How Much Does Rewiring a House Cost?

Rewiring a house is one of those renovation jobs that's easy to put off, because unlike a new kitchen or bathroom, you don't see the benefit directly — until something goes wrong, or a survey flags it during a sale. It's also one of the more disruptive jobs to have done, since cables run through walls, floors and ceilings, which is why cost and disruption both scale with the size and layout of the house.

What affects the cost

• Size of the property — more rooms means more circuits, more sockets, more cable runs.
• Access — a house with suspended timber floors and accessible loft space is generally easier (and cheaper) to rewire than one with solid concrete floors throughout, where cables have to be chased into walls or run in surface trunking.
• Number of sockets, switches and light fittings — more fittings means more first- and second-fix labour.
• Consumer unit replacement — a full rewire is almost always paired with a new consumer unit; see our dedicated guide on consumer unit replacement for that part of the cost.
• Making good — patching plaster and redecorating after cables are chased into walls is a real cost that's easy to underestimate if you're pricing the electrical work in isolation.

A worked comparison: access changes everything

Two houses of similar size can have very different rewire costs purely because of construction: a semi-detached house with suspended timber floors upstairs and a loft with standing room lets an electrician run most cables without lifting floorboards or chasing walls extensively. The same size house with solid concrete floors throughout and a boarded, low-headroom loft means cables more often have to be chased into plaster or run in visible trunking — genuinely more labour and more making-good, for the same number of rooms and sockets.

How it's usually priced

Electricians typically price a rewire either per room/circuit or as a fixed price for the whole property based on a site visit — a fixed price is generally more useful for budgeting, since it removes the risk of the job creeping as more circuits are found to need work. As a general guide only (not a Carvalho-specific figure, since actual pricing depends heavily on your property), rewiring costs scale roughly with the number of rooms and the complexity of access — a small terraced house is a meaningfully smaller job than a large detached house with several floors.

Signs your house might need rewiring

• An old-style fuse box rather than a modern consumer unit with RCD (residual current device) protection
• Circuits tripping frequently, especially on multiple appliances
• Sockets or switches that feel warm, look discoloured, or crackle
• Not knowing when the property was last rewired, particularly in a house built or last rewired more than a few decades ago

If you're unsure whether a full rewire is actually needed, an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) is the reliable way to find out — it's a formal inspection that identifies exactly what, if anything, needs attention, rather than guessing from symptoms alone.

Living in the house during the work

It's possible for some or all of a rewire, but expect real disruption: rooms lose power in turn as their circuits are worked on, temporary lighting may be needed in the evenings, and there's dust from chasing cables into walls where required. Fridges and freezers need a plan for the periods their circuit is off. Many households find it easier to plan a rewire around a period when a room is being redecorated anyway, since the making-good work overlaps.

Doing it in phases

A full rewire doesn't have to happen all at once — a phased approach, tackling one floor or a handful of rooms at a time, spreads both the cost and the disruption, though it generally costs somewhat more overall than a single project due to repeated site visits and less economy of scale on access.

Choosing an electrician: a short checklist

• Get more than one quote, and compare what's included (consumer unit, testing, certification, making good, disposal) rather than just the headline figure.
• Confirm whether they'll self-certify the work under a competent-person scheme, or whether it will be separately notified to building control.
• Ask how they plan to minimise disruption to your day-to-day use of the house, particularly if you work from home.

Planning it into a wider renovation

Because a rewire involves lifting floors and chasing walls, it's very often planned alongside other renovation work — a full house refurbishment, an extension, or room-by-room redecoration — rather than as a standalone job, simply because the disruption and making-good overlap with work you'd be doing anyway. If you're planning a wider renovation and think the electrics may need attention, it's worth raising early so it can be sequenced into the project rather than discovered partway through.

Building regulations

Rewiring work in a dwelling falls under Part P of the building regulations (electrical safety), and needs to be either carried out by a registered competent-person scheme electrician (who self-certifies the work) or separately notified to building control. Always check your electrician's registration before work starts.