If so how hard was it? I am pretty good with DIY and electrics however I have never done anything this big.
Alternatively If you paid someone to rewire, how much did you end up paying?
NB: All the plaster is coming off all the rooms and the floor boards are up, so routing shouldn't be too bad.
would you remove your own teeth? 
I did mine! Piece of piss - people will tell you. It's. Really difficult and you'd be mad to try - but I renovated my current house myself and of all the jobs I did - the rewire was. The easiest and most enjoyable. But remember that your not supposed to really. The legislation is a bit vague in places but essentially should be done to 17th edition by a competent person. I'd never rewired anything - I learnt how ring and lighting circuits were wired. Then applied the regulations as set out in 17th edition. I'll get flamed for saying all this but I'm just telling u what I did. For years people wired, plumbed and gassed there own houses.
I have done a couple - its easy to do. Check out the regs and get advice, do it then get it checked and tested. Make sure you have someone prepared to do the checking and sign off the certificates before you start.
the main advantage of doing it yourself is you can be damn sure you get everything where you want. think twice and then think again. Put in a low amp lighting sockets in your main living rooms and think carefully about shadows in the kitchen. Put in hardwirng for computers, tvs and sound at the same time. get it all done before the plastering is done.
It's not desperately hard unless you're hell bent on a massively complex layout, but obviously it would need to be signed off by a spark at the end to meet building regs, and personally, I would leave stuff around the consumer unit to a spark as well.
You could possibly come to a halfway house agreement with an agreeable electrician whereby you do the cabling and switches, and he/she signs off and connects in at the consumer unit, saving yourself some cash.
If you're factoring it in as part of a longer job, you'd also need to factor in that it would take you several times longer than a competent electrician, and probably cause you some nightmares along the way.
I rewired a house for a mate 5 years ago. Was nervous as hell doing it but just made sure I followed the old wiring pattern as I stripped it out (lead-sheathed 2 core!) and made sure everything was double and triple checked. I had a working knowledge but nothing more, some of the lighting stuff, multi-way switching on the stairs etc, took some thought and planning, and obviously the final connections into the consumer unit had to be done by a professional, but nothing's blown up and the house is still standing, so I guess I did a good job. When we finally wired in and tested it, I went round plugging a lamp into the various sockets with my mate standing on a phone book, holding a broom with 999 ready on speed-dial just in case...
Re-wiring isn't at all difficult, and having no plaster or floorboards down makes things even simpler.
Get some gu9dance/advice from a qualified electrician so that you're not doing anything wrong, and I don't see why you should't do it yourself.
It'll take longer than a seasoned electrician, but if time's not an issue then it doesn't matter.
Key thing is working out where you want sockets, switches & light fittings .. & the most efficient route from the fuse box.
I did mine too and would agree that it was the easiest of jobs. The best part of it is that i know that i did a good job with no corners cut, but just to be certain I did have a qualified electrician check everything which cost somewhere in the region of £150.
A standard ring mains layout isn't hard at all. 2 and 3 way lights can be tricky. As others have said I would get a proper spark in to do anything round the consumer box
If you are paying building regs anyway then the inspections / testing costs may well be included. Mine was anyway. You just need to tell building control that's what you are doing.
Wiring a consumer unit is no more complicated then wiring a plug when you break it down to each circuit. Just make sure you comply with the regs.
Just make sure you comply with the regs
Which means that in England you need a qualified person to approve and sign off your work I believe.
Make sure you get a company that's happy to sign off and guarantee your work beforehand.
Personally I'd get a reputable electrician in to avoid the 'oh I didn't realize' moments.
Knowing how to do something doesn't make you competent at all.
Folk used to do far more DIY electrics than plumbing, and I'm convinced it's because mistakes with wiring aren't always obvious. Get plumbing wrong and it'll mess up the carpets.
I rewired my last house, but got a Sparky in to connect the meter tails to the new consumer unit and do the final test, commisioning and sign off.
This was before there was a requirement to as well, but I just wanted to be sure.
I did it as part of a complete restoration, so I could run all the sockets I wanted, where I wanted them, and run all the kitchen pelmet lights switched from the main room switch point etc
As someone else has said, run all your coax / stereo / speaker / Network cables at the same time, whether or not you use them now, you will be glad you did once its all plastered and decorated
I ran a 10mm2 sub main up into the loft direct from the Consumer unit too, then a Garage consumer unit up in the loft for a seperate lighting ring and power ring up there.
Also ran an "outside power" Ring from the RCD protected side of the board for all the garden stuff.
Have a think about what you want in the house and where, its easier to have sockets un used than to need more than you`ve put in.
Even if you do all the 1st fix, get all your boxes & cables in, get it tested.
Then you can do all the stripping of cables for connection...... youll save a lot of money but itll take you longer than a sparky I think.
