Get quotes to rewire a room or circuit

HaMuch is Excellent
By Emily Rivers
Last updated 12th August 2022

Rewiring a circuit or room involves removing every cable of wiring that is powering plug sockets, light switches, ceiling fans, light fixtures, extractor fans, inside cupboard lights… and replacing the cables with new wiring, which might involve chasing the wiring through walls and ceiling, to make the room or circuit safe. The main reason someone will want to get a room, circuit or entire home rewired is due to either very old wiring that is no longer safe, or a fault in the wiring causing a circuit needing to be replaced with new wiring to avoid an electrical fire.

Can I rewire only one room?

A skilled electrician will be able to undertake the task of rewiring a single circuit or just one room. A partial rewire might be necessary if one circuit is damaged and making that circuit electrically unsafe. The partial rewire might include one circuit of the house, e.g.; the wall plug socket circuits on ground floor, or it may involve a room as part of a renovation in that room, e.g.; a kitchen renovation. 

Usually rather than room by room, the rewiring goes by circuit;

  • Upstairs lighting
  • Upstairs sockets
  • Downstairs lighting
  • Downstairs sockets
  • Kitchen

Before undertaking the rewire project, consider the needs of the room and how many plug sockets will be needed to avoid overloading a single socket with a multi adaptor. 

If you are planning on rewiring the entire house, but want to do a circuit or room at a time, although do-able, in the long run it is much better and less living chaos to rather evacuate the house for a few weeks and have the entire home done at the same time. It will be cheaper as the project will be less complicated for the electrician, resulting in less labour time. This way the electrician can pull out all of the wiring and rewire, rather than trying to keep rooms with running electricity while focusing on one room or circuit to rewire at a time.

If the circuit being rewired is downstairs only, this will still interrupt your daily life while the electrician needs access to the floor above, lifting floorboards to access the downstairs ceiling wires.

Rewiring just the upstairs circuit is less intrusive as it does not impact on the downstairs. The electrician will be able to access the ceiling via the loft and pull up floorboards with minimum disruption to downstairs.

Cost to rewire a single room or circuit

How much will it cost to rewire a single room or circuit?

Rewiring a room or circuit could require 2 or 3 labour days for the electrician and then once the electrician is finished, you will need a painter and decorator to replaster the walls and repaint to finish off the job.

A quick cheaper fix would be to rewire the new circuit with trunking on the outside of the wall, but this is unsightly. A neater finish is chasing wires into walls. When it comes to rewiring a room, added expense and labour time is if at the time of rewiring an old property, if the opportunity is taken to relocate plug sockets. Older homes, e.g.; 1930s houses, had the plug sockets wall mounted just above the skirting board. Nowadays for various reasons; flood control, people with disabilities reaching the sockets, cords on appliances having room to plug in… plug sockets are mounted higher, at least 45cm from the ground. So at the time of rewiring, plug sockets may be moved higher which requires further chasing in, more plastering, and extra labour time all adding to the expense of rewiring that room.

Cost to rewire a single room or circuit

Per

Average total labour cost

Removing old wiring and replacing the wiring in a single room

Per day

£900

Removing old wiring and replacing the wiring on a single circuit

Per project

£1100

Disconnecting old wiring and trunking in new wiring in a room

Per project

£600

Replacing a faulty circuit breaker switch

Per hour

£75

Can you rewire without removing drywall?

A skilled electrician will be able to rewire a room without causing damage or removing drywall. The electrician will run the new wiring through the crawl space which might involve loft access. As old wiring is often stapled to the framing of the walls, it cannot be pulled out but may have to be cut and remove the exposed part while leaving redundant wiring still stapled to the frame but now made safe. This might involve making some holes in the dryhole (which can be patched up after) but avoids the entire room wall having to be removed. The electrician will use these gaps to feed through the new cabling. The only downside is that the new wiring will not be stapled to the stud walls. The electrician might secure the new wiring to joists, and they will ensure they are securely anchored for safety.

How messy will rewiring a room be?

Rewiring is a messy job, as it involves accessing every part of the room, from lifting floorboards to accessing the ceiling and cutting into the walls. A lot of dust can be churned up which will spread to the rest of the house, and while banging to cut into walls it will create a lot of noise and disruption through the house.

Most professional electricians will try to work around your needs, but they will prefer for you to either move out of the house for the few days or leave them to get on with the task of rewiring while you go to work, or leave the house for the day, allowing them to turn off mains electricity when needed and make noise when required.

How many rooms can be on one wired circuit?

