Key Takeaways
- A full house rewire costs £3,200 to £10,500 nationally, with London labour running 25% higher (MyJobQuote, 2026).
- A 3-bedroom London house typically costs £7,000 to £9,000 including labour, materials, consumer unit and certification.
- A partial rewire is far cheaper: £300 to £800 for a single room, £500 to £1,500 for a kitchen.
- A consumer unit replacement on its own averages £675 in London (MyJobQuote, 2026).
- Rewiring is notifiable under Part P and must be certified by a qualified electrician.
- Allow 5 to 10 working days. Living in the house is possible but slows the job down.
- Signs you need a rewire include a fuse box with rewireable fuses, frequent trips and old rubber or fabric cabling.
Old wiring is a safety risk and a barrier to selling, and many London homes still have installations decades past their best. This guide covers what a rewire costs in 2026, the signs you need one, and the certification that matters.
How much does a house rewire cost in London?
A full house rewire costs £3,200 for a one-bed flat to £10,500 for a five-bed house nationally, and London adds roughly a fifth to that because labour is about 85% of the bill and London electricians charge around 25% more. A typical three-bedroom London house comes in at £7,000 to £9,000 including labour, materials, a new consumer unit and certification.
| Property | UK typical | London typical |
|---|---|---|
| 1 bed flat | £3,200 | £3,500 to £4,800 |
| 2 bed flat or house | £4,500 | £5,000 to £6,500 |
| 3 bed house | £6,500 | £7,000 to £9,000 |
| 4 bed house | £8,500 | £9,500 to £11,500 |
| 5 bed house | £10,500 | £12,000 to £15,000 |
| Electrician day rate | £200 to £400 | £280 to £450 |
Three things move a quote more than anything else. Access: solid concrete floors or a fully boarded loft mean chasing and lifting that a suspended timber floor would have made easy. Occupancy: an empty house is quicker and therefore cheaper. Point count: doubling the sockets and downlights is a real cost, and far cheaper to decide now than in two years.
Making good is the line most quotes leave out. Plastering chased walls, patching ceilings and redecorating typically adds £1,000 to £3,000 on a three-bed house and is often quoted separately, so check whether your electrician's price is "make good to plaster" or "leave chases open".
Full rewire or partial rewire: which do you need?
You need a full rewire when the cabling itself has failed or is obsolete, and a partial rewire when the cabling is sound but part of the installation has been outgrown or badly altered.
| Scope | What it covers | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Full rewire | All circuits replaced back to a new consumer unit, new earthing and bonding, full test and certification | £3,500 to £15,000 in London by size |
| Partial rewire, single room | One room's circuits replaced or extended, about a day's work | £300 to £800 |
| Kitchen rewire | New ring and appliance circuits, cooker supply, one to two days | £500 to £1,500 |
| Garage or outbuilding supply | Submain, board and sockets, about a day | £500 to £1,200 |
| Consumer unit only | New RCBO board, earthing and bonding checked, 4 to 8 hours | £480 to £850 |
Be careful with partial rewires. Mixing new circuits into a board fed by 1960s cable buys you very little. Ask for an Electrical Installation Condition Report before committing to either: it costs a fraction of the work and is the only way to know whether the old cable is actually failing.
What does a new consumer unit cost?
A consumer unit replacement costs £350 to £750 across the UK and averages around £675 in London, about 23% above the national midpoint. A ten-way board, the usual size for a two to three bedroom home, runs £480 to £640 including labour, and a twelve-way board for a larger house £610 to £850. The work takes four to eight hours.
Source: MyJobQuote consumer unit replacement cost guide, 2026.A new board is not a rewire and is not always a fix. Modern units with RCBOs protect each circuit individually, a genuine safety upgrade, but if the cable behind it is perished the board will simply keep tripping. A good electrician will refuse to fit one onto an installation that fails its test, because they have to certify what they connect it to.
Signs you need a rewire
Have your wiring inspected if you notice any of the following, or if the home has not been rewired in 30 years:
- An old fuse box with rewireable fuses, or no RCD protection
- Frequent tripping, flickering lights or buzzing sockets
- Scorch marks around sockets or a burning smell
- Old rubber, fabric or lead-sheathed cabling
- Too few sockets, with extension leads everywhere
- Green or black corrosion visible on cable ends inside a socket back box
- Round-pin sockets, hanging pendant lights with no earth, or a mix of colour codes behind faceplates
Age alone is a reasonable trigger. Rubber-insulated cable laid before about 1965 and early PVC from the 1960s and 1970s are both past their service life, and many London terraces still have them behind the plaster. Our fuller guide covers the warning signs that a property needs rewiring.
Part P and certification
Rewiring is notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations and must be carried out and certified by a qualified electrician working to BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations. There are two legitimate routes and you should know which one your electrician is using.
- Competent person scheme. An electrician registered with a scheme such as NICEIC, NAPIT or ELECSA self-certifies the work and notifies Building Control on your behalf. No separate Building Control charge, and the certificate arrives by post.
- Building Control notification. If your electrician is not scheme registered, the work must be notified to Building Control before it starts and inspected. London boroughs charge in the region of £483 for domestic electrical work not carried out by a Part P registered electrician.
On completion you should receive an Electrical Installation Certificate and a Building Regulations compliance certificate. Both matter when you sell, and a buyer's solicitor will ask for them alongside the rest of your Building Regulations paperwork. Always insist on them before the final payment.
One point of timing worth knowing in 2026: Amendment 4 to BS 7671 was published on 15 April 2026 and the previous edition is withdrawn on 15 October 2026. Work certified after that date should be to the new amendment, so ask which edition your certificate references if the job straddles the changeover.
Source: IET and BSI, Amendment 4 (2026) to BS 7671:2018, April 2026.How long does a rewire take, and can you live in the house?
A full rewire of a typical three-bedroom house takes 5 to 10 working days in two stages, and yes, you can stay in the property, but it will add days and it will not be pleasant.
- First fix, 3 to 6 days. Floorboards up, walls chased, all new cable run back to the board position. This is the dusty, noisy, disruptive stage.
- Second fix, 2 to 4 days. Sockets, switches, lights and the new consumer unit fitted, then the whole installation tested and certified.
- Making good. Plastering, patching and decorating follow, usually by a different trade, and are not included in most electrical quotes.
If you stay, expect the power off room by room, no kitchen for a day or two, and dust in everything. Phasing the work so you keep one habitable room and a working kettle is what we do on occupied jobs, but it typically adds 30 to 50% to the programme.
When to rewire
The best time to rewire is during a renovation, before plastering and decorating, because running cables and lifting floors is far cheaper when the property is already opened up. The second best time is immediately after buying and before you move in.
Sequence it correctly and you pay for the chasing once: strip out, structural work such as steel beams and load-bearing wall removal, first fix electrics and plumbing, plaster, then second fix. Rewiring after the plastering is finished is the most expensive way to do it. Rewiring is a core part of most of our full house renovations. For a free quote, contact us or call 07472 424 226.