Things to Consider When Planning a Full House Rewire
Embarking on a full house rewire is a significant undertaking that requires careful planning and consideration. Whether you’re updating an older home’s outdated electrical system or preparing a new property for the latest in smart home technology, a comprehensive rewire is crucial for safety, efficiency, and future-proofing your investment. At HomeRewire, we understand the complexities involved in such a project, from assessing your current electrical infrastructure to integrating modern, energy-efficient solutions. In this blog, we’ll guide you through the key factors to consider when planning a full house rewire, ensuring a smooth and successful upgrade that meets all your electrical needs.
Our guys arrive bright and early to get started on the rewiring work.
Before the full rewire of your house, you should have made prior arrangements and organised the property. We will take a short time to discuss the positioning and layout of your new electrical system before the electrical installation. Some clients have this planned out before we arrive, while others are happy for our experienced electricians to advise on the best electrical layout for their home rewiring in Glasgow.
Items to Consider
You can find more information about important item considerations when rewiring your home here, but here’s a brief summary of items to consider when rewiring a house and planning your all-new electrical system:
- Consumer Unit/Fuse box – Consider the position and whether you require RCBOs, RCDs (residual current device) and surge protection.
- Socket Outlets – Plan the positioning of your new socket outlets in the property and socket type.
- Lighting – Where do you need lights, what type do you need, and how do you wish to switch them on and off?
- External lighting – We recommend light fixtures at the front and rear of the property.
- External Sockets – Many clients opt for an external socket which can be handy for using electric gardening equipment.
- Electric Showers – Do you need an electrical supply for a shower, or does this run from the boiler?
- Electric Cooker – Do you cook with gas, or will you need an electrical supply?
- Smoke Alarms – As a minimum, we suggest a smoke alarm upstairs, downstairs and in the kitchen.
- Outbuildings – Do you have a garage or shed that requires power? If so, how do we reach it?
- Extractor Fans – Do you require ventilation in the property to satisfy building control/building regulations?
- Kitchen – Are you installing a new kitchen, and will that require specific electrical layouts?
The Process of a Whole Home Rewiring
At this stage, you should have received prior information explaining how to prepare for us coming. In occupied homes, we start by dust sheeting your belongings, organising any remaining furniture, and then lifting any floor coverings, such as carpets.
Our electricians are so experienced in rewiring a house that we only need a short spell to plan and discuss the best way to rewire each property. For whole home rewires, we have a quick site meeting between our team to delegate each task, negotiate any challenges, and agree on the best way forward for the rewiring job.
Isolate the Supply – Whether conducting a partial or whole house electrical rewiring, it’s important that we isolate your original electrical supply so all the old electrics and deteriorating wiring are dead and safe to work on. There’s a safe isolation procedure that ensures our electricians are safe at all times from electric shocks and other dangers. A temporary electrical supply is then installed so we can power our tools, chargers and temporary lighting.
Floorboards – Most properties have floorboards, and under these boards is where we run our main electrical cables. In the first few hours of your full electrical rewire, we will lift the necessary boards and make suitable routes to install your new 240v cables.
Chase and Cut – Now that the routes are complete under the floors, we get to work on the messy part. Most clients prefer the cables buried within the walls. To do this, we need to use a chasing machine that cuts through the brick with ease. We then chip out the remaining brickwork to reveal a neat channel in which the 240v electrical cables can be placed.
Cleaning Break – Now that we have made the routes and got the messy stuff out of the way, we regroup, remove the heavy tools, clean the place out, and make sure the working area is free and ready for the wiring.
Electrical Wiring – This is when our electricians must use the technical knowledge learned to wire the property in line with 18th-edition wiring regulations. We use a section of cable rated for each circuit to ensure no overheating and that each circuit can carry enough current to power your devices and all your appliances.
Wiring Completion
When all the required electrical cables are installed throughout the entire property, it’s time to start putting your home back together.
Firstly, we double-check that nothing has been missed and that all new cabling and actual wiring are in good condition with no accident damage or potential risk.
Box Out – At this stage, we start to install the electrical back boxes. Galvanised boxes come in 1 gang or 2 gang versions, and we select the suitable box for each accessory. The boxes have threaded lugs which allows us to screw your plug sockets and switches too. They also have space to make any connections required at the rear of the switch. The boxes are screwed securely to the wall, and a rubber grommet is used to create an entry point for your new electrical wiring to go through.
Capping – Protection over the electric cables is not required, and each Electrical Contractor has different methods. However, HomeRewire prefers to use a galvanised metal capping. This is a thin protective capping that goes over the cables and ensures a tidy, professional finish. It also supports the route of the cable and offers some protection against other trades, such as plasterers.
Flooring Re-Instatement – With your new wiring installed, we start to piece the property together. We usually first put any floorboards back down and button up any spaces we breached into. At this stage, the property is almost starting to look normal again, and now is a rest time for another sweep, regroup and discussion over the next moves.
Clean Up
When all electrical works are complete, we move on to the big tidy-up. A full electrical rewiring of a house can get very dusty, so it’s important that the prior preparations are done properly to reduce mess.
We use dust extraction equipment when possible to reduce the scale of the mess. But, being such a disruptive building works, it’s inevitable there will be some dust around. We clean at each stage of the job and then get to work on the final clean.
The carpets are down, and we start hoovering each room, starting with the big hoover and then using the small hoover to catch all the fine dust particles. It’s important to clean into all the corners, on top of skirtings, doors, and anywhere else the dust might have found its way to.
Finally, each surface is wiped down with a damp cloth which helps with any surface dust still around. The property will likely need another clean when we leave, but the initial clean by our team is generally pretty good.
We offer a further professional builders’ clean after rewiring a house. While this is often not required, some clients choose this option to go one step further and avoid any cleaning of their own.
You can find out more about the deep clean service and costs included in our full rewires in Glasgow here.
When you need to rewire REMEMBER HomeRewire™️