A single breaker circuit is capable of safely serving multiple rooms in a house, controlling all plug sockets, lights, in one room or in multiple rooms. The limitation placed on the breaker is the load and size of the breaker and wiring. 

Nowadays most homes have single breakers broken down to different sections, one providing power to smoke alarms, another to lights, a separate circuit for plug sockets or electric showers. When it comes to a fault with the flow of the electricity, the more circuits you have, the easier to locate the fault and isolate just that area, e.g.; plug sockets in the kitchen only allowing you to still use the rest of the homes plug sockets… allowing you to carry on with your home needs while waiting for the electrician to come through and rewire or fix the faulty circuit.


Estimates for common electrician jobs;

Rates for other trades

Rewire a room cost in the UK
Rewire a room cost in the UK (excluding VAT or callout charges)
Location in UKRewire a room cost
Rewire a room near Aberdeen£1275
Rewire a room near Amber Valley£1075
Rewire a room near Angus£1115
Rewire a room near Arun£1135
Rewire a room near Ashfield£1085
Rewire a room near Aylesbury Vale£1270
Rewire a room near Barnsley£1155
Rewire a room near Basildon£1310
Rewire a room near Basingstoke & Deane£1305
Rewire a room near Bassetlaw£1200
Rewire a room near Bath & North East Somerset£1245
Rewire a room near Bedford£1290
Rewire a room near Belfast£895
Rewire a room near Birmingham£1130
Rewire a room near Blackburn£1115
Rewire a room near Blackpool£1180
Rewire a room near Bolton£1115
Rewire a room near Bournemouth£1190
Rewire a room near Bracknell Forest£1370
Rewire a room near Bradford£1140
Rewire a room near Braintree£1230
Rewire a room near Breckland£1240
Rewire a room near Bridgend£1080
Rewire a room near Brighton£1170
Rewire a room near Bristol£1215
Rewire a room near Broadland£1285
Rewire a room near Broxtowe£1090
Rewire a room near Bury£1120
Rewire a room near Caerphilly£1050
Rewire a room near Calderdale£1110
Rewire a room near Cambridge£1250
Rewire a room near Canterbury£1145
Rewire a room near Cardiff£1065
Rewire a room near Carmarthenshire£1065
Rewire a room near Charnwood£1130
Rewire a room near Chelmsford£1300
Rewire a room near Cheltenham£1230
Rewire a room near Cherwell£1235
Rewire a room near Chester£1085
Rewire a room near Colchester£1195
Rewire a room near Conway£1510
Rewire a room near Coventry£1165
Rewire a room near Crewe & Nantwich£1070
Rewire a room near Dacorum£1315
Rewire a room near Derby£1070
Rewire a room near Doncaster£1165
Rewire a room near Dover£1100
Rewire a room near Dudley£1115
Rewire a room near Dumfries & Galloway£1160
Rewire a room near Dundee£1255
Rewire a room near East Ayrshire£1170
Rewire a room near East Devon£1115
Rewire a room near East Dunbartonshire£1350
Rewire a room near East Hampshire£1260
Rewire a room near East Hertfordshire£1305
Rewire a room near East Lindsey£950
Rewire a room near East Riding£1075
Rewire a room near Eastleigh£1290
Rewire a room near Edinburgh£1215
Rewire a room near Elmbridge£1380
Rewire a room near Epping Forest£1355
Rewire a room near Erewash£1085
Rewire a room near Exeter£1105
Rewire a room near Falkirk£1285
Rewire a room near Fife£1140
Rewire a room near Flintshire£1080
Rewire a room near Gateshead£1160
Rewire a room near Gedling£1090
Rewire a room near Glasgow£1335
Rewire a room near Gloucester£1185
Rewire a room near Guildford£1365
Rewire a room near Gwynedd£1225
Rewire a room near Halton£1115
Rewire a room near Harrogate£1125
Rewire a room near Havant & Waterloo£1265
Rewire a room near Horsham£1275
Rewire a room near Huntingdonshire£1250
Rewire a room near Ipswich£1170
Rewire a room near Isle of Wight£1255
Rewire a room near Kings Lynn & West Norfolk£1190
Rewire a room near Kingston-upon-Hull£1070
Rewire a room near Kirklees£1115
Rewire a room near Knowsley£1115
Rewire a room near Lancaster£1140
Rewire a room near Leeds£1160
Rewire a room near Leicester£1180
