House Rewire London | Full & Partial Rewiring Costs

Grey twin-and-earth cables threaded through drilled floor joists and into a chased wall channel in a stripped terraced house.

The Beams team removed all the stress and matched me with a wonderful contractor.

Teresa

Queen's Park

On time and on budget. A real pleasure.

Eleanor

Stoke Newington

Completed our renovation project within budget and on time.

Evelyn

Bow East

London's rewiring specialists

A house rewire replaces the cables, sockets, switches, light points and consumer unit throughout the property. In London a three-bedroom house is £4,500 to £6,500 for the electrical work (Emergency Repairs London, 2026, excluding VAT). Making good the chased walls is extra, and it is the largest single variable in the job.

Most rewire quotes cover the electrics and stop there. The plastering and decorating that follow are left to you to arrange and pay for separately, which is why the final bill lands well above the quote. Beams scopes the whole job, electrics and making good together, then up to three vetted London builders quote against the same specification.

Vetted builders and electricians

Every builder in the Beams network is personally vetted: visited in person, references checked, recent work inspected. You meet up to three before committing.

Electrics and making good in one price

Chasing, filling, skimming and decoration scoped alongside the wiring, so nothing lands on you afterwards.

Fixed-price contracts

A fixed price agreed before work begins, with milestone payments held securely until you approve each stage, plus a 12-month workmanship warranty.

House rewire costs in London

A rewire is priced by the property rather than by the room, and what the price covers matters as much as the number itself. Making good the chased walls is extra and is the largest single variable in the whole job.

Published London figures for 2026, by property size, from Emergency Repairs London. These are stated as exclusive of VAT, inclusive of plaster make-good and an NICEIC certificate, and exclusive of final redecoration:

1 bedroom flat: £2,800 to £3,800
2 bedroom house or flat: £3,200 to £4,500
3 bedroom house: £4,500 to £6,500
4 bedroom house: £6,500 to £9,500
5 bedroom house: £9,500 to £14,000

For comparison, F & A Electrical put a London three-bed terrace at £4,500 to £8,000 on the open market, without stating VAT. BestBuilders' 2026 UK figure is £4,500 to £7,500 for a three-bed, excluding plastering and decoration. Electricians London quote £4,500 to £8,500 for a three-bed and state that this includes VAT.

That spread is not one source being wrong. It is three different scopes being priced. Always confirm whether a quote includes VAT, making good, and decoration.

Coils of electrical cable, steel back boxes, clips and an open consumer unit enclosure laid out on bare floorboards.

Making good is where the money goes

Cables have to be chased into the walls, which means cutting channels through the plaster in every room. Once the electrician has finished, someone has to fill, skim and decorate all of it.

Published estimates for this on a three-bedroom house range from £600 to £1,500 (BestBuilders, 2026, VAT status not stated by the source), £800 to £2,500 (WhatToCharge, 2026, VAT status not stated by the source), and £1,500 to £5,000 (RenoCalc, 2026, VAT status not stated by the source), which calls it the largest single variable in a rewire. Period properties with lath and plaster walls sit at the top of that range, because they are harder to chase and harder to reinstate.

One London electrician puts it plainly on their own site, describing the level of make-good finish as the single most common gap between quotes. Confirm in writing whether your quote leaves the chases filled, skimmed, or fully decorated. Those are three different prices.

There is a way to avoid the cost altogether. Rewiring during a wider renovation, before any plastering or decorating happens, removes the reinstatement cost entirely, because the walls were coming off anyway.

Nobody publishing on this adds the two halves together, so here is the addition. Take the £4,500 to £6,500 London figure for the electrical work on a three-bedroom house and add the published make-good estimates above. The lowest pairing, £4,500 plus £600, comes to £5,100. The highest, £6,500 plus £5,000, comes to £11,500. On the figures published on this page, then, the all-in position on a London three-bed rewire is £5,100 to £11,500.

