What it costs to modernise the wiring in an old wooden house

Why the price range is so wide

A full rewire of a pre-war wooden house can run from roughly 3 000 € for a small, straightforward house to well over 10 000 € for a larger one with difficult access and old, deteriorated wiring throughout. That is not a vague estimate — it reflects how differently these houses were built and maintained.

Two houses of the same floor area can need very different amounts of labour. One may have had partial rewiring in the 1990s and reasonably accessible cavities; the other may still have the original cloth-insulated wiring from the 1930s run through solid timber walls with no cavity at all. The second job takes several times longer.

Because of this, any number quoted without seeing the house — yours or anyone else's — is close to meaningless. The range exists because the houses themselves vary this much, not because pricing is vague.

What makes the job more or less expensive

Access is the single biggest factor. If the house is being renovated and walls, floors or ceilings are already open, an electrician can run new cable directly, which is quick work. If the walls are finished and need to be opened specifically for the rewire, then patched afterwards, the same metre of cable costs considerably more in labour.

The condition of the existing wiring matters too. Old aluminium or cloth-insulated cable often needs to come out entirely rather than be left in place, and in solid log or plank walls without a cavity, new routes sometimes have to be chased in or run in surface conduit, which changes both the time and the look of the finished result.

House size, the number of circuits needed for a modern kitchen and bathroom, and whether the consumer unit is replaced at the same time all add to the total. A consumer unit replacement on its own runs from 350 € as a separate job; bundled into a full rewire it is usually more efficient than doing it later.

What a full modernisation usually includes

A complete rewire typically covers removing the old wiring where it is not being reused, running new circuits to every room, installing enough sockets and switches for how the house is actually used, and fitting a new consumer unit with residual current protection.

It usually also includes separate circuits for the kitchen and bathroom, proper earthing throughout the house, and labelling at the consumer unit so anyone can see which breaker covers which circuit. Testing and certification of the finished installation is part of the job, not an extra.

• Removal of old cable no longer in use
• New circuits to every room
• Sockets and switches to match how the house is used today
• New consumer unit with residual current protection
• Dedicated kitchen and bathroom circuits
• Earthing throughout
• Testing and a labelled consumer unit at the end

What is usually left out of the quote

Making good is the most common exclusion. If walls need to be opened and are not already being renovated, patching plaster, repainting or refitting panelling afterwards is normally a separate cost, since it is finishing work rather than electrical work.

Appliance connections beyond a standard socket — a cooker circuit sized for a specific model, an electric sauna heater, underfloor heating controls — are usually priced once the appliance or its specification is known, not guessed at in advance. The same goes for outbuildings or a separate garage, which are normally quoted as their own item.

Materials are another point worth checking. If we buy cable, consumer unit and fittings, a 10 % handling fee applies; some customers prefer to buy materials themselves against a specification, which is entirely workable and simply needs agreeing beforehand.

Why a fixed quote, not an hourly estimate

Electrical work is billed from 49 € an hour when it is a small, contained job — fixing a fault, adding a socket, work where the scope is clear from the start. A full rewire is a different kind of job: the scope only becomes clear once someone has opened a wall or two and seen what is actually behind the cladding.

For that reason, a full modernisation is quoted fixed after a site visit, not estimated by the hour. An electrician looks at the wiring, the walls, the access, and any renovation plans already underway, then gives a figure valid for 30 days. That figure is what you pay, regardless of how the job runs on the day.

This protects both sides. You are not left with an open-ended hourly bill on a job where nobody can predict the hours in advance, and we are not guessing at a price for a house we have not seen.

When it makes sense to split the work into stages

Not every house needs the whole job done in one go, and not every budget allows for it. If the wiring is old but not obviously dangerous, it can make sense to prioritise the consumer unit first — replacing it on its own, from 350 €, brings proper circuit protection to the whole house even before the cable behind the walls is renewed.

The next natural stage is usually the kitchen and bathroom, where load is highest and old wiring is under the most strain, followed by the rest of the house room by room as the budget or renovation schedule allows.

The one time staging does not make sense is when walls are already open for a renovation. If plaster and boards are coming off anyway, running all the new circuits at once while access is easy is almost always cheaper than doing it later and reopening finished walls.