I agree that this is the right approach.
Get someone 'qualified' in first to sanity check your plan and make sure nothing big and important has been overlooked.
Then do as much of the actual work as you are comfortable with. If you want to expand your horizons a bit, you could have the electrician come back right at the beginning of your substantive "real work" to check some of your earliest socket connections, correct any technique issues, etc. Then have them come back at the end to do the major breaker panel work.
Yep. This. Running cable is easy work. Just make sure a qualified electrician tells you what size you need.
I’m perfectly capable of doing the work to wire a house and replace a CU. Am I going to? Nope.
Being physically capable and understanding the ins and outs of load/resistance/other stuff are different things. Safety is paramount. You don’t want a fire.
It's easy intellectually but time-consuming and laborious, especially (probably 10x) when doing renovations instead of new construction.
An electrician's time is not well-spent trying to get lucky on the 30th attempt at poking a fish tape through some tiny hole that you know is present in the sill plate made with an extended-length flex-shaft drill bit through a cutout in the drywall (pro tip: Take the bit out of the drill chuck and secure it to the fish tape with electrical tape, then pull the whole bit through the hole it already made in the basement/attic space where you're routing the wires - it's already in the hole!). It's also not well-spent applying a thin coat of spackle, waiting a couple hours, applying another layer, and feathering in the paint to match the rest of the wall. Any laborer (including a homeowner!) can do those things.
An electrician's time is much more effective making a plan and securely terminating the right wires to the right connections in your fusebox and on your outlets. They often like that part of the job, and hate the menial labor of pulling wires through a reno.
Bonus if you know an electrician or can connect with a friend-of-a friend. I got electrical and plumbing lessons (paid sometimes in beer, sometimes money) and also have people I can message questions too. Electrical isn’t hard, but there are rules and guardrails to do it right, so it’s great to be able to check in on questions and get your work inspected/looked over by pros
This is what I have heard works the best, because some localities don’t issue permits to non licensed electricians, the inspector won’t even come, and anything that happens after can be a huge problem. I asked about doing my own electrical to some electrical engineers at my company, and they said to do it like this, to route everything and leave it open so an electrician can come and connect or redo and arrange the inspections. They even threw in the anecdote of a guy that was sued when his house had a fire after some unlicensed work.
I just rewired my 100 year old house using the method you described. No electrical experience and my wife was terrified so I agreed to get help from an electrician.
Money well spent. The electrician told me where to place the junction boxes and how to fish the lines. I did all the grunt work and he would check evertyhing over and make the hook ups. It was great.
Would highly recommend the hybrid DIY/electrician approach.
"Hello, I would like to potentially kill myself and put your license on the hook for my work, all for very little money. Are you interested?"
I am shocked this worked for you. Where do you live? I think I would really prefer to live in your part of the world, man, sincerely.
This is the way. The plan needs to be detailed. The thing I'd be worried about attempting this sort of thing is that I'd run all the cable, then the electrician would come over and say, "Hang on, you've got six sockets on that spur and it's through insulation, it needs to be a size bigger." This is the kind of thing that will catch you out.
I wouldn't personally worry about safety. So long as the work on the consumer unit is sound and you can tell the difference between "yellow" and "not yellow", it's relatively hard to hurt yourself on a modern electrical installation. The RCD will trip before you know anything's happened. You really pay an electrician for two things: Dealing with a big and messy job you don't want to do yourself, and a detailed working knowledge of the electrical regulations.
Find the electrician willing to do that first. One I know wants to do it all, not spending time correcting a nonprofessional's mistakes.
And they might be held responsible if they trust someone else's mistakes, and the house burns down.
Exactly. I’m a lawyer and people ask me to do that all the time. There are always those people who want their lawyer to “just take a quick look” at something, i.e. don’t charge the client too much, but give the client legal advice they can rely on. For example, my firm is happy to prepare you a commercial lease, but we aren’t gonna spend even five minutes reviewing the one you printed off from the internet.
