The right order to do electrical work during a flat renovation

Before you touch a wall: a plan on paper

Draw the flat to scale, even roughly, and mark every socket, switch, light point and appliance connection before anyone picks up a chisel. Think about furniture placement now — a socket behind a wardrobe is wasted, and one missing behind the desk means an extension lead for years.

This is also when to decide on extras: USB sockets, a socket for a wall-mounted television, underfloor heating wiring, extra circuits for the kitchen. Changing your mind after the walls are chased is far more expensive than changing your mind on paper.

If the renovation touches more than electrics — new layout, new flooring, replastering throughout — it is worth having the whole job planned as one, which is what our flat renovation service (from 180 € per job) is for, rather than coordinating trades yourself.

Marking: a pencil line on the wall before plastering

Once the plan is settled, mark it on the actual walls: a line for every cable run, an X for every socket and switch, a circle for ceiling points. Use a spirit level so sockets sit at a consistent height along a wall — a common choice is around 30 cm from the floor, with switches around 90–100 cm, but match existing fittings if you are extending a circuit rather than starting fresh.

Photograph every wall before anything is chased or covered. It costs nothing and saves guesswork in five years when you want to hang a shelf and need to know exactly where a cable runs.

Electrical installation work comes before plaster and wall finishing

Cables and conduit go in first, before any plastering or wall finishing. Chases are cut along the marked lines, cable is run, back boxes for sockets and switches are set into the wall, and the consumer unit end of each circuit is left accessible for testing.

In a panel building the chasing is usually straightforward in plaster or block partition walls; in a pre-war wooden house in Kalamaja or Nõmme the routing often has to work around timber studs and old wiring that needs identifying and isolating first, not just covering over.

This is the stage to have a qualified electrician on site rather than doing it yourself, particularly for anything touching the consumer unit or new circuits — our electrical work (from 49 € per hour) covers exactly this rough-in stage as well as the final fitting.

Plaster and wall finish dry before anything goes on top

Once cables and boxes are in, the chases are filled and the wall is plastered over as usual. Plaster needs proper drying time before painting or tiling — rushing this is a common cause of cracked paint and blown tile adhesive later, and there is no way to speed it up safely with a heater blasting one corner.

Skip fitting anything electrical at this point. Boxes stay capped and cables stay coiled inside them, protected from plaster dust and paint, until the wall finish is fully dry and the room is otherwise ready.

Flooring goes down before the final electrical fitting, but not before all the cabling

Flooring — laminate, parquet, tiles — is laid after the walls are finished but before switches and sockets are fitted. This order matters for two reasons: skirting boards often need to sit against a finished floor, and any floor-level cabling, such as underfloor heating mats or floor-box sockets, has to be in place before the floor covering goes down, not after.

If underfloor heating is part of the job, its sensor cable and connection point need marking and testing before the screed or flooring covers it, since a fault found afterwards means lifting the floor again.

The last step: fitting after painting

Painting happens with the sockets and switches still uncapped or removed, never masked round a fitted plate — masking tape round switch plates is the single most common shortcut that leaves a visibly uneven paint line once the tape comes off.

Only once paint is dry, and flooring and skirting are in, do the switches, sockets and light fittings get fitted and tested. This is also when the electrician checks each circuit, labels the consumer unit, and confirms everything works before you move furniture back in.

• Plan every socket, switch and light point on paper first
• Mark cable runs and fitting positions on the bare wall and photograph them
• Chase, run cable and set back boxes before plastering
• Let plaster and wall finish dry fully before anything touches them
• Lay flooring and any underfloor cabling before final fitting
• Paint with fittings removed or uncapped, not masked round
• Fit and test switches, sockets and lights as the final step

When to leave the electrics to a specialist

Marking positions and planning the layout is something most people can do themselves with a spirit level and a bit of patience. Chasing walls, running cable and anything connected to the consumer unit is a different matter — faulty wiring inside a finished wall is a fire risk and very expensive to correct once everything is covered.

We do not do gas work, and we do not touch load-bearing walls; if your renovation involves either, that part needs a specialist and, where load-bearing walls are concerned, usually a permit from the city as well.

For anything from the first chase to the final test, it is worth having a qualified electrician do the installation rather than covering guesswork behind plaster — get it wrong once and the fix means opening the wall back up.