HTH
Dom
It's easy as long as you take the time to read up on the subject beforehand. The latest regs are part 17, and there are plenty of books available for the DIY-er. Just make sure you get one that's updated for pt.17 as there are some significant changes from 16, especially in the area of circuit protection.
You'll need to inform your local building control department as wiring is now covered by part P of the building regs. Mine (Leeds) were happy for me to do all the work myself, including the testing, though it was recommended to get a spark to do it. Sensible really as the kit you need for testing is probably more expensive than paying someone.
Just make sure you keep revising up before you tackle each bit of the job, ensure you have correct cable sizes for the circuit, factoring things like where the cable is run, e.g. under insulation etc. as these have a notable impact.
So in summary, it's a little more complicated nowadays than it used to be where you'd just string round some 2.5mm T&E and stick it on a 30a fuse, but for the person who's prepared to read up and understand it's all perfectly do-able.
Lastly, I'd recommend getting as a big a consumer unit as you can fit in the space you have. Most of the stuff on sale doesn't really have the capacity to meet pt.17 and give you a bit of room for future expansion and working space in the unit.
Good luck!
I did mine, consumer unit, 3 small rings plus lights.
It was easy, just read up on the standards for drilling joists, clipping cables, cable sizes, earthing (gas, water, not the kitchen sink) and equipotential bonding for the bathroom (earthing all services and electrics to each other to avoid shocks)
I did it in conjunction with a sparkie friend, but in hindsight, it would have been so much easier just to pay the council to test it before everything is covered up. The sparkie identified just one fault, which was a fractured conductor in a 3 way light switch.
I hope to do the same when I need to replace a boiler, install central heating. Do it myself, then get someone in to connect it up and test.
Many of the regs aren't safety-orientated. The most obvious that springs to mind is the 'light switches no more than 1.2m off floor level' which covers newly positioned switches, I believe.
So a thorough read of the regs and a chat to building control/qualified spark, is a bit of a must.
cool, thanks for the help everyone I will have a read up, as its a complete renovation job of a 5 bedroom house, so it all needs some thinking about
I'd recommend finding a spark who you could 'labour' for. I did a house a few years back and basically did all the donkey work for him - chasing, drilling, cutting etc and he did the tech stuff. It was quicker than just me doing it, saved a few quid and I learned a few things.
I read that as 'anyone reviewed their house?'
Just finishing mine now. Got a sparkie in who is a mate of a mate, new consumer unit, smoke alarms (now mains wired), couple outside lights, about an extra 10 double sockets around the house + the original sockets, existing light sockets we managed to pull the new cable through the existing cable runs so didnt need to chase those out, I did all the chasing out myself for all the sockets (horrible job, dust everywhere,solid internal walls, with what seemed like a one to one mix under the plaster). New outside sockets, and also rewired the garage,cost £2.5K or £3.1K if they did the chasing out, thats for a late 1960's 4 bed detahcehed house.
Did my flat 8 years ago, wiring was condemned so some of the mortgage was held back until completed (2.5k). Only a one bed flat so did a ring main for sockets, one for lights (no three way switches etc) and spurs for showers, cooker and stuff. Had to fix a suspended ceiling in the bathroom so put wiring and speakers in so I could soak in the bath after Saturday football and chill. Brilliant.
£2.5k held back like I said, prob spent about £250 on cables and another £300 for a spark to fit a new consumer unit and tie it to the mains.
Whole place was gutted so had the floorboards up, did all the channelling and raggling myself. Took a bit of time but the whole place was gutted so not the end of the world. Like folk have said, read up on the regs and get a spark to test it and hook it up to the mains.. Easy.
Still gives me a sense of satisfaction when I'm down there!
Did mine myself with a mate who's qualified sparky & part p qualified.
It wasn't especially difficult as the house was empty and we weren't moving much but I didn't think you could do it yourself anymore due to part p and required testing after rewire. I know I wouldn't be too happy to sign off work done by other unqualified and inexperienced people. Especially a full rewire.
Also, I doubt your house insurance would be valid for an electrical fire if you did it yourself and it wasn't tested properley
Any decent sparky will put sockets lights exactly where you want them as long as it complies with reg's. Virtually every day I have to correct/condemn work done by a "how hard can it be?" DIYer. You get it wrong and you could well seriously hurt or kill yourself, your kids, friends, loved ones etc. Get someone in who knows what they are doing, as Ton said "would you remove your own teeth?"
I did mine in this house and a previous one. Very easy but went a bit overboard on the amount I did. CAT6 everywhere, zoned addressable fire alarm, mega-complicated lights (7 way swictched in some places), audio wired, phones in 15 rooms, complicated zoned heating controls, etc etc. If you can think logically, there's nothing too complicated. Only advice is put in twice as many sockets as you think you will need, you can't over-do it really.
I'm sure what I did was not within regs but I got it tested and all is OK.
C
I did , but I'm qualified to 17 th edition thanks to electrical bias at work.I got my mate who's certified for test and inspection to sign me off.Very important - get it tested.
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