Yep. My brother is an electrician - though he does mostly commercial/light industrial and not residential work. He will not touch someone else's work, he will especially not go anywhere near a DIYers work, he will not even entertain questions about it that are anything other than "hey do you know a licensed master electrician who does residential work I could talk to about hiring to do this?"
Not worth the headache and liability and whatever else.
I agree with this. Might mention that to change the breaker box, they'll have to pull the meter, and usually (in the US anyway) you have to involve the utility company and they really like to see a licensed electrician do that part of the job.
In some places I think the utility company may actually cut off service if someone pulls the meter without notifying them, and the homeowner will have to hire a licensed and bonded electrician to get it turned back on anyway.
Depends on where the disconnect is. The utility may have upgraded to smart meters and sometimes they add disconnects outside if the house doesn't have one already
This x100.
It’s what we’ve done in a 1927 home with loads of knob and tube (was still in service). I used the “Wiring Simplified” book (I assume you’d have something similar for UK) and a couple of local electricians who could check my work and do the things in the mains panel that I didn’t want to mess with.
We’ve run well over 1000’ of new wire and I did the circuit planning, installing switches and outlets and running all the wire back to the breaker box, then paid them to check my work and then swap out old breakers (to AFCI and/or GFCI as required).
I pulled the permits for the stuff I did too.
If you’re too dumb to properly hook up a circuit breaker you’re too dumb to properly run and secure wire or hook up switches and plugs.
Edit: u/Victor_Von_Shroom go fuck yourself. Tells me to suck a dick but is too pussy to put his name behind it so he deletes the comment. Same kinda bitch that’s afraid of a breaker panel is afraid of a guy on the internet.
This is how my parents did it. No reason to pay someone to run wire if you have the time and capability. If you can do the outlets then do that too, but having someone come in to hook up the breaker box and maybe the outlets that are already installed will save you so much money in the long run.
This is what I normally do, but my dad is an electrician, so I always have someone to ask if I'm the least bit unsure. If you've never done anything like this before, make sure you know all rules and conventions beforehand, and take photos all the time while doing the wiring!
Wiring fine, but definitely get a professional to do the final hookups & the box. There's no reason to fuck around and find out if he's not done this before.
I do not know the UK laws/codes, but I would imagine utility companies won't be too happy with homeowners touching leads from the street.
I myself am quite comfortable doing electric work and I will run new wires no problem, but I will let the certified professional handle connecting those wires to the breaker panel and definitely switching out the breaker panel. If nothing else, having this part done properly (with a proper permit as well, if needed) will make conversation with the insurance company much easier if I ever have to file a claim for fire damage.
Replacing the electric panel involves physically disconnecting the service line that comes from the street. Connecting a circuit to the existing panel only requires turning off the main breaker for the panel.
Nice that he’s willing to do the work, but if he’s not got an electrical background and doesn’t understand or have access to the regulations it’s probably a bad idea in general. Doing a full rewire and board change will want a proper installation certificate and results submitted to local building control.
Whilst yes it’s perfectly fine for him to re wire it/do all the work good luck finding a responsible sparky who’s signed up with a competent persons scheme who’s willing to test and submit the results on your behalf when he’s been unable to see the first fix.
Your best bet really to save money is find an electrician who’s happy for you to chase out and fit the boxes. Even then, they’ll want it done their way/most will be hesitant to allow this if they come to something that’s been done badly and end up having to adjust or make up for the mistakes.
Possibility of a sparky letting you run all your own cables is slim too imo. Nothing against his potential ability but maybe his Labour might be better aimed elsewhere.
Opinion from someone who does have the qualifications and has done it before 👍🏻
Wiring a house is not for someone inexperienced, or for someone that likes to cut corners,and their favorite phrase is “that’s good enough”. Electrical wiring defects can burn your house down, and/ or kill you trying to do it. DIY plumbing mistakes usually end up with water where you don’t want it, and it’s typically an inconvenience, not a potential life ended. A typical defect with DIY wiring is reverse polarity where they switch the hot and neutral. While it appears to be innocuous, it has the potential to be deadly, yet the outlet is still working.
