Most people ask this question too late, usually after something has tripped for the fourth time in a week. This guide gives you a straight way to work out whether your wiring is near the end of its life, what the warning signs actually mean, and what it costs to put right. All the prices here are our fixed prices, not estimates.
Red and black cable behind your sockets means the installation is at least twenty years old. Four circuits in the consumer unit usually means it was wired around 1980. Aluminium conductors, or no earth at the light fittings, means a rewire whatever the age. And if you are decorating, do the wiring first.
How Long Does House Wiring Last?
Between 25 and 40 years for modern PVC-insulated cable installed since the 1970s. Rubber and lead-sheathed wiring from before the 1960s is long past its design life and is a genuine hazard, not just an inconvenience. If you do not know when your property was last rewired, an EICR from £99 is the only definitive answer.
What Does My Cable Colour Tell Me About Its Age?
If the cores behind your sockets are red and black, the installation is at least twenty years old. Not probably. At least. UK cable colours changed to brown and blue when the wiring regulations harmonised, and the changeover finished in 2006, so red and black cannot have been installed since. It is the quickest and most reliable age check there is and you can do it yourself in thirty seconds.
Turn the power off at the consumer unit, take the faceplate off a socket and look at the cable behind it. If you would rather not, any electrician will tell you in two minutes.
Twenty years does not automatically mean a rewire. Good red and black installations with a proper earth throughout can still have years left in them, and we will tell you that rather than sell you a job you do not need. What it does mean is that it is old enough to be worth checking rather than assuming.
The one people get wrong is red and black with no earth at the light fittings. Plenty of 1960s and 1970s lighting circuits were run without a CPC, so there is nothing to earth a metal light fitting to. It looks like ordinary PVC and it is easy to assume it is fine. It is not, and it is a rewire rather than a repair.
What Does It Mean If My House Only Has Four Circuits?
It usually means the house was wired around 1980, and that the installation is now doing a job it was never designed for. Open the consumer unit and count. If there are four ways in use and they are a lighting circuit, a socket circuit, a cooker circuit and one for the immersion heater or boiler, that is the setup we find in terraced housing across Walton, Anfield, Kensington and Wavertree more than any other.
Nothing about it was wrong in 1980. A household then had a telly, a fridge, a kettle and not a great deal else. Four circuits was a reasonable design for how people actually lived.
One socket circuit for the entire house
That is the part that has not aged. Every socket in every room, upstairs and down, sits on a single circuit. Count what is plugged in around your house now. Fridge, freezer, washing machine, dishwasher, microwave, air fryer, two or three televisions, a router, chargers in every room, maybe a tumble dryer.
All of that is on one circuit that was sized for a fraction of it.
Adding more sockets does not add more capacity
This is where people go wrong, and it is usually well meant. The bedrooms have one socket each, so somebody has extra ones put in. Then the living room, then the kitchen. Every one of those additions is spurred off the same circuit that was already working hard. You have made the house more convenient and you have made the overload worse at the same time.
It also does nothing about the real weakness, which is what happens when something goes wrong.
One fault and you lose every socket in the house
A single fault anywhere on that one circuit, a failed appliance, a nail through a cable, water getting somewhere it should not, and the whole lot trips at once.
Fridge off. Freezer off. Router off. Nothing working until somebody finds the fault, and finding it means unplugging things one at a time across the entire house because there is nothing to narrow it down to.
A modern installation splits the load up so a fault stays where it happened:
- Separate socket circuits for upstairs and downstairs
- A dedicated kitchen circuit, because that is where the load is
- Individual circuits for the shower, the cooker and an EV charger
- An RCBO on every circuit, not one RCD covering half the house
- A fault takes out one circuit and leaves the rest running
That is the difference, and it is the difference you notice on a wet Tuesday in February when the freezer is still going.
What If the Cable Is Aluminium Rather Than Copper?
Then it needs replacing, whatever else the installation looks like. Solid aluminium was used in domestic final circuits mainly through the 1960s and 1970s when copper prices spiked, and it is one of the more common serious findings we come across in older Merseyside housing.
Spotting it is easy once you know. Copper conductors are the colour you expect copper to be. Aluminium is a dull silver grey. Strip a little back and the difference is obvious.
Copper conductors are the colour you expect copper to be. Aluminium is a dull silver grey. Strip a little back and the difference is obvious straight away.
The cable itself is not really the problem. The terminations are. Aluminium expands and contracts more than copper as the circuit warms and cools, so screwed connections work loose over years. A loose connection heats up, and a hot connection inside a socket box is how fires start. Aluminium also oxidises, and unlike copper oxide, aluminium oxide is a poor conductor, so the joint gets worse rather than settling down.
It cannot simply be re-terminated into ordinary accessories either. Doing it properly means bi-metallic connectors and the right jointing compound at every single point, which on a whole house costs more than replacing the cable and leaves you with an installation nobody wants to buy.
What Are the Warning Signs a House Needs Rewiring?
There are nine worth knowing, and four of them mean stop using that part of the installation today. Here they are in order of urgency, with what each one actually means underneath.
