Does my house need rewiring?

We’re going to be taking a look at whether or not your house needs rewiring to help you identify the signs so that you can avoid an accident or damage to your home. Often before moving into a new home a full rewire is carried out as part of an upgrade. This is usually considered a safe option if you’re moving into a new home with an older system. If you’re thinking of doing this make sure you contact our professional team of electricians in Edinburgh.

Old Electrics will probably need to be replaced

As a rule, any electrical system that’s more than 25 years old will need to be rewired, so it’s always a good idea to find out how old your electrical system is. This way you can make a sensible decision on whether it needs rewiring. It’s a good idea to have someone qualified and registered as an electrician to come over and check the electrics in your home, and they can show up any faults or repairs that need doing, they may even recommend a full rewire.

EICR

An EICR which is a condition report, is usually carried out by a registered electrician, that is, someone who’s trained and qualified and registered with an official body. This type of report will also give you an idea of cost, especially if you’re going to be upgrading the system and possibly remodelling it so it will have additional circuits.

There will be some mess

A full rewire is quite a large job and is usually something that’s carried out before plastering or décor. As you can imagine then, there’s a lot of mess and upheaval, and if you do already have a house that’s plastered and decorated, then you’ll probably have to do all this again once the job has been completed. The circumstances where a full rewire may be necessary is when the system is more than 25 years old, as already mentioned, but there are also other important reasons why you should have electrical rewiring.

These would be such things as the current system has becoming unsafe to use, or if there’s been fire or flood damage, or perhaps when the installation of several new circuits are required.

There’s some upheaval with a complete rewiring

As well as the upheaval that rewiring entails you may be wondering what else it involves. Normally, all fittings, sockets, switches and unit will be taken away and replaced by new ones. There’s two step process which is known as first and second fix. A member of our team here at VC Electrical can talk you through the finer details of what these two fixes entail.

The benefits far outweigh the disadvantages

The benefits of a complete rewiring are that your house will be much safer and your home will fall in with the latest regulations. You’ll be able to have all the sockets you need for all sorts of new appliances, new light fittings and basically modernise your house so it accommodates any new mods and cons – safely.

How long does it take?

It usually takes around 5 to 10 days and there will be a little disruption which your electrician will warn you about. If you are considering a rewire, and you decide to go ahead, you’ll need to inform your local building control department as it must comply with safety standards.

Building regulations and getting a quote for rewiring

You’ll need a registered electrician to carry all this work out on your home because the work will need to comply with Part P of the building regulations safety standards, and this will require certification and notification once it’s been completed. As you can imagine it can be expensive so it’s a good idea to look for 3 quotes and decide on the best from the 3 fully qualified ones you choose. Keep in mind that’s it’s not necessarily a good idea to go with the cheapest option, cheap isn’t always the best. The most important thing to remember is to go with the safest option.

If you have further questions about electrical rewires then get in touch with us here at VC Electrical where a member of our team will be more than happy to help you.