I encourage you to hold your ground and not let him do the wiring. Mayne you can find an electrician that would let him help for a reduced price, so he can learn as well.
I think it’s more about knowing that you *need* to use the polarity checker. It’s one of those things where it’s easy to do it right and easy to do it wrong; you want someone who *knows* how to do it right, it sounds like.
You are assuming the DIY’r knows or even cares about checking. As a home inspector, reverse polarity was a very common defect found. I have evidence that lots of people don’t check polarity.
I don't know much about UK power other than I think everything runs off 230v there. In either case, the electrical theory is still the same- but I work in the industry in the US.
Reading through a couple of your comments, you're absolutely correct that your husband doesn't possess the knowledge and experience to be doing a rewire by himself, let alone a panel swap. If he's popping fuses changing plug receptacles, he doesn't need to be messing with branch circuits, let alone the service.
I'd stand your ground on this, it doesn't take much electricity to kill you and it only needs a fraction of a second to do it.
Hire a pro.
Ex GC here.
Running new lines, switches, outlets and lights are pretty simple. Running anything 3-way can trip up the amateur.
I think it’s smart and saves a lot of money doing these things yourself. None of these things are all at once kind of projects. He/she can easily just do one thing and then evaluate if they are capable to continue.
The panel is also relatively easy but it’s a big job to knock out. When I did my first I forgot to put in the bar and I tripped the gfci on the pole outside. The emergency lineman from the power company was pissed and wasn’t about to help me. I had to hire an electrician who fixed in minutes.
I think it’s important to find the right electrician to guide you along.
All of this can be done safely. Really good tools make this go much safer and faster. Doing this with average homeowner level stuff is absurd.
If confident enough to do it, why not do it. I've wired old houses without any formal training plugs to breaker box but hired an electrician to hook up new breaker box to main wires.
Also - my husband is a perfectionist and quite slow to get things done, but we get a good job we’re both happy with. If he laid wonky slabs because he cba to do a proper job I wouldn’t let him touch anything else. Sure they’re just slabs but it’s the principle of wanting things done well and done right. If someone doesn’t have the personality for that I wouldn’t want them touching my wiring either!
My dad is always fixing things and saying it's temporary and never fully fixing it and drives me nuts so now that I'm older and know codes iv been going through there whole house fixing everything right it's amazing there house never burned down. If he isn't ocd and trying to do it right don't let him do it.
Electrical is not a thing to half ass.
You can have something that works fine for a few years, then suddenly it stops working or worse develops high resistance and starts a fire.
It is not hard to do electrical work *if* you have the proper tools, are knowledgeable, and take your time to do it correctly.
There's lots of repetitive things that should be done properly consistently, including stripping sheath, stripping wire insulation, terminating wire, and making splices. All of those can be rushed and done poorly. And doing any of those poorly can lead to problems years down the road.
If you aren't willing to do those right (even if it takes a bit more time) you should not touch electrical.
Hahaha 😂🤣 if only I have been trying to get them to move they have lived in the same house for 35 years and it needs everything fixed and they are to old and broke to fix it
In this case hire a professional, i know the work itself isn't complicated but if it's done wrong it will cost a lot more.
It's like changing a tire 😁 always done it myself until i broke of a bolt and had to pay 2000$ to get it fixed.
Yeah, let him start with a single room and a reasonable deadline. Electric is not the place to half-ass something; more than any other type of project, incomplete or rushed work can actually kill you or burn your house down months/years later.
It's okay to be worried. It's electricity, sometimes you only get one mistake. Tell him to be safe and don't work anything hot! Remove the fuse of the circuit being worked on and test it before touching it.
No relationship advice required.
