Full House Rewire Costs UK — What Electricians Should Charge for a Rewire in 2026

Why Customers Need a Full Rewire

Rewire enquiries come from several overlapping triggers. Understanding which applies to your customer shapes how urgently they need to act — and how you frame the quote.

• Age of wiring. Rubber-insulated wiring from the 1960s and 70s becomes brittle and cracks over time, exposing live conductors. Aluminium wiring from the same era corrodes at termination points. Any installation over 25–30 years without a documented upgrade is a candidate for a rewire.
• EICR failure. Since 2021, landlords in England must hold a valid Electrical Installation Condition Report. A C1 (danger present) or C2 (potentially dangerous) finding means remedial work is required within 28 days. Where the fabric of the installation is too poor to remediate circuit by circuit, a full rewire is the only compliant route.
• Insurance and mortgage requirements. Some home insurers and mortgage lenders will not underwrite properties with pre-1980s wiring. Buyers increasingly request an EICR as a condition of purchase, triggering rewire quotes at the point of sale.
• EV charger and solar readiness. A 7 kW EV charger draws 32 A continuously. Adding a charger and solar inverter to a tired consumer unit — particularly one with rewirable fuses — frequently requires upgrading the whole installation first. These customers are motivated and typically have the budget.
• Extension or major renovation. When a customer is opening walls for a loft conversion or rear extension, the marginal cost of rewiring the rest of the house while first-fix is accessible falls dramatically. This is the easiest rewire to upsell.

Full House Rewire Costs by Property Size — 2026

The figures below are all-in prices including labour, cable and containment materials, a new consumer unit, EICR on completion, and Part P notification. They assume a standard domestic installation with a single phase 100 A supply. London and South East prices sit at the top of each range; North England, Scotland and Wales at the lower end.

Prices are supply-and-fit including consumer unit, EICR, and Part P notification. Decoration, plastering, and redecoration after chasing are excluded.

What Drives the Cost of a Rewire

The property size table above is a starting point. Before you submit a price, you need to walk every room and assess the specific cost drivers on that job.

Number and type of circuits

Each circuit requires its own cable run, protective device, and test record. A standard 3-bed house might have 10 circuits: ring final (downstairs), ring final (upstairs), lighting (ground), lighting (first), cooker, shower, garage, outdoor, smoke alarms, and a spare. Add an EV charger circuit, a dedicated freezer, a home office, or underfloor heating and you can easily reach 16–18 circuits in the same property — adding £400–£800 to the job.

Consumer unit (£300–£600 supply + fit)

Every rewire includes a new consumer unit. A 10-way dual RCD board from a quality manufacturer (Hager, Schneider, Wylex) costs £80–£130 supply. A 16-way RCBO board — where each circuit has its own combined RCB and overcurrent protection — costs £180–£300 supply but eliminates nuisance tripping and is the premium option customers increasingly expect. Fit time is 2–4 hours. All-in, budget £300–£450 for a standard board and £450–£600 for a full RCBO board.

EICR on completion (£150–£300)

After a rewire you must test and certify the installation. The Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) covers the new work. Most electricians include an EICR — the full periodic inspection — at the same time to give the customer a clean baseline document. For a 3-bed house this adds £150–£250 to the job cost. Price it into every rewire quote rather than presenting it as an optional extra.

Part P notification fee (~£300)

A full rewire is notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations. If you are registered with a competent person scheme (NICEIC, NAPIT, ELECSA, or similar) you self-certify at no additional cost beyond your scheme membership. If you are not scheme-registered, the local authority Building Control department charges an inspection and notification fee — typically £200–£400 depending on the council. For non-registered electricians this must be included in the quote. If you are scheme-registered, mention it explicitly as a benefit: "Part P self-certified at no extra charge."

Occupied vs vacant property

Working around furniture, protecting carpets, boxing off rooms, and restoring power at the end of each day adds 20–30% to labour time on occupied properties. If the customer is living in the house during the rewire, price accordingly. Some electricians add a flat "occupied property surcharge" of £300–£600; others build it into their day rate.

Solid walls vs stud / timber frame

Solid brick or stone walls require chasing with an angle grinder or chasing tool. This is slow, dusty work. Victorian and Edwardian terraces — common rewire candidates — are almost always solid brick. Budget 30–50% more labour for cable routing compared to timber stud or modern cavity construction.

Labour Breakdown: What a 3-Bed Rewire Actually Takes

The 3-bed terrace is the benchmark job. Here is a realistic breakdown of how the time is spent.

At a labour rate of £250–£350 per day per electrician, a two-person team on a 3-bed job runs 5–8 days. Total labour cost: £2,500–£5,600. Materials — cable, containment, consumer unit, back-boxes, fixings — typically add £600–£1,200. The resulting quote of £3,500–£5,500 reflects real cost with a reasonable margin.

If you are working solo, double the day count but your labour rate per day is the same — the quote price barely changes because the customer is paying for the total job, not the team size. Solo work suits occupied properties where a two-person team would be disruptive.

Consumer Unit Upgrade — Standalone Pricing

Not every customer needs a full rewire. A consumer unit (fuse board) upgrade is a common standalone job that feeds rewire enquiries — price it correctly or you leave money on the table.

Always include an EICR of the existing installation before fitting a new board. If the wiring tests poorly, you have documented evidence for a rewire recommendation — and you have protected yourself from inheriting someone else's defects.

EV Charger Readiness and the OZEV Grant

The EV charger market is one of the fastest-growing revenue streams for domestic electricians. A standard 7 kW home charger installation costs £700–£1,200 supply and fit. The government's OZEV Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) provides a £350 grant toward charger installation for eligible customers in flats and rental properties — administered through OZEV-approved installers.

To install a 7 kW (32 A) charger, the existing installation must be capable of carrying the additional load. In practice this means:

• A consumer unit with a spare 32 A RCBO slot (or room to add one)
• Supply tails rated to at least 100 A (most post-1990s properties are fine)
• Earth electrode or PME earthing arrangement confirmed with the DNO if required

When you survey an EV charger job and find rewirable fuses, an undersized board, or deteriorating wiring, the rewire conversation becomes straightforward: "To safely install your charger and future-proof for solar, we recommend upgrading the installation first." Price the rewire and charger as a package — customers accept it readily because they understand the context.

EICR Requirements — What Landlords Must Know

The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, which came into force for all tenancies from 1 April 2021, require landlords to:

• Have the electrical installation inspected and tested by a qualified person at least every 5 years
• Obtain an EICR and supply a copy to tenants within 28 days
• Carry out any remedial work specified within 28 days of the report (or sooner if the report requires)
• Retain the EICR until the next inspection and supply to the local authority on request

Councils can impose fines of up to £30,000 for non-compliance. This has created a large and recurring market for EICR work — and for the remedial rewires and upgrades that follow.

When an EICR returns a C1 or C2 code on old wiring, you have two options: remediate circuit by circuit, or rewire. For properties where most circuits are substandard, a full rewire is the more cost-effective recommendation. Present both options with pricing so the landlord can make an informed decision.

Part P: Self-Certification vs Building Regs Approval

Part P of the Building Regulations (England and Wales) requires that electrical work in dwellings is either carried out or inspected and certified by a competent person. There are two routes:

• Competent person self-certification. If you are registered with an approved scheme (NICEIC, NAPIT, ELECSA, BRE, SELECT in Scotland) you notify the scheme, who notifies Building Control on your behalf. There is no additional fee beyond your annual registration. This is the standard route for qualified electricians.
• Local authority Building Control approval. If you are not scheme-registered, you must apply to the local authority before starting the work (or within 5 days if emergency). The council sends an inspector to check the work. Fees vary: typically £200–£400 for a domestic rewire. The process adds time and cost. Non-registered electricians must include this in their quote.

Scheme registration typically costs £400–£800 per year. If you are regularly pricing rewires without being scheme-registered, you are either absorbing the Building Control fee or passing it on — either way you are at a competitive disadvantage. Registration pays for itself quickly on rewire volume.

How to Present a Rewire Quote and Win the Job

Room-by-room scope

A rewire quote that simply says "full rewire — £4,500" loses to a competitor who breaks the job down. Structure your quote room by room: kitchen, lounge, dining room, hallway, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, bedroom 3, bathroom. List the outlets, switches, and spurs in each room. Customers can see what they are getting and cannot easily compare a like-for-like price against a vague competitor quote.

Include a summary section showing:

• Total number of circuits
• Consumer unit specification (brand, type, number of ways)
• EICR and Electrical Installation Certificate included
• Part P self-certification included
• Smoke and CO detector installation (if applicable)
• What is excluded: plastering, decoration, redecoration of cable chases

Staged payments

Rewires tie up significant materials cost before you invoice. A staged payment schedule protects your cash flow and filters out time-wasters. A typical structure:

Put the payment schedule in writing and get it signed before mobilising. For jobs over £5,000 a formal written contract is strongly advisable. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires written terms for services over £150 — a signed quote with payment terms attached satisfies this.

Handling the price objection

If a customer says they have a cheaper quote, ask: "Does it include Part P certification, the EICR, and the consumer unit?" In many cases the cheaper quote omits one or more of these. A rewire quote missing the EICR and Part P fees is easily £400–£700 cheaper on paper but will cost the customer more in the end. Walk them through what is included line by line.

Track Where Your Rewire Enquiries Come From

Rewire jobs are high-value and relatively infrequent. When one comes in, you need to know what marketing sent it. Was it Google Ads? Your Google Business Profile? Checkatrade? A referral from a previous customer? Without attribution, you are spending money on channels blind — and potentially starving the one that actually produces £5,000 rewire enquiries.

Trade2Base connects your inbound calls and web enquiries to the exact marketing source that generated them. Every time a customer calls your rewire landing page, your Google Ads call extension, or your Checkatrade profile, Trade2Base logs the source. Over time you can see:

• Which channel generates the most rewire calls
• Which channel generates calls that actually convert to booked jobs
• Your cost per rewire enquiry by channel — so you know where to spend more
• Which geographic areas produce the most high-value work

For an electrician targeting rewire work, attribution is the difference between running Google Ads and guessing, and running Google Ads and knowing. If your ads are generating 10 rewire enquiries a month at £60 each, that is £600 to generate £40,000–£55,000 worth of work — a number worth knowing and scaling.