Electrician in London

Full Rewire

A full rewire replaces every circuit in a property — sockets, lighting, consumer unit, and all the cabling connecting them — and is usually needed in properties with genuinely old wiring: rubber or fabric-insulated cable, an outdated fuse box rather than a modern RCD-protected consumer unit, or a property that's never been rewired since it was built decades ago.

It's disruptive work, since cabling runs behind walls and under floors throughout the property, which is why a full rewire is often scheduled alongside a wider renovation rather than done on its own — the same walls being opened up for other trades are the ones a rewire needs access to anyway. On completion, a full rewire is signed off with an Electrical Installation Certificate, confirming the work meets current wiring regulations.

Circuit Upgrades & Partial Rewires

Not every property needs a full rewire — sometimes it's a single circuit, a specific room, or an area affected by a renovation that actually needs upgrading, while the rest of the property's wiring remains sound. This is considerably less disruptive and less expensive than a full rewire, and it's the more common scenario in practice.

Partial work still gets certified properly — a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate covers work that doesn't constitute a full new installation, confirming the specific circuits worked on meet regulations without needing to certify the whole property's wiring.

EICR — Electrical Installation Condition Reports

An EICR is an inspection and test of a property's existing wiring, not new work. It's the document landlords are legally required to have for rented properties, and it's increasingly requested by mortgage lenders, insurers and buyers during a property sale, since it's the standard way of confirming a property's electrics are safe without needing to see inside every wall.

The report lists every circuit tested with a pass, or a specific code identifying what's wrong and how urgently it needs addressing. An EICR that comes back with remedial work needed isn't unusual, particularly in older properties, and any remedial work identified can be quoted and carried out as its own job.

Consumer Unit (Fuse Board) Replacement

An old fuse box — rewirable fuses or no RCD protection at all — is one of the more common single upgrades in older London properties, replaced with a modern consumer unit that includes RCD protection across circuits, cutting power automatically if a fault's detected rather than relying on a fuse that might not blow in time.

It's a contained job compared to a full rewire, usually completed within a day, and it's often the single highest-impact electrical upgrade available for the cost involved. Completed work is certified with an Electrical Installation Certificate.

Fault-Finding & Repairs

A socket that's stopped working, a circuit that keeps tripping, a light that flickers for no obvious reason — fault-finding is diagnostic work as much as repair work, tracing a problem back to its actual cause rather than just replacing the most obvious suspect. A tripping circuit is often a symptom of a fault elsewhere on that circuit rather than a fault with the consumer unit itself.

Repairs get certified with a Minor Works Certificate where the work involves altering or adding to an existing circuit.

New Circuits, Sockets & Lighting

Extra sockets, additional circuits for a kitchen extension, or a lighting redesign for a renovated room all fall under this category — new electrical work added to an existing installation rather than a full rewire. This is where electrical work most often overlaps with other trades on a renovation: a new kitchen needs circuits for specific appliances, an extension needs its own circuits run from the consumer unit, and lighting design needs to be planned before plastering closes up the ceiling.

Depending on scope, this gets certified with either a Minor Works Certificate or a full Electrical Installation Certificate.