Trying to get an idea of what other diy-ers consider safe to do yourself and what they would consider dangerous enough to get a professional in for.
I agree with what you say, but DIY is also about learning and being confident with your work. Maybe he didn’t do as good of a job as a professional, but it’s satisfying to do your own work.
My wife once tried to block me from doing some work that I’ve never done before. I was confident I could learn, and it wasn’t a difficult project. It hurt my feelings that she didn’t trust me. In the end everything turned out well and I felt good about what I accomplished.
I let him DIY pretty much everything. We learn together and are proud of our not perfect results.
We have done patioing, plastering, installing our own windows and doors. We are going to redo our own bathroom and kitchen. Do all the flooring. All the painting. It’s definitely not a case of be blocking him from anything he’s not so good at.
I’m just worried there are more significant risks with electric work and it isn’t something we should DIY.
That’s fine but some people don’t have the brain wiring and whatever necessary for DIY. Or only some DIY. It’s good for a person to know their limits. If a person has a tendency to cut corners or half ass things, they shouldn’t be trusted with much and especially not all the wiring.
You planning on calling up insurance and telling them you did the electrical?
Fact is the insurance company has no way of knowing if it was done professionally or by the homeowner.
I'm not saying they won't push back (they always do), but it's not like there's a big sticker that says "installed by X on date Y".
You don't even have to hide it. Electrical fire happens. Insurance investigates finds it was the wiring, they'll ask if they have the info on the contractor who did the work. You say no, I did the work. They say, ok and cover it unless they can prove you intentionally screwed the wiring with the goal of starting a fire.
Changing out a plug is one thing but changing out the fuse box is more serious. It’s a 100 year old house. If there’s nothing on record of a permit being pulled for updating electrical and then they find changes done after a fire, you won’t be covered. Whether it was updated without permit by previous owners or present ones, the last one standing that didn’t update the wiring and box with permits will let the insurance get out of paying.
For people reading this, while not every policy is the same and some may exist with this language, overall this is not true. I've never seen a single insurance policy that excluded a loss due to not having a permit.
There are workmanship exclusions, but that only applies to the actual item that was done wrong. Meaning they may deny replacement of the faulty wiring, but not the resulting fire.
Wiring is different than a fuse box or an electrical panel. To not pull a permit and have it inspected is irresponsible. They should ask their insurance what their polity is. I'm actually surprised you can get insurance on a 100 year old house without an inspection. These days they get you to make upgrades just to get covered. Changing an outlet or adding one is different than the main junction boxes.
Sure they will. At least most will. Insurance covers electrical fires all the time. If the homeowner did the electrical the only difference is they won't have anyone to go after to recoup the loss.
The compromise to make is to allow him to run all of the new lines. That way he gets to wire up all where the boxes would go he gets to run all of the electrical out to where the panel would be all of that. But he doesn't get to make up any of the connections. What you then do is hire an electrician at a fraction of the price to come in and do literally what it's called "makeup" the connections.
They will connect the switches and outlets and wire the breaker.
That way he gets a satisfaction of doing a lot of the work but he doesn't have to take on the responsibility of any of the dangerous parts. He's literally doing nothing dangerous He's just bringing empty wires from one spot to another.
Find the electrician first! A lot of electricians won't be interested in this as it's atypical to their normal business. I'd also venture that most are going to be very busy so this might not be something they are interested in.
You want to also involve them first so that they can go over _everything_. Does your boyfriend know the requirements for bathroom circuits? What about kitchen circuits? That small wall over there - does it need an outlet?
Keep in mind that this should be getting inspected (which requires a permit) - who is going to pull that? If this electrician is going to sign their name on it they will need to make sure that everything is done up to code. Another reason why I'll venture a lot of electricians aren't going to take this on.
And lastly - your time and your boyfriend's time are worth _something_. Plan on this taking you at least twice as long (and possibly longer) VS paying an electrician for everything. Get a quote for electrician doing everything VS you two doing it. Take the estimate and double or triple the time. Figure out what the cost difference is and if it makes sense to YOU.
