We’re looking at a house which is probably in need a full rewire. We had our current house rewired but didn’t live in it at the time so dust/mess wasn’t an issue. This time we’ll not have that luxury.

Is it possible to rewire a house in phases? It’s needs general updating but we wouldn’t be doing it all in one go so I’d rather have the new wiring in each room as we go. Can a sparky run the new wiring alongside the old and then just hook it up as and when needed? It’s a 1920s 4-bed semi, wooden floors, loft etc.

Yes of course.

It’s my plan tbh.

Is it possible to rewire a house in phases?

A single phase is most common, but three phases will work 🙂
Do you need to update? If what you have is mostly where you want it then get a new consumer unit and have that fitted with an accompanying report from the electrician and deal with what crops up.
You can split it any way that you like and while they are there they might as well connect and certify:
by circuit, kitchen, downstairs ring, downstairs lights, etc.
by floor, upstairs, garage, downstairs

This is what we’ve been doing in our 1920’s place. ultimately it will cost more, take longer and generate more mess doing it in phases rather than getting a full rewire done where you will need to be out of the house for best part of a week or more (depending on the size)

So far no issues – rather than doing a room at a time we are grouping sections of the house and working on 3 or 4 rooms to move it forward. IF all you are doing is renewing the wiring and not moving things round or new circuits you can do it yourself, it is pretty easy.

I had the consumer box replaced as soon as we moved in, I did a small amount of work with a sparky to make sure I knew what to do to rewire lights and plugs, and then did the next phase myself. The current phase, which is an extension and new kitchen I’m using a spark.

I’m still rewiring ours having started over 20 years ago!

Every time I redecorate a room I just replace everything and add new sockets / CAT-5 etc.

Interesting how the demands have changed over the years, 20+ years ago I uprated the lighting circuits to the kitchen for loads of power hungry halogens and a 500W outdoor floodlight outside – now it’s all low wattage LEDs and I’ve reduced the MCU fuse right down as it barely uses any power at all….

Sounds like a great way to distribute the mess evenly over the coming years.

We did everything but the kitchen when we moved in.

Then had the plasterer make good and skim all and carpets fitted.

The thought of still hacking at it all making a mess everywhere gives me the boak.

If it’s a cost thing – then fair enough but I’d encourage if it’s just the mess to go for the whole lot asap. It’ll be cheaper long term and one big clean up rather than 5 or 10 big clean ups…..it will get in every room no matter what you do.

We’re going all-in and having the whole house rewired at once. Fully aware it’ll be a LOT of mess and disruption but I’d rather concentrate it, get it over and done with once only, then get the restorative work done. Previously quoted 5-7 working days for the whole house – we’re planning to book it in for late-spring next year and live in the garden in our massive tent for the duration, possibly making use of Tesco vouchers via hotels.com…

Late 1800s 3-bed here with lath and plaster walls, it’s going to be messy. Moved in almost 4 years ago and cannot wait to change the decor and get rid of all the wallpaper, but no point until the rewiring’s done.

Carpets never go back down properly either, so you will probably want to replace them as you go too.

There was no way I could afford to rewire, recarpet and redecorate a whole house in one go even though it is better from an efficiency perspective. Also if you have kids its not easy to have all your stuff in storage or rent somewhere for a month whilst you sort it.

Depending on the size & state of your rooms, some of ours we have just battoned and chucked new plasterboard up. That gives loads of scope to run cable behind with minimal disruption

Do it all in one go if you have the money now. Far less hassle, disruption and cleaning in the long run. Done loads of house refurbs and always faster the better then get on with life.

Done plenty of re-wires room by room, including my own last two houses. It’s my preferred way if I’m honest, it’s the same amount of dust regardless of which way you do it but it’s confined to one room at a time

Thanks for all the replies. We would be adding new/more sockets and light fixtures. As it’s not been looked at for quite a while there’s a lack of outlets and some of the ceiling roses are in odd positions.

It’s not a case of cost just upheaval, 2 kids makes it more difficult as well. I know the mess would be everywhere but as we would be living there we wouldn’t be redecorating all in one go. So then we’d have to live with patched walls and ceilings for however long.

another thing to think about, if you are working on an upstairs ring its often quite straightforward to work on the floor belows lighting circuit as you will probably be pulling the boards anyway.

If you are tight on money look into DIY. As long as you use a spark for the difficult stuff it is really not hard. Moving sockets or switches is super easy if you can access the wires. Half the battle is knowing where the wires are and running them to where you want them.

I’m doing the same thing in our new house, built in 1958.
The thing I’m looking forward to is installing small 5amp sockets for table lamps in the living room so they can be switched off at a separate light switch by the door, and including a 5A separate socket in the circuit exclusively for…

…the Christmas tree

As a spark, my preference would be to do the whole thing.

Would you be getting a man in to do the work or doing it on your own?

If you were getting a man in and doing it in stages you’d hope that the man would be signed up for the long haul.
Nothing worse than picking up someone else’s mess, new guy would maybe be reluctant to take it on.

What type of property is it?
Bungalow, flat, stately home!

Yeah I’d be getting someone in to do it. I’ve wired in a new light fitting and changed a switch but that’s about as far as I can get.

I get what you mean about getting the same person back each time, best get someone that isn’t on the verge of retirement.

It’s a 1920s 4-bed semi so it’s pretty big compared to more modern properties.

I’d be tempted to get all the cable run in through the mid-floor for upstairs sockets and downstairs lighting in the one go.
Socket cables popped up behind the skirting terminated in a surface patterns box, some slack on the cables left under the floor allowing sockets to be fitted at required height at a later date.
Probably best to speak to a few sparks and see what they think and what they suggest!
Good luck

Depending on the size & state of your rooms, some of ours we have just battoned and chucked new plasterboard up. That gives loads of scope to run cable behind with minimal disruption

an opportunity to look into insulating the walls too if this is an option.

I must have rewired well over 100 houses in my time and wouldn’t dream of doing it room by room.
Essentially you should view this as replacing circuits rather than cables in one area of the house.
Good luck.

How do you replace a ring main, or complete lighting circuit one room at a time, it sounds like a lot of double-work.

Depending on how old your existing wiring is, I’m not sure a sparky can connect new circuits into an old fuse board, or old wiring into a new, so you might have no choice if you want to keep it legit.

If you’re trying to DIY to keep the cost down, I wouldn’t do it again without bringing a plasterer in (our DIY plastering wasn’t great, or a productive use of time). In which case, it’s much cheaper to do it all in one day than have for multiple visits.

Just discovered that our new house has interesting light wiring, for example the bathroom light had 4 neutrals, 4 earths (1 not connected) and 1 live to it.

At least it is indoor work, unlike the render which is funnelling rainwater into the house!

I’d spotted the issues before we put an offer in, but had hoped to get a years grace… nope.

does the bathroom have a fan? potentially some of those wires are to the fan, could also be daisy chaining other lights.

don’t trust the colour of the wires, they can easily have been wired wrongby bad diy. (I had this)

it maybe some of those neutrals are actual live. the fan should have switched live and perm live to it as well as neutral and earth. the lives should be sleeved with brown if not brown but rarely are.

if you have a shaver socket or a light up mirror it might also be run from that light.