Rewiring in Southampton

The cheaper answers worth ruling out first

A fair number of people who ring me about rewiring do not end up having one. Before anyone starts pulling floors up, there are three things worth eliminating, because any of them can produce the symptoms that make a rewire feel inevitable.

A tired consumer unit is the most common. If the complaint is nuisance tripping or no RCD protection, replacing the board sometimes settles it entirely and costs a fraction of a rewire. A single bad circuit is the next — one ring that has been extended badly over the years will misbehave without saying much about the other five. And remedial work from an inspection report is often a day rather than a fortnight, even when the report looks alarming written down.

If none of those is the answer, a rewire probably is. But it is worth knowing which of the four you are actually dealing with before committing to the largest one.

What happens when I come and look

For a property in Southampton I will normally come out rather than try to price it from a description. It takes half an hour or so. I lift a socket or two and a light fitting to see what the cable actually is, look at the board and the earthing arrangement, check how the floors are constructed, and ask what you are planning to do with the place. That last question changes things more than people expect — a kitchen coming out next year is a good reason to sequence the work differently.

You get a written scope afterwards: what is being replaced, what is staying, and what it will cost. If I think a smaller job would do, that is what I will tell you, and I would rather say it at the visit than discover it halfway through.

Living in the house while it happens

Most people stay put. The power is not off for the duration — it goes off circuit by circuit, and I work through the property in sections so you keep a kettle, a fridge and some light at the end of each day.

The honest downsides are dust and access. Floorboards come up, walls get chased, and rooms become unusable in turn rather than all at once. If you have a room you cannot lose — someone working from home, a baby sleeping in the afternoon — tell me at the visit and I will plan the order around it rather than discovering it on day three.

Parking and access in the city

This matters more in Southampton than people expect, and it is worth sorting before the first day rather than on it. A lot of the terraced streets through Portswood, Shirley and Bevois Valley have no off-street parking and sit in permit zones, which affects how close I can get a van full of cable and where the waste goes. Flats bring their own version: shared entrances, lifts, and sometimes a freeholder who needs telling before anything starts.

None of it is a problem, but it does affect how long the job takes, so it is part of what I ask about when I quote rather than a surprise afterwards.

What actually moves the price

Less the size of the house than how easy it is to get at. A property with suspended timber floors and a loft you can stand up in is a straightforward job. Solid concrete floors downstairs, a converted loft with no access, or a stairwell that makes a run awkward will all add time. Whether you are living there matters too, because working around people is slower than working in an empty house.

Which is why the quote comes after the visit, and why it is free either way. If you would rather have a rough idea before committing to an appointment, ring me and describe the property — I can usually tell you which end of the range you are looking at.

Where I work in the city

Everywhere inside SO14 to SO19, and the surrounding towns. If you want a broader picture of the electrical work I do across the city rather than rewiring specifically, the Southampton page covers it.