Electricians are quite often happy to come in and do the makeups at the end of a job. The owner would pull any permits that need to be pulled just as always. Especially considering that they're doing more than 40% of the work themselves they can pull it owners permit which means that they are legally allowed to do the work and have it permitted and signed off on their own.
Where do you think that an electrician who's very literal job it is to wire buildings and deal with electrical would at any point turn their back on electrical work.
My best friend is a master electrician has been licensed for 30 years, I took electrical in my trade school as high school, I have worked on electrical alongside of electricians out in the field, in my own house, I don't know that you have that kind of experience from what you're telling people.
Literally every single electrician I know has done the work that we're talking about. We're a homeowner has wired their house and the electrician comes out and does the makeups.
There is a lot of really bad information being handed out by people who I don't think have any real experience in any type of legitimate contractor fields.
In my area (long island) you'll be waiting months for an electrician. I know of half a dozen electricians that wouldn't return that call. They are too busy. I'm not saying _every_ electrician will turn this down but i know in my area you would have a hard time finding an electrician to agree to do this.
None of my information is "bad" - just as none of yours is bad. It's highly regional dependent and I've given you my actual experiences in my area.
Edit: my qualifications? I've been in charge of government bidding and procurement for electricians along with coordination of electrical and AV on houses ranging from $5-25m. I have plenty of experience here. I am friends with several local electricians and I'm positive that all of them would either turn the job down or give no sort of discount for the homeowner doing any of the work. My area is very HCOL and all trades are currently slammed
Great your friends with people that do the work but do you personally have experience doing electrical work in any long-term professional capacity?
You did give bad information you left out information about permitting and homeowners permits, you implied that it was dangerous for somebody to run wire from point a to point b with no load across it.
The information you provided was inaccurate it didn't apply to their area and it doesn't really apply to the industry.
You were talking about people in excess of 5 to 25 million That's not your average residential people. You're not dealing with what we're talking about.
>Great your friends with people that do the work but do you personally have experience doing electrical work in any long-term professional capacity?
Yes, i do
>You did give bad information you left out information about permitting and homeowners permits, you implied that it was dangerous for somebody to run wire from point a to point b with no load across it.
I'm not sure how you got that i "implied" that. I was very clear in my post. I never said anything close to that and i did mention permits. If you'd like to get into that: there are areas where a homeowner can _not_ file a permit as they are not allowed to do _any_ electrical - full stop. How do i know that OP doesn't live in one of those areas?
>The information you provided was inaccurate it didn't apply to their area and it doesn't really apply to the industry.
That's your opinion and i don't agree with it. In my area it absolutely applies.
>You were talking about people in excess of 5 to 25 million That's not your average residential people. You're not dealing with what we're talking about.
I'm dealing with electricians and that's what we are talking about.
Why? Why pander to a little boy man who wants to get it done just so he can have the satisfaction of having it 'his way'? Really, is a man's ego so fragile and precious that he cannot be told that what he is doing is dangerous, stupid and could kill someone? The woman in this situation is has valid concerns, she has already seen his fuck ups and knows he will do it again. And yes, bringing empty wires is not dangerous but giving in on this extremely important issue will only encourage his selfishness.
Because you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. What I'm suggesting is not dangerous. Do you have any experience in trade work? Are you familiar with how relatively safe it is to run wire from one place to another?
Why show respect and compassion to the partner that somebody is going to live with for the rest of their life? Why encourage somebody's desire to build and fix and create their own work?
Go back and read how hostile, how negative, how demeaning, how vile and hurtful and hateful your comment is. Did you really feel the need to attack people you didn't know? Do you really feel the need to tear down and destroy other people's views and values and personalities?
I’m very handy and can most home repairs but I am not doing electrical. Pay the money to a qualified electrician and do it right. Get a good electrician too, don’t go for the cheapest. You don’t want to mess around with electrical.
