Rewiring your home with an electrical contractor

If you live in an old house, you may need to think about rewiring your home. With the advice of an electrical contractor, the safety of your family may not be compromised.

Talk with an electrical contractor about your home

The most sensible first step in rewiring your home is to ask an electrical contractor. If you're lucky, you may discover that not all the electrical circuits in the house need to be replaced.

Also work out a detailed plan with the qualified electrician regarding exactly what you require in terms of power-point placement, earthed circuits and so forth.

Difficulties faced with rewiring a home

The ease or difficulty of rewiring your home will be partly dependent on the type of house (i.e. solid brick, timber) that you live in. "When putting in power points in a solid brick home we sometimes have to take up the floorboards," says Darren from Summit Electrical. "If the client doesn't want the floorboards taken up, we look for exterior walls where normally there is a cavity.

“In a timber home you may have gaps between the walls, so we just drop [the wiring] down the side of the walls. In a solid brick house we can also look at going into the interior walls of the house and putting power points there." However, when rewiring two-storey houses, there's no avoiding cutting up the floorboards on the second level.

Alternative home automation systems

A more modern, tidier option is to install a home automation system, which requires less wiring and is most commonly used for lighting. According to Darren, not many people are taking up this option yet because of the high cost of the technology.

Staying put while the electrical contractor rewires your home

When it comes to the question of staying in the home versus taking yourself away while the rewiring job is being done, the best thing to do is ask yourself how much you think you can bear.

Darren says most of his clients stay at home, and he makes sure the rewiring job is done in such a way that the family always has electric services running in the evening, when they are home. Other people, especially those getting their floorboards ripped up, may prefer to take a short holiday.

Contact an electrical contractor to discuss rewiring your home: