A large outlay of cash is expectation
number one. Ours came in at around
£2,500 and this was the cheapest quote that we had. Part of the reason this was the cheapest is
because we went for a recently turned one man band who was below the VAT
threshold (another amazing find from www.mybuilder.com
).
However, the important thing to look for
when hiring an electrician is to get an NICEIC approved electrician. This means that they have certain levels of
training and certification, as well as the ability to self-certify the works
for building regulation approval. Make
sure you fully investigate their declared credentials – an honest person won’t
mind you asking questions, and if in doubt you can call the NICEIC themselves to
see if your chosen contractor is registered with them (as I did).
As this was a re-wire we would need a
Building Regulations certificate at the end to prove that all the works were
compliant with current codes of practice, which we duly received a few weeks
after the works were completed.
Our original wiring was the stuff they had
built the house with in the 60’s so it was in a right old state – and only a
double socket per room. Don’t get me
wrong, I grew up with a house with just a single socket in each room, so I’m
pretty handy with extension leads! But a re-wire was a condition of the
mortgage – so it had to be done. I’m
kind of pleased though, it worked out well – we got exactly what we wanted and
no more trailing leads – which is great when we have two house bunnies that
like to chomp on things!
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| The old fuse box |
The first thing to expect is mountains of
dust. Mountains. If there is any way at
all, literally any way, that you can avoid living in the house whilst you are
getting it done – that is the number one preferred option.
We arranged an overlap of our rented
property and the new house to allow for these works, and I’m so glad that we
did. It makes it cheaper too, as the
electrician doesn’t have to lug furniture about, reinstate the electrics every
evening, be constantly tidy… etc.
So, to help with the mountains of dust, we
bought a Henry Hoover. He’s my new best
friend. £100 and he will have my dust
needs fully under control for a lifetime of DIY, I’m sure of it. Plaster dust kills Dysons I hear, so the Dyson
took a back seat on this one. Hopefully your electrician will also do a fair amount of hoovering, but I promise you you will be hoovering it up for weeks afterwards...
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| We love Henry! |
Secondly, expect to take up your entire
upstairs floor coverings. Some of the
electricians quoted that we would need to take up all the laminate floor in the
kitchen too (argh! Nightmare!) – so I think this depends a bit on your
electrician.
Make sure your electrician is fully briefed
up on what you want. I’m an engineer by
trade so when I want something doing I’m well versed in preparing a
specification and a set of drawings. I
pretty much did this for our electrician.
I drew up simple plans of the house and marked on where I wanted lights,
switches and sockets. The day before
work commenced we also had a meeting with the electrician where we walked round
the house with the electrician and marked on the walls exactly where we wanted
everything as my drawings weren't to scale – but they provided a reference for
the electrician in case he needed to look back during the works. (Top tip: don’t use felt tip for marking the
walls, use a pencil else the pen will keep coming through no matter how much
you paint over the top. Last resort was
stain blocker paint. Lesson learned!)
I also detailed what sort of light switches
(just plain white ones) that we wanted, and which of our purchased lights were
to go where.
We sourced all the light
fittings ourselves, and I would probably do it this way again. I also purchased a whole house full of LED
light bulbs too, to save on our energy costs (from LEDHut – often offers on and
big Quidco cashback too). At around £200
for the whole house, they weren't cheap, but this included fittings for both
the bathroom and kitchen too. One of my
favourite products from them that we purchased was the LED strip lighting on a
roll. We used this underneath the
kitchen cabinets and it’s just fab.
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| Typical Spec for one room |
Finally, be prepared for the noise! Our electrician, along with some assistants
he had draughted in, started at 7am on a Saturday morning, ripping through the
walls with the chases almost immediately.
We only got the keys Friday afternoon and had yet to introduce ourselves
to the adjoining neighbor… The
horror! When I finally met her she said
it was fine, but I felt and still feel dreadful about it!
A chase ready for wiring up
The whole re-wire (3 bed semi) took
approximately 1 week; however, this did not include plastering and we had to
separately price and plan this work. The
plastering was another £300-400 and took 2 days.
The living room chases post plaster
When thinking about how many sockets you
want, think about how you currently use the room, and how you might possibly
use the room in the future. We ended up with 10 double sockets in the living
room (hey, I was talked down from 11!) – which everyone thought was balmy, but
I don’t regret a single one. By the time
you have the tv, sky box, router, PlayStation, laptop charger, hoover points,
Christmas tree lights etc. it soon adds up.
The more sockets you have the more flexibility it gives you too. It sounds really daft, but imagine where you
are going to put your Christmas tree, imagine where you are likely to want to
plug in your hoover in an easily accessible spot (not into a socket tucked away
behind that oaf of a chair…).