Rewire a room near Lisburn£895
Rewire a room near Liverpool£1115
Rewire a room near London£1360
Rewire a room near Luton£1300
Rewire a room near Macclesfield£1120
Rewire a room near Maidstone£1280
Rewire a room near Manchester£1115
Rewire a room near Mid Bedfordshire£1280
Rewire a room near Mid Sussex£1245
Rewire a room near Middlesbrough£1160
Rewire a room near Milton Keynes£1260
Rewire a room near Neath Port Talbot£1095
Rewire a room near New Forest£1240
Rewire a room near Newbury£1300
Rewire a room near Newcastle-under-Lyme£1030
Rewire a room near Newcastle-upon-Tyne£1155
Rewire a room near Newport£1070
Rewire a room near North Ayrshire£1260
Rewire a room near North East Lincolnshire£1070
Rewire a room near North Hertfordshire£1295
Rewire a room near North Lanarkshire£1350
Rewire a room near North Lincolnshire£1160
Rewire a room near North Somerset£1205
Rewire a room near North Tyneside£1155
Rewire a room near North Wiltshire£1305
Rewire a room near Northampton£1275
Rewire a room near Norwich£1295
Rewire a room near Nottingham£1085
Rewire a room near Nuneaton & Bedworth£1175
Rewire a room near Oldham£1115
Rewire a room near Oxford£1275
Rewire a room near Pembrokeshire£985
Rewire a room near Perth & Kinross£1220
Rewire a room near Peterborough£1235
Rewire a room near Plymouth£1140
Rewire a room near Poole£1195
Rewire a room near Portsmouth£1265
Rewire a room near Powys£1090
Rewire a room near Preston£1150
Rewire a room near Reading£1320
Rewire a room near Redcar & Cleveland£1195
Rewire a room near Reigate & Banstead£1375
Rewire a room near Renfrewshire£1350
Rewire a room near Rhondda, Cynon, Taff£1080
Rewire a room near Rochdale£1130
Rewire a room near Rotherham£1110
Rewire a room near Salford£1115
Rewire a room near Salisbury£1170
Rewire a room near Sandwell£1125
Rewire a room near Scarborough£1125
Rewire a room near Sefton£1130
Rewire a room near Sevenoaks£1310
Rewire a room near Sheffield£1100
Rewire a room near Slough£1355
Rewire a room near Solihull£1140
Rewire a room near South Ayrshire£1240
Rewire a room near South Bedfordshire£1290
Rewire a room near South Cambridgeshire£1260
Rewire a room near South Gloucestershire£1235
Rewire a room near South Kesteven£1155
Rewire a room near South Lanarkshire£1260
Rewire a room near South Oxfordshire£1280
Rewire a room near South Somerset£1125
Rewire a room near South Tyneside£1150
Rewire a room near Southampton£1285
Rewire a room near Southend-on-Sea£1270
Rewire a room near St Albans£1320
Rewire a room near St Helens£1100
Rewire a room near Stafford£1110
Rewire a room near Stockport£1115
Rewire a room near Stockton-on-Tees£1155
Rewire a room near Stoke-on-Trent£1035
Rewire a room near Stratford-on-Avon£1170
Rewire a room near Stroud£1180
Rewire a room near Suffolk Coastal£1185
Rewire a room near Sunderland£1155
Rewire a room near Swale£1230
Rewire a room near Swansea£1090
Rewire a room near Tameside£1120
Rewire a room near Teignbridge£1075
Rewire a room near Tendring£1165
Rewire a room near Test Valley£1230
Rewire a room near Thamesdown£1300
Rewire a room near Thanet£1115
Rewire a room near The Wrekin£1035
Rewire a room near Thurrock£1310
Rewire a room near Torbay£1100
Rewire a room near Trafford£1125
Rewire a room near Vale of Glamorgan£1075
Rewire a room near Vale of White Horse£1245
Rewire a room near Vale Royal£1100
Rewire a room near Wakefield£1145
Rewire a room near Walsall£1120
Rewire a room near Warrington£1110
Rewire a room near Warwick£1180
Rewire a room near Waveney£1275
Rewire a room near Waverley£1355
Rewire a room near Wealden£1255
Rewire a room near West Lancashire£1120
Rewire a room near West Lothian£1240
Rewire a room near West Wiltshire£1305
Rewire a room near Wigan£1085
Rewire a room near Windsor & Maidenhead£1360
Rewire a room near Wirral£1140
Rewire a room near Wokingham£1355
Rewire a room near Wolverhampton£1120
Rewire a room near Wrexham Maelor£1060
Rewire a room near Wychavon£1165
Rewire a room near Wycombe£1320
Rewire a room near York£1140