Full and Partial House Rewires

Faulty wiring is the most common cause of electrical fires. Is your home safe?
Many Winchester homes simply don’t have the capacity to safely handle the average household’s power consumption. Electrical installations deteriorate overtime: just as one needs to routinely change a filament lightbulb, the wiring to that light must also be replaced occasionally. Moreover, many houses around Winchester and in Hampshire UK generally were built and wired to handle a much lower level of wattage than are now asking of them. In a given home today there’ll be a TV on standby, a laptop charging, multiple phones charging and a refrigerator using power 24/7… No electrician wiring a house in the mid-20th century would have been able to forecast the number of household appliances we use today.

You can increase your property’s capacity to cope with modern power usage through undertaking a full or partial rewire: where a partial rewire is the addition of additional circuits or replacing some sections of faulty wiring, and a full rewire is a systematic review and replacement of your houses wiring system. A partial rewire would be in order if you’re adding an extension with large appliances with high power demands; a full rewire will make your house safer and bring it into the 21st Century.

Does my home need rewiring? It may if any of the following symptoms are exhibited:

Frequently blown fuses
Breakers are frequently tripped
Flickering lights
Broken insulation—natural break down or rodent activity.

And, regardless, you should have your wiring checked if any of the following apply:
- Your home is more than 40 years old
- Your property has suffered flood or fire damage
- You’ve made major changes to your home that have added strain e.g. adding an extension, or additional large appliances.

If any of the above apply to your home, it’s time to seek expert advice. An NICEIC registered contractor will be able to carry out a full electrical inspection of the property and provide you with an Electrical Instillation Condition Report.

NICEIC—The National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting. In terms of legal compliance, carrying out a rewire will involve altering your homes circuits, your local building control department should be notified and the work should be certified. An electrician registered with NICEIC will be able to provide you with the necessary certification.

The rewiring process can by split into four stages:

1) The Design Phase: An electrician trained in designing electrical systems can work with you to draw up a custom plan for a set of circuits that meets your individual needs. What’s you current power usage? Where would you like lighting switches? Do you need USB outlets?, Etc.
2) ‘The First Fix’: This term refers to the phase where the actual wiring is done. New cables are laid from the mains to where they are needed.
3) The ‘Second’ Fix: Appliances, switches, and
4) Finishing: The aesthetics of the job are taken care of; re-plastering and painting work is undertaken, switch/ outlet plates are affixed.

The duration of the process will vary, depending on the property and owner’s needs; however, one to two weeks is typical, and a contract will be able to provide you with a time-frame as part of their assessment.

At the end of the rewire you will know the following:
1) That your power needs are met or exceeded
2) That your cabling meets current building regulation e.g. your circuits contain residual current devices (RCDs).
3) The age of your electrical infrastructure.
Note that all this information may be passed on to potential buyers, increasing the sale value of your property; one may think of a rewire as an investment.