Electrical rewiring in Romford for homeowners and landlords across RM1 to RM7 — the town centre, Gidea Park, Collier Row, Harold Wood and Rush Green. Full and partial rewires, tested and certified, with building control notification handled through our NICEIC registration.
Call 07502 396654 to arrange a survey.
What a rewire looks like, day by day
For a typical Romford three-bedroom house — an interwar semi in Gidea Park or a Victorian terrace nearer the market — the work runs roughly like this.
- Before day one — survey and specification. We walk the property and ask the questions that decide the price: where you actually want sockets, whether the loft gets converted later, whether the garage needs a supply, whether an EV charger is coming. Rewires are cheap to change on paper and expensive to change once the plaster is off.
- Day 1 — first fix begins. Floorboards up, usually upstairs first because the joist voids give access to both levels. Walls chased for drops to switch and socket positions. This is the day the house looks worst.
- Days 2–4 — cabling out. New circuits run from the intended board position outward: ring finals for sockets, radials for kitchen appliances, lighting circuits, cooker and shower circuits, and any submains for outbuildings.
- Days 4–5 — board, tails and bonding. New consumer unit positioned, meter tails renewed to 25 mm², main protective bonding to gas and water proved or installed.
- Days 5–7 — making good. Chases filled, floors relaid, ceilings patched.
- Days 7–9 — second fix. Sockets, switches and light fittings on, consumer unit populated and connected.
- Days 9–10 — test, certify, notify. The whole installation tested from scratch, results recorded circuit by circuit, Electrical Installation Certificate issued and the work notified under Part P.
What varies the price
Floor construction (suspended or solid), wall type (solid or stud), the accessory count, and what making good includes. Note what is not on that list: the cable. Materials are a modest share of a rewire — labour, access and reinstatement are the job, which is why two honest quotes for the same house can differ by thousands. They are describing different amounts of work.
The accessory count is the one variable you control. A 1930s semi was built with about two sockets per room, and a like-for-like quote will faithfully reproduce that. Count the sockets you want, room by room, before anyone prices it — or see our guidance on socket installations.
Making good — get this in writing
The single biggest source of disappointment on rewires is scope, not workmanship. “Making good” means different things to different contractors: filled ready for decoration, finished plaster, or finished and painted are three different jobs at three different prices. Ours states which.
Does your house need a full rewire?
Not every old installation does, and the test is measurement rather than age. Insulation resistance across all circuits at 500 V distinguishes a house with one bad circuit from a house whose cable is at the end of its life.
Three findings point to a full rewire in Romford’s stock: rubber-insulated cable, typically surviving on lighting circuits baked under the loft felt for decades; multiple circuits reading low rather than one; and an installation so heavily and repeatedly altered that no one can establish what is connected to what — common in properties converted to flats.
Everything else is usually remedial work: a consumer unit replacement, main bonding, a couple of circuits renewed. Days rather than weeks, and a fraction of the cost. We will tell you which you are looking at, with the test results to back it up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can we live in the house during the rewire?
Most Romford rewires are done with the family still in, working room by room and restoring supply each evening. It is slower and considerably cheaper than moving out. An empty house is faster and gives a better result on making good. Say which you want at the survey.
How long will the power be off each day?
Circuits are isolated as they are worked on rather than the whole house being dead all day. We restore supply at the end of each working day unless the stage of the job genuinely prevents it, and we will tell you in advance if that is the case.
What certification do I get?
An Electrical Installation Certificate with a full schedule of measured test results, plus a building control compliance certificate issued through our NICEIC registration. Keep both — a buyer’s solicitor will ask.
Do you rewire flats and converted properties?
Yes, and they need more survey time. Each dwelling needs its own properly certified installation, correctly metered and independently isolatable, and circuits that cross between flats have to be found and separated first.
Book a rewiring survey in Romford
Romford is about four miles from our base in Dagenham. We run a 24-hour call-out alongside planned work, so anything urgent found during a survey can be made safe the same day.
Call 07502 396654 or email idealelectricians@gmail.com for a free, no-obligation estimate.
Ideal Electricians Ltd · 9 Woodward Road, Dagenham, Essex RM9 4SJ · NICEIC approved · Part P compliant · 15+ years