Cost of rewiring a house

jlm29 wrote: »

We got a quote recently for a rewire of a two storey, 4 bed old (very old) house. We have only one socket in the bedrooms currently, and that's all was quoted to replace. 3 lights in hall, bathroom, electric shower, immersion, three outside lights. There's 4 plugs in our sitting room, and probably 6 doubles in our kitchen. Playroom has 3 I think.

Obviously each room has a ceiling light too.
The electrician quoted us somewhere around 8k, excluding plastering work. He also made it very clear that he and his colleagues were going to go through the house like bulldozers, pulling up every floor etc. By the time the house was put back together it would cost a lot more!

Hmmm, bit more than i thought it would cost. Thanks jlm29, good to know. We'll definitely shop around, get a few quotes for it. Thanks

Tell me how wrote: »

eamokeno wrote:

It's basically, an old house that we'll be moving into that has very old wiring currently (probably not touched since the house was built in the 50's/60's)

I would strongly recommend that ye spend time in the house asking yourselves are you happy with the number of services.

Houses that age typically have one twin socket outlet per room with possibly two in sitting room and kitchen. That's nowhere near enough for today's demand. Extension leads and adaptors are ugly and unsafe for long-term use.

It's a lot more work to add outlets, particularly if there's chasing involved but it's the right thing to do if considering a rewire.

Also, is it currently wired for electric shower and oven. Should be added if not.

Finally, if doing all the above, consider a charge point for electric vehicle. They are the future.

Don't mean to be trying to get you to spend money but it's better consider the above upfront than 4 weeks after the work is completed.

Thanks TellMeHow. House is wired for an electric shower alright, just the sockets and light switches are all old and need to be updated. No idea about the chasing though, but I'll find out and get some quotes anyway. Thanks.

BryanF wrote: »

eamokeno wrote: »

The boom is definitely back. Thanks.

After ten years of recession, a tax compliant tradesman can now charge a reasonable rate for a days work, allowing for risk, holidays, tools, insurances etc etc

The prices here are not unreasonable

The price you pay a contractor, is not his/her 'take home pay'

If you have a boss and he pays your taxes. Double your take home pay - this will give you some idea of what it costs to run a small business.

Thanks. I have previously worked in contracting and am aware that the money paid for a day's work for a contractor is not that individual's "take home pay." And yes, over the last 10 years there was a recession that the majority of people either took hefty pay cuts, or worse, lost their jobs due to redundancies, and having worked in an SMB for over 10 years, I have seen the extent of this first hand and understand the running costs involved.
However, the cost of labor now compared to a few years ago has dramatically increased with some industries that people work in, not fully back up to the pay levels to which they were prior to the recession hitting them, resulting in less money to pay for an increasingly expensive piece of work to be completed. Add to that, the cost of houses also increasing almost month on month in Dublin, the amount of expendable money that families have is being squeezed even further.
So with higher house prices, higher construction costs, higher cost of living, higher rent costs; in my opinion, I agree with jlm29, and agree that the boom is back.