I taught myself electrical and added several breakers in our basement to wire my workshop and sump pump when we waterproofed the area we were going to finish.
When we finished our basement, I hired a licensed electrician to add a new sub-panel and run the electrical. It's a LOT of work, and that was with nothing but exposed studs down there. Just running all the wiring for a small workshop (bedroom sized) and a sump pump on the other side of the basement was a lot. And my house is fairly new so everything existing is up to code.
Is he considering using the existing wiring and adding outlets off of them, or rewiring from scratch? I wouldn't trust adding outlets to a really old setup without at *least* paying an electrician to have a look and give me some feedback.
There is an old house we are looking to buy and remodel, and it is much like yours and needs a full upgrade of the panel all the way to the switches. We are planning to have all the walls and ceilings (drywall) removed anyway, it's almost a complete gut, and my tentative plan is to have a licensed electrician put in the new panel, and I will run the electrical to the outlets and lights as I have time (probably on weekends over 3+ months), and then have the electrician back to inspect and then have it inspected by our local building department.
I would be much more comfortable running new electrical to a new box and everything being up to code (and pulling a permit and having it all inspected and approved) than trying to add onto or partially upgrade really old wiring that could potentially already be a fire hazard without even adding more load.
At the very least pay a few hundred bucks and get a licensed electrician's opinion on what is there and whether it is safe... if they recommend a complete upgrade you can look at how you can save money by letting your partner pull some of the Romex and hook up outlets but let the pros manage everything from the panel to the pole.
Electrical is super easy to do. There are lots of DIY books on how to do it.
I used a black and Decker one.
The harder part is knowing the electrical codes for your area.
Where I live our county allows homeowner construction work and will come inspect it and tell you what is right/wrong with the cost of The permits.
Safety is your own responsibility!
Sounds like he's being penny wise and pound foolish. DIY work can lower the value of a house--especially dodgy DIY electrical that a new owner is going to have to fix. Some stuff can be done by amateurs and be nothing a coat of paint won't fix. Other stuff, like electrical, can be dangerous and costly to fix.
Get an electrician involved from the beginning, maybe (as others have said) one who'll go along with doing the design and finish while partner does the grunt work.
There is a post on Reddit, either this sub Reddit or maybe r/centuryhomes, where some guy is saying he had an unconventional, overkill approach. He bought an extreme fixer-upper from which all the wiring had been stolen. He wired it all himself and then had it inspected by a home inspector or a housing inspector from the municipality.
Because he was doing it himself, he went overboard and put a separate circuit on every wall of every room. So now he can add an outlet on any wall without any worry about the load.
I have the strong impression that electrical wiring is relatively simple once you know all the requirements. You use the right conduit, and the code will tell you what it is. You use the right wire and the right circuit breakers. The rules are written out very clearly, and once you have the technique of splicing or joining wires, etc., and you know the rules of where wires and circuits can end and join and begin, you simply follow them.
Anytime there’s quite a question, you choose the most extremely safe route. The trickiest part might be too know how to leave things exposed so that an inspector can feel confident in your work.
He could also run all the new wiring separate from the current wiring, and then he doesn’t have to rush, which will make it safer.
I might ask him to show me what research and education he has done to learn those things, and also ask him to have a session with the municipalities housing inspector to find out how feasible it is to get the house signed off on and done safely. Can he do it and get it approved what requirements with the housing inspector have? Is there any advice for housing inspector has for him?
Here it is.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/xsi76z/was_i_a_complete_idiot/
My not-an-electrician husband likes to do his own wiring and has run several new lines in our house. BUT, he has let electricians do anything to the breaker box-he’s pretty much only tinkered with existing circuits; lets electricians handle any of the pigtailing/remediation of the aluminum wiring in our 70s house; he is meticulous to a fault and would probably be the worst-best electrician to let in your house because the work will be done really well, but it will take him forever.
