewiring My Home?
Rewiring an entire home has the potential to become very expensive, but there are ways to reduce the cost with some savvy tactics:
Combine Rewiring With Other Electrical Jobs
This is a common tactic and a great way of making your rewiring job incredibly cost-effective. If there are other electrical jobs you’d benefit from having completed around the home, such as extra plug sockets or dimmer switches, ask your electrician if they can combine the jobs into one call out.
Consider whether you might eventually need extra sockets for kitchen appliances, a home entertainment system, or smart devices like a video doorbell or smart switches and sockets.
Futureproofing will save you money in the long run, and it enables your electrician to ensure your mains electricity can safely cope with your future electrical needs.
As the world becomes more digital, enabling these kinds of features in your home is a great way of ensuring profitability when it comes to selling your home, which is a good return on investment opportunity.
Giving Advance Notice
If you want to change the position of sockets, switches, and light fittings, it’s best to tell your electrician this before they come in to start work.
Electricians usually charge a fixed fee based on the size of your property, but they may charge extra if you make significant changes, so make sure to iron this out before agreeing to any costs to ensure everything you want is taken into consideration.
Sourcing Own Fittings
Where applicable, getting hold of your own sockets or plug point replacements can help to negate any trader’s marked-up fees on fittings.
While you won’t be taking advantage of trade prices, you can look to procure your replacements during sales or clearances which can help to drive your overall prices down. It’ll take a little longer, but with perseverance, you can look to save a considerable amount of money – especially if you’re wanting to replace all sockets in your property.
Leaving the Property
This mightn’t be possible for everyone, but for those owning a second property with the view to renting it out in the future, you might be able to spend the project’s duration away from the property.
Doing this will help the electricians to work a little faster and be uninterrupted, as the electricity supply doesn’t need to be re-connected at the end of each day.
Click To Get QuotesShould I get an Electrician Installation Condition Report (EICR)?
An EICR will highlight any defects in your home’s electrical installation including inadequate short circuit protection, outdated wiring, and faulty connections.
As a homeowner, you want the peace of mind that the electrics in your home are safe. Building regulations require your electrical installation to be tested every 10 years if you own your home, and every five years if you are a landlord or live in rented accommodation.
The Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR), previously known as the Periodic Inspection Report, is carried out by a qualified electrician, and involves the following:
- Inspection of the consumer unit or fuse board
- Inspection of a sample of switches, sockets and other fixtures including light fittings
- Checking the polarity of the installation
- Testing protective devices to ensure they work to protect you and your family from electric shock.
The average costs you can expect to pay an electrician can range from:
- One bedroom flat – expect to pay from £120
- Two bedroom flat – expect to pay around £120 to £175
- Three bedroom flat – costs are between £180 and £210
- One to two bedroom house – inspection costs between £150 and £180
- Three to a four-bedroom house – expect to pay anything between £200 and £250
- Five bedroom houses and larger – costs start from £350 and will depend on the size of the house.
How Do I Find and Hire a Qualified Electrician?
When finding an electrician to carry out work in your home, you must find someone qualified and reputable to ensure you and your home’s safety.
The NICEIC assesses and certifies a range of building contractors including not only electricians but also plumbers, gas and heating engineers, and even renewable energy installers.
You can use their website to find a suitable contractor, with all of the electricians listed in their database regularly assessed to ensure the work that they do is safe and installed to the highest industry standards.
Similarly, using HouseholdQuotes can help you select from hundreds of vetted contractors, with the view of saving you up to 40% on your project’s quote from one quick and simple search.
Finally, if your friends and family have had similar electrical work done recently, you can ask them if they’d recommend their contractor.
This will help to give you a more personal insight as to whether or not the contractor will work for you and your needs, as well as finding out what their work ethic is like, and if they ran to schedule or came across any problems.
Click To Get QuotesEnsuring the Professional Is the Right Fit
With any jobs involving danger, it’s paramount you get proof of insurance as well as finding out about their previous work and jobs, as well as reading their reviews.
Electricians need an industry-recognised level 3 qualification which is usually obtained during a period of apprenticeship. Making sure your contractor has this before agreeing to their proposal is a good way of weeding out any potential rogue traders.
Finding out what projects they’ve previously completed is a great way to see if they’ll be a good fit for you. Rewiring an entire home is a big undertaking, so if your electrician only has experience in changing sockets, you might want to think again before hiring them for a larger job, despite how low their proposed price is.
Final Checklist
If you suspect your home needs some electrical attention, or if you’ve moved into a new property that needs some TLC, then booking in for an electrical rewire can help to ensure the safety of your home as well as the occupants.
Here’s our final checklist to make sure you’ve got everything covered when considering this project:
- Have an electrical survey undertaken before considering an entire rewire as some problems can be rectified separately without the huge undertaking, giving you some time frames for when fixtures should be replaced by
- Get in touch with some reputable electricians using HouseholdQuotes to get an array of quotes to compare
- Seek out references and proof of insurance from your chosen contractor before committing to a proposal
- Purchase sockets and fittings yourself if desired, which can help to cut costs if you do so during sales, which will help you avoid trade mark-up.
Click To Get QuotesFrequently Asked Questions
How Do I Know If My House Needs Rewiring?
If lights are flickering repeatedly, there’s a constant burning smell, or your sockets have become discoloured, these are all signs you might need a rewire. In all circumstances, it’s best to have an electrical professional check your property.
How Often Do I Need to Rewire My House?
What Are the Regulations on Electrical Wiring In the Home?
Is Rewiring a Home Messy?
It’s fine to stay in your property while it’s being rewired, but it’s important to note that you may not have all the electrical points in use like you normally would while sections are being changed over.
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