Rewires &
Part Rewires
Newcastle

Most of a rewire happens before the first chase

Whether you end up happy with a rewire or quietly irritated by it is settled long before cable goes in. Socket count and socket positions. Which switch by which door controls what. Two-way at the head of the stairs or not. Where the television actually ends up once the sofa is back against the wall. Every one of those costs nothing to alter while it is pencil on brick and a great deal once it is under two coats of plaster.

So we walk the property with you and mark it up first. You see exactly where everything is going before anything gets cut and you get the chance to move it while moving it costs nothing. Heights come off a laser rather than a tape and an estimate, which is why runs of sockets and switches actually line up across a room once the plastering is done.

Full, or only what needs doing

Not everything needs a full rewire, and a fair few firms quote one because it is simpler than thinking about it. If the lighting circuits are sound and only the sockets are tired, or one badly-done extension is dragging down an otherwise decent installation, a partial rewire does the job for a fraction of the money.

What settles it is testing rather than opinion. Insulation resistance across the existing circuits tells you a great deal about whether cable is failing or has years left in it. You get the numbers and an honest recommendation, including the times when that recommendation is that you need less than you came in expecting.

Rewiring a Tyneside flat

Flats bring complications a terraced house does not. Your floor is somebody else is ceiling, which limits what can be lifted and when. The stair may be shared. The supply head might serve both dwellings. Communal lighting can turn out to sit on a circuit belonging to one flat rather than being genuinely shared, which surprises people regularly.

We establish all of that at survey stage and agree with you what needs saying to the neighbouring property and when. It is not difficult work but it does need organising, and doing it properly is the difference between a straightforward fortnight and a running argument on the stair.

What it is like to live with

Rewires are disruptive and it would be dishonest to suggest otherwise. Walls get chased, floors come up, and there is dust no matter how carefully it is handled. What we control is the sequence: which rooms in which order, what stays live overnight, and making sure you are not left without a working kitchen and internet for an entire day unless it is genuinely unavoidable. You get that sequence up front rather than discovering it as it unfolds.

What a rewire covers

• A room-by-room walk-round and mark-up before cutting
• Circuits designed round how the place is actually lived in
• Accessory heights struck off a laser, not a tape measure
• Chases cut to depth and joists notched within limits
• Shared supplies and neighbour access sorted beforehand
• A new board carrying a device on every way
• Interlinked smoke, heat and carbon monoxide detection
• Sequenced so power comes back room by room
• Certificates, test results and a completed schedule
• Swept every evening and all waste taken away