- Scorch marks or brown staining around a socket, switch or the board
- A burning or fishy smell near the consumer unit
- Round-pin sockets, rubber or braided cable anywhere in the property
- No RCD protection, meaning no test button on the consumer unit
- The same circuit tripping repeatedly
- Lights dimming when an appliance starts
- An EICR returning C1 or C2 codes across several circuits
- Not enough sockets, and extension leads in every room
- You are extending, converting or refitting the kitchen
1. The same circuit trips repeatedly
One trip is normal. The same circuit tripping every week is not. It usually means the circuit is carrying more than it was designed for, or the cable insulation has broken down and current is leaking to earth. A modern kitchen draws far more than a 1970s one was ever wired for. If this is your main symptom, we have written a full guide to what causes an RCD to trip repeatedly, with the eleven things we actually find on callouts.
2. Lights dim when an appliance starts
If the lights dip when the kettle or the shower comes on, the installation cannot supply what the house is asking of it. Sometimes that is a loose connection, which is a small job. Often it is undersized cable, which is not.
3. Round-pin sockets, rubber or braided cable
These are not borderline. If any of them are present anywhere in the property, the installation predates modern safety standards by decades and should be replaced as a priority.
4. Scorch marks or brown staining around a socket
Brown or black marks around a socket, switch or the consumer unit mean something has overheated. This is a fire risk. Stop using that socket and get it looked at the same week. Do not assume it is cosmetic.
5. A burning or fishy smell near the consumer unit
Overheating plastic gives off a distinctive smell. If you can smell it near the board and there is nothing obviously burning, turn the main switch off and call an emergency electrician the same day.
6. No RCD protection
Open your consumer unit. If there is no test button anywhere, you have no RCD protection, which means nothing will cut the supply fast enough to prevent a fatal shock. That alone is not always a rewire. Sometimes a new consumer unit is all that is needed, but it is always urgent. If you do have an RCD and it will not stay on, that is a different problem with its own causes.
Scorch marks, a burning smell at the board, round-pin sockets or rubber cable, and no RCD protection. Those are not things to keep an eye on. Stop using that socket or that circuit and get someone out this week.
7. Your EICR came back with C1 or C2 codes
C1 means danger present. C2 means potentially dangerous. One or two C2s on isolated circuits can often be repaired individually. C1 or C2 codes appearing across multiple circuits usually means the installation is failing as a whole, and repairing it piece by piece costs more than replacing it.
8. Not enough sockets, and extension leads everywhere
This is a comfort problem rather than a danger one, but it is the most common reason people finally book. A 1970s three-bed was wired with two sockets a room. If every room has a four-way trailing lead behind the furniture, the installation is not doing its job. Adding sockets is straightforward on a healthy installation, and the wrong answer on a tired one.
9. You are extending, converting or refitting the kitchen
This is the cheapest moment there will ever be. The walls are already open, the floors are already up and the mess is already happening. Doing the rewire as part of the project rather than two years later saves you paying twice for the same disruption.
Properties across Anfield, Wavertree, Toxteth and Aigburth in this age range are the ones most likely to still be on original or first-replacement wiring. If yours has never been rewired, an EICR is the sensible first step. It costs £99 and it either buys you peace of mind or tells you exactly what needs doing.
How Much Does a House Rewire Cost in Liverpool?
A 2-bedroom house is £4,500, a 3-bedroom house is £5,000 and a 4-bedroom house is £5,500. These are fixed prices agreed in writing at the free survey, not ranges, and they do not change on the invoice.
Every price includes a new 18th Edition consumer unit with an RCBO on every circuit, all circuits wired to BS 7671, mains interconnected smoke alarms, a surge protection device and the full NICEIC certificate. The work is notified to building control under Part P at no extra cost to you. See the full breakdown on our house rewiring page.
The same fixed prices apply outside the city. We cover the Wirral, St Helens, Warrington and Formby, each with its own local page.
A free survey tells you in twenty minutes. No obligation, and we will tell you if you do not need one.
Why Is There No Earth on My Lighting Circuits?
Because the cable was installed before a circuit protective conductor at every lighting point was required, which for most UK housing means before the mid 1960s. Twin cable was run to the ceiling roses with a live and a neutral and nothing else. There is no CPC in that cable to find, so it is not something that can be added later.
It is one of the most common things we come across in older Liverpool properties, and people are usually surprised by it because everything works perfectly well.
Why it matters even though nothing is wrong today
Without an earth at the ceiling rose you are limited to double insulated fittings. Plastic pendants, essentially. That is safe, and plenty of houses have run like that for fifty years without incident.
The problem arrives the day somebody buys a nice metal pendant, a chandelier or a set of spotlights, and fits them. Now there is an exposed metal part with no path to earth. If a live conductor ever comes into contact with that metal, and a loose terminal or a nicked cable is all it takes, the fitting stays live and waits for someone to touch it. Nothing trips, because there is nothing for the fault current to flow through.
Nobody thinks of a light fitting as an electrical job. That is exactly why it catches people out.
