Rewiring cost

[garak112]

About to move into our first home and went to take a look at the place again yesterday and came away with some concerns about the existing wiring (which was not picked up on the survey).

Basically after the meter it splits into 2 boxes, one of which has a date stamp of 1994 and has fairly modern wiring coming out of it. The other one was of unknown age and has a load of rubber and cotton covered wiring coming out of it.

There were approximately the same number of cables coming out of each box, so I am assuming that they cover approximately half the house each.

How much would it cost to get the old rubber wires replaced and a new consumer unit put in? House is a 3 bed 1920s semi detached house.

 

[garak112]

Wiring as described should have been picked up on the survey, wiring and insulation are on every survey ever!

Maybe cause to complain there.

The survey said:

"The electric meter is located under the stairs. The dated fusebox is also located under the stairs and the wiring is dated"

and marked it amber.

Other things marked amber included the dated door knobs and aged kitchen cupboards, so it didn't cause much concern.

Given everything I have read about this type of wiring it seems to me that it should have been marked as as fire hazard.

 

[garak112]

Right, we now own the house and have got some pictures:

 

[garak112]

Current position is that everything is set to off and I'm waiting to hear back from some sparkies about total cost.

We aren't living in the property at the moment as I wouldn't even consider it until the wiring is safe.

 

[garak112]

SE London

 

[garak112]

Just had a quote to do everything from a friend of my GFs family and it came to £4500!!

Couldn't believe it, main part of it was labour for 2 people and 14 days work. I had thought (and been told) it would take closer to 7. For comparison my sisters friends down the road got charged £3K for a similar sized mid terrace.

I'm now getting quotes from other people, but this has set us back and we need to move in by the end of the month.

 

[garak112]

It's not that you can't move in, but whether you can tolerate people coming in to work on it when you have got your stuff in. The labour will be expensive in london area, I don't know what they have quoted equipment wise.

Materials wise it came to £1300, which I thought was about right.

 

[garak112]

I'd like to see a DIY enthusiast install it to 17th edition. Wouldn't trust it as far as I could throw it.

He lives in London which explains the expenses. Get 3 quotes in that are like for like and you'll see what the average should work out at.

I have a few sparks coming tomorrow to quote, but would expect it to be much cheaper.

The big thing was that he was quoting 14 days work (for 2 people), rather than the price of the labour itself which I thought was a decent rate. I have been told that in an empty house of standard construction it should be closer to half that. I know that my sisters friends had a full rewire done in 5.

I also ran it past my mothers partner and his father who both used to work as builders so have seen a lot of these jobs, and they said the time quoted was excessive.

 

[garak112]

Had 2 quotes today (and 2 more to come), one at £2650 and another at £2817. The total job is for:

• Kitchen - 3x double sockets, cooker point, fridge point, freezer point, washing machine point, boiler, 1 light, 1 switch, 1 heat detector
• Dining - 1 light, 1 switch, 3x double sockets
• Living room - 1 light, 1 switch, 5x double sockets
• Bedroom 1 - 1 light, 1 switch, 4x double sockets
• Bedroom 2 - 1 light, 1 switch, 3x double sockets
• Bedroom 3 - 1 light, 1 switch, 2x double sockets
• Storage - 1 light, 1 switch, 1x double socket
• Bathroom- 1 light, 1 switch, 1 shower
• Downstairs hall - 1 light, 1 switch, 1 smoke (he forgot the sockets here for some reason).
• Upstairs hall - 1 light, 1 switch, 1 smoke
• Outside - 2x light + switch
• 17th Edition dual RCD

A bit better that £4500!

 

[garak112]

Well I have gone with the second quote we received - £2650.

I had 5 guys round and 3 of them never bothered to send quotes through in the end, only one of them would have been suitable as they were booked solid for 3 weeks.

The guy I found lives round the corner and is starting Monday in between another project.

 

[garak112]

The guy actually started today in the end, although I did meet him at the house on Monday to finally mark all the sockets up.

Seems to be a quicker process than I had expected - after a day he had routed all the cables for the sockets, with tomorrow dedicated to channelling out the walls for the sockets and laying cable round the kitchen.

Only problem was that he found some rotten floor joists in the bathroom (ground floor). From the look of them they have been leaked all over at some point. Hopefully not a big issue yet, but we will be taking care of it when we do the bathroom next year.