Trade cost guides put a full rewire in the UK at roughly £2,500–£8,000, and where a house lands in that band depends mostly on its size and on whether anyone is living in it while the work happens. That is why neighbours asking how much to rewire a house can get very different answers. Old cable, a dated fuse box and no RCD protection are the usual signs a rewire is due, and whoever does it must work through a competent person scheme or notify building control.
Signs that a rewire is overdue
The most obvious sign is the fuse box itself: a white plastic unit with rewireable fuse carriers rather than a modern consumer unit with switches. Those stayed common well into the 1980s, and by now many have corroded contacts or loose connections, so a fuse that blows repeatedly can be a symptom of something worse rather than bad luck. Bulging or cracked cable sheathing anywhere in the house is a fire risk, and cable trapped under a floorboard or wrapped round a nail will eventually short. The cable itself matters too: old two-core-and-earth loses its insulation with age, and aluminium cable from some 1960s and early-1970s houses can corrode at its connections. A socket a plug sits loosely in, or keeps falling out of, has worn contacts that will overheat. No visible RCD, or a single old-style main switch and nothing else, means no automatic cut-off if a faulty appliance or water reaches a live wire, and some older installations have no earth at all, unsafe by modern standards.
How much to rewire a house: what moves the price
Size matters most: a one-bedroom flat costs less than a three-storey house, and cable distance and the number of circuits add to that. Whether the house stays occupied during the work also shifts the price. Many rewires are done with the house empty, walls and ceilings opened up and redecorated afterwards; an occupied rewire costs more because the electrician has to work room by room with temporary cabling to keep the household running. Making good is a separate cost again and depends on the existing route: cable that ran in visible conduit can be replaced the same way, so making good is just decoration, but cable buried in plaster means chasing new channels and replastering, often the largest cost after the cable itself. A modern consumer unit adds a few hundred pounds, and an older house that needs supply or earthing work will involve the distribution network operator, which adds both cost and waiting time.
Part P and notifying building control
A full rewire is notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations, so it has to be signed off one of two ways. An electrician registered with a competent person scheme, such as NICEIC or NAPIT, self-certifies it and the scheme tells the council, leaving you a compliance certificate to keep with the house papers. Hire someone outside a scheme instead, and the job goes to local authority building control before work starts, with an inspector visiting during the job and again at completion. Skipping this step does not make a rewire unsafe by itself, but it leaves no paper trail, and that gap tends to surface at the worst moment: when a buyer’s solicitor asks for the certificate and none exists. Putting it right afterwards, with an engineer’s report or a council inspection of finished work, usually costs more than doing it properly would have done.
The EICR: a proper starting point
Most electricians begin a rewire with an EICR, an electrical installation condition report, rather than just a look round the fuse box. It tests each circuit and rates any fault by how serious it is, so the electrician, and you, can see which circuits are safe to keep, which need attention and which should be scrapped rather than repaired. An EICR typically costs somewhere in the £120–£300 range, depending on the size of the property, and it turns a rewire quote from a guess into something based on evidence. It stands on its own too: landlords already need one on a regular cycle, and a buyer taking on an older house can commission one before exchange to see exactly what they would be inheriting. Treat a rewire quote given without an EICR with some caution, since the electrician is pricing blind and the figure may move once the walls are opened up.
How long a rewire takes, and a worked example
A two-bedroom terrace rewired while occupied might take around two weeks; an empty three-bedroom semi with full replastering can run to a month or more. Complexity is the part that is easy to underestimate. An old earthing system sometimes needs upgrading, which the distribution network operator may need to sign off, and a concrete ground floor limits where cables can run compared with timber joists. Take a typical case: a three-bedroom semi, occupied throughout, with most cables following their existing routes in the plaster. An electrician might quote £4,000–£5,500 for materials and labour, the range mostly reflecting how much replastering the job needs. Add an ageing earth system that also needs upgrading, and the final bill commonly passes £6,000 once the work, the paperwork and the test certificate are all accounted for.