Why it usually means a full rewire rather than just the lights
You cannot retrofit an earth into a cable that does not have one. The lighting circuits have to be replaced, and lighting is the worst thing in the house to get at. The cable runs through ceilings, which means either going through the ceiling from below or lifting the floor above it.
Once those floors are up, the sockets underneath them are right there. And the plasterer is coming either way. Doing the lighting now and the sockets in a couple of years means paying twice for the same access and twice for the same making good, which is why we would usually say do the lot.
Do I Need a Full Rewire or Will a Partial Do?
Sometimes a partial is genuinely enough. A single circuit is £450 to £650, one full floor is £1,800 to £2,600, a kitchen on its own is £1,200 to £1,800 and a consumer unit alone is £700. If one circuit has been damaged by a nail through a cable, replace that circuit and move on.
Where it stops making sense is when the circuits have failed on age rather than damage, and that is most of the time.
Why several failed circuits usually means the whole lot
Insulation resistance is the measurement that tells you whether the insulation around a conductor is still doing its job. It is tested circuit by circuit during an EICR, using the method set out in BS 7671, and it degrades slowly over decades as heat, movement, damp and simple age break the material down. It does not fail suddenly. It drifts, which is also why an ageing installation starts tripping its RCD for no obvious reason.
So an inspection comes back with two or three circuits below the acceptable figure and the rest scraping through. It is tempting to replace the failures and leave the others. But the circuits that passed are the same cable, put in on the same day, by the same person, in the same house. They are on the same clock. They are not fine, they are just not quite as far along yet.
The cable is the cheap part
This is the bit that catches people out. The cost of a rewire is not mostly the cable. It is the access:
- Floorboards up, and back down again
- Walls chased for every cable drop
- Ceilings opened where the lighting runs
- A plasterer in behind us to make all of it good
That access cost barely changes whether we are replacing three circuits or twelve. Lighting circuits are the worst example, because getting at them means going through ceilings and lifting the floor above. Do the lighting now and the sockets in two years and you have paid for the same floors coming up twice, and paid a plasterer twice.
Which is why we will often say that replacing four failed circuits is close enough in price to doing the whole house that you may as well have the whole house, with a new board, a full certificate and a ten year guarantee on all of it, rather than a patched installation with four new circuits and eight old ones waiting their turn.
A nail through one cable. One circuit damaged during a kitchen fit. A board that needs replacing but sound cable behind it. In those cases we will quote the partial and say so, because there is no sense charging you for eleven circuits that are fine.
What Does a Rewire Quote Not Include?
Making good. Every rewire quote you receive in Liverpool, ours included, covers the electrical work only. Chasing walls for cable leaves damage that needs plastering, and that is quoted separately by the plastering team we work with. If a quote does not mention it, the cost has not gone away. Ask every electrician you speak to.
How Long Does a House Rewire Take?
A 2-bedroom house takes 2 to 3 days, a 3-bedroom house 3 to 4 days and a 4-bedroom house 4 to 5 days. That is roughly half what most Liverpool electricians quote, because we put a team on the house rather than sending one electrician room by room.
You can, but it is harder than most companies admit. There is no mains power at all from day one, which means no heating, no hot water, no cooker and no electric shower until the job is finished. We fit one temporary socket at the meter so you can run an extension lead for a fridge, a lamp and phone charging. If you can stay with family for those few days, or the property is empty, you will be far more comfortable and the job runs faster.
Should I Rewire Before or After Decorating?
Before. Always before, and it is not close.
A rewire means chasing into walls, lifting floors and opening ceilings. Do that after the plastering is finished and the flooring is down and you are paying to damage work you have just paid for. New flooring is the worst of it. Carpet can often be lifted and relaid, but engineered board, laminate and glued LVT usually cannot, and replacing it costs more than the electrical work that forced it up.
Services first, then plaster, then decorate, then floors. Every trade after us covers up what we did, rather than us cutting through what they did.
Where the money is best spent
People often come to us with a budget for the house and a plan that is mostly finishes. New kitchen, new flooring, decorating throughout. It is understandable, because those are the things you see every day and the things visitors notice.
But a rewire lasts twenty five to forty years. Decoration lasts five to ten before you want it changed anyway, and flooring not much longer. If the budget will not stretch to both, putting it into the wiring and the heating first buys you a house that is safe and stable for decades, and you decorate as you go.
Do it the other way round and one of two things happens. Either you live with an installation you already know is failing, or you tear up new work in a couple of years to get at it.
We would rather tell someone to come back next year with the services done than take a deposit for a rewire the week after their floors went down.
Does Rewiring Add Value to a Liverpool Property?
Yes, and the clearest way to see it is what happens when you do not. Buyers increasingly ask for an electrical inspection before exchange. A failed EICR hands them room to knock more off the price than the rewire would have cost you, and it can hold up the sale while they get their own quotes. A current NICEIC certificate removes that conversation entirely.
Free site survey. Fixed written quote, not a range. 10 year guarantee. NICEIC certified.