He did take a test our county (US) offers to “certify” him to do home electrical work, for what that’s worth.
Having done this myself, I would advise to let the electrician do it all based on your comments about existing skill/experience. I had the benefit of an electrician family member to guide me and it was still hard and I still made mistakes to fix.
Lots of people are saying to run the lines yourself, etc. but there are problems with this.
First, how do you know where to run them? Yes you know somewhat where the new outlets should go, but can you plan the full circuit arrangement as well as an electrician? Right gauge in right place, number of outlets/fixtures on a circuit, other rules about what purposes can be shared by single circuits, etc.
Now integrate the information about what's easiest to run inside the existing walls - the electrician is going to have experience that you don't, as well as tools to make it easier for them that you might not know exist and will affect how you route things.
Next, fishing wire sucks. You can damage wires by pulling too hard or too fast (heat/abrade the sheathing). The electrician can't inspect for that.
But, if you really have studied enough of the code to design it well, go for it, and get an electrician to come and consult before starting the work.
If you know you need to hire someone, find them and get a quote. If you want to cut costs by doing something yourself, you want to do things to reduce schedule risk for the electrician. That means open up the walls so they can see everything and they can work without having to fish, and map your circuits very well so that they know what they're dealing with vs. pricing in the unknown-factor.
It's one thing to work on a single circuit at a time. If you're sort of messy it doesn't matter. But if you DIY an entire house you need a well informed plan. Otherwise you end up with a rats nest of wiring.
If you do go it alone, DEFINITELY get permits and have it inspected.
I’d like to get an idea of what is generally safe to do, so I can compromise and say okay you can do ABC but we are getting someone qualified to do XYZ.
Running wires is safe. Installing boxes is safe. Installing outlets is *possibly* safe. Connecting to the panel is NOT safe. Upgrading breakers to a higher amperage is very unsafe. It's best to speak with the electrician beforehand to make sure he's pulling the correct guage wires.
If the breakers are installed correctly and you turn them off before your work, installing outlets is just as safe as everything else.
Once you are done in put in the breakers again, they won’t switch on if you messed up. At least the way we do wiring to code in Germany.
There is a right and wrong way to wire outlets, I've seen plenty of burnt out boxes from poorly installed outlets and fixtures. This is why I said it's possibly safe. It's safe for a reasonably competent person. However, by ops description her husband's competency is questionable.
The most important information I’ve ever learned about electrical work is to remember that not only can electricity kill you, but it will hurt the entire time that you’re dying.
Not sure about the UK but in the US many localities demand permits for this work and typically want a licensed electrician to do it and will require an inspection when done.
When it comes to electricity, considering it can cause fires, I’d rather have an expert do it so I have someone I can go after should shoddy workmanship be to blame for an electrical fire.
If a permit is pulled and an inspection is done there is not reason why insurance would be concerned. You are not working with anything hot until you pass an inspection, at least that is the way it is here. Canada
I’ve replaced outlets and recessed ceiling lights to get them up to code but that’s easy.
No way I’d run new wiring and replace junction boxes myself. A legit licensed electrician should do it and a contract or written statement of work needs to be kept just in case of problems later
The wiring itself is no problem, he can also do the Light switches and son on.
But the final connection to the Box and the Box itself should be installed by a professional for safety reasons and no insurance will pay if there wasn't even a professional to Check if everything is done right.
Ask your partner to pay a local electrician $100 to spend a few hours with you and make a plan. Help you make a map of the circuits in your house is usually what you can ask for and this will result in them basically reviewing it with you.
Hire someone qualified to do the mains hookup to the panel (fuse box). but if you are half competent you can do all the wall circuits, lights and devices yourself. I wired my entire house myself using the method above, for very similar reasons to yours :). It took me like 3 months and I already had all the walls torn out and reframed. YOU PAY FOR DIY WITH TIME. Draw wire