That is a range wide enough to be close to useless as a budget, and saying so is more honest than picking a number out of it. It is wide because the three make-good sources disagree sharply on the same work, at £600 to £1,500, £800 to £2,500, and £1,500 to £5,000, and none of them states whether VAT is included. The London electrical figure carries its own scope as well: it is stated exclusive of VAT, inclusive of plaster make-good and exclusive of final redecoration, so some of the spread is the same work being counted in different places rather than priced differently. That is exactly why the specification has to be written down before anyone quotes. The number worth having is the one for your house with the make-good level named in it, not a blend of sources that are measuring different jobs.

One wall chase filled flush with bonding plaster beside a second still open with cable clipped inside, in a period room.

Do you need a full rewire or a partial one?

Start with an Electrical Installation Condition Report. An EICR costs £150 to £380 (BestBuilders, 2026, VAT status not stated by the source) and tells you which circuits are actually failing, rather than guessing.

A partial rewire costs roughly 35% to 55% of a full one (BestBuilders, 2026, VAT status not stated by the source). Partial is the right answer where the report flags specific circuits and the rest of the installation is sound.

A full rewire becomes the only option when the cable insulation has degraded generally, the consumer unit is non-compliant, or the installation is past its expected life of 30 to 40 years. Rubber-sheathed or lead-sheathed cable, or a fuse box with rewireable fuses, usually settles the question.

A consumer unit on its own is £450 to £900 (BestBuilders, 2026, VAT status not stated by the source), which is worth knowing if that is all the report calls for.

Perished rubber-insulated cable and an old junction box on a joist beside a neatly clipped run of new grey twin-and-earth.

Certification and building regulations

A rewire is notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations, and all domestic electrical work must comply with BS 7671, the 18th Edition Wiring Regulations.

An electrician registered with a competent person scheme such as NICEIC or NAPIT self-certifies the work and notifies building control on your behalf, with no separate council application fee. An unregistered electrician is cheaper, but you carry the building notice fee and the risk.

On completion you should receive an Electrical Installation Certificate. Ask for it before the electrician leaves the site, and keep it: a buyer's solicitor will ask for it.

Arc fault detection devices have been mandatory in HMOs since 2022. Surge protection is not mandatory in a dwelling but is commonly recommended, at £150 to £200 (BestBuilders, 2026, VAT status not stated by the source).

A newly fitted consumer unit on a timber board in an under-stairs cupboard with a main bonding conductor clamped to a service pipe below.

Can you live in the house during a rewire?

You can, but it costs more and takes longer. Published estimates put the premium at 10% to 20%, or around £1,000 on a three-bedroom house (Electricians London, 2026, which states its figures include VAT), because the work has to be sequenced room by room and power has to be left on each evening.

The disruption is worth spelling out, because most commercial pages gloss over it. Chasing out walls produces a lot of dust, floorboards may be lifted, and carpets are not always refitted afterwards. Flush rewiring needs redecoration once the plastering is done, which is why surface-mounted rewiring is sometimes used in occupied rented property instead.

On timescales, expect five to eight days for the electrical work on a three-bedroom house, with the first fix as the disruptive phase and the second fix much calmer. Add one to three days for plastering, then drying time before anything can be painted. Two to three weeks from start to decoration is realistic.

A zipped polythene dust barrier taped across a terraced house hallway, with a stripped room being rewired on the far side.

How a Beams rewire works

A clear process from first conversation to certificate.

Step 1: Get your estimate

Tell us the property, its age and whether you are living in it. Your planner gives you an estimate range before any commitment.

Step 2: Agree the specification

Circuit count, socket and light point positions, consumer unit specification, and the level of make-good finish. Written down, so the quotes are comparable.

Step 3: Built by your vetted builder

Electrics and making good run under one fixed-price contract, with milestone payments held securely until you approve each stage. 12-month workmanship warranty included.

New cables run through drilled joists under lifted floorboards, with a chased drop to a socket back box and boards stacked in order nearby.

Rewiring across London

We work with vetted builders across all London postcodes, in North, South, East and West London. Victorian and Edwardian terraces are the harder case: lath and plaster walls chase badly, solid walls limit cable routes, and the make-good bill is higher as a result. Our builders price for the property in front of them rather than a national average.

Three adjoining Victorian terrace frontages with meter cupboards in the boundary walls, one door open showing an old supply position and a later consumer unit.

House rewiring in London