What will it cost to rewire a house?
A starting figure before you call an electrician. Pick the property size, the scope — a full rewire, a partial, or just a new consumer unit — and your region, and we give you an indicative UK installed price range, with the usual extras broken out. A budget to plan around before the quotes come in. Free, no sign-up.
A guide, not a quote. The ranges are typical 2025/26 UK installed prices — the cable, the accessories and the electrician's labour, inclusive of VAT — drawn from published industry averages. They exclude rewiring a listed building, asbestos removal, full replastering of a whole house, or upgrading the incoming supply. Every property is different: the only real number is a written, fixed-price quote from a registered electrician, and you should get at least three. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Scope and size set the job; making good is the hidden cost.
Full, partial or just the board. A full rewire replaces every cable, socket, switch and the consumer unit across the whole property — the right call when the wiring is old or unsafe. A partial rewire tackles the high-risk areas, typically a kitchen, a bathroom or a single floor, and costs roughly half. A consumer-unit (fuse board) swap is a much smaller job — it upgrades the board itself but leaves the existing cabling in place.
Size drives the circuit count. A rewire is priced by the number of circuits and points — sockets, switches, light fittings — and by the days on site. A 4–5 bed house has far more of all of those than a flat, and more floors and walls to lift and chase, so it costs more and takes longer, often 5–10 days.
Lived in costs more than empty. An empty property lets the electrician work fast and lift floors freely. A rewire done around you means working room by room, moving furniture, protecting floors and reinstating each area before moving on — slower, and dearer for it.
Making good is the part people forget. Running new cable means chasing channels into walls and lifting floorboards. Filling, skimming and repainting afterwards — the making good — is a real cost that some quotes include and others leave to you. Always check which: a "cheap" quote that stops at bare plaster isn't really cheaper.
Part P and the certificate. Electrical work like this is notifiable under Building Regulations Part P, so use an electrician registered with a Competent Person Scheme (NICEIC, NAPIT or similar) who can self-certify the work. You should get an Electrical Installation Certificate at the end, and an EICR is the periodic inspection that tells you whether older wiring needs doing in the first place.
Keep your home's electrical records in one place.
Stead holds your consumer-unit location, your EICR and its renewal date, and who did the work and when — so the certificate's to hand for a sale or an insurer, and you know when the next inspection is due.