How much does it cost for an electrician to rewire a 3 bedroom house

When we moved into our house we noticed that not only did we have too few electrical sockets but the ones that we did have were located in strange places and were surface mounted. For example most of them were on the skirting boards which made it almost impossible to plug certain items in as the plug was almost on the ground and the wire leading out from the plug was pressing against the carpet.

In the living room we had two double sockets on one chimney breast and a single socket (with burn damage) by the television.

As a result, we made the decision to rewire our entire house. Our builder recommended a guy he had worked with previously so I contacted him with a list of what I needed.

Under stairs : New consumer unit and light switch
Living room : 7 double sockets, light switch and fitting of two ceiling pendants
Hall : New light switch and fitting of a previously purchased light fitting
Landing : New single plug socket, New light switch  and fitting of a previously purchased light fitting
Bathroom : Boiler timer, New light switch and fitting of a previously purchased light fitting.
Rear Bedroom : Two double plug sockets and ceiling pendant
Front Bedroom : Two double plug sockets and ceiling pendant
Box room/Office : Two double sockets and ceiling pendant
Kitchen : We would be replacing the entire kitchen at a later stage so we didn't need rewiring at this point.

Italics show items we had purchased previously so they weren't included in the electricians quote.

The electrician offered us two options £1200 without him supplying materials or £1500 supply and fit of everything. In the end we went for the £1500 'all in' option as the wires, pendants, sockets, consumer unit and boiler timer etc would all add up. Also it was just less hassle for him to get everything he needed.

The work took a week to complete and did cause a lot of damage to the walls so my advice would be to make this first job you do when you move into a new house. Thankfully we did this so it didn't cause us too many issues.

If you have any re-wiring experiences you would like to share, please leave a comment below.

How much does it cost to add skirting board to a box room/small room

As part of our house renovations we needed to re-plaster our box room (which we use as an office) and replace the skirting boards.

We wanted to keep things consistent so we opted for a 4" skirting board which we had also used in our living room. The box room/office dimensions are 2m x 1.8m.

Our builder agreed to remove the old skirting boards and supply and fit the new for £120.

This seemed reasonable and only took part of a day to complete.

If you have any experiences of adding skirting board to a room, please leave a comment below. 

How much does it cost to add skirting boards to a large living room

The previous owner of my house had his plug sockets located in the skirting boards. This was obviously how wiring was done years ago but it isn't what I wanted going forward. As a result I had the house rewired and needed to replace the skirting.

The living room is the largest room in the house as it has no dividing wall making it a "through lounge". In total it is 7.5m x 4m.

Our builder said he would supply and fit 4" skirting board all around the room (navigating two chimney breasts and one fireplace) for £280.

This seemed quite reasonable to me and only took him a couple of days including some other work.

If you have any experience with skirting board that you would like to share, please leave a comment.

How much does a plumber charge to fit a radiator and how long does it take ?

If you are not a seasoned property developer house renovations can be difficult to budget for.

I recently purchased a house which needed a lot of work and the living room seemed an obvious place to start.

One of the main issues was damp located near the front bay window. We called in a damp specialist who said the issue could be solved by placing a radiator underneath the front bay window. We already had a radiator in the room (at the back) so there was some pipework we could tap into if needed but we had no idea how much it would cost to add a new one.

We had a builder and qualified plumber that we trusted so we obtained a quote and he completed the work.

So in summary he fitted a 1200 x 600 mm double radiator and charged us £350. I'm not sure if this is considered cheap but it included the radiator, all of the valves, pipework and only took him two days.

If you have any experiences regarding fitting radiators and would like to share them with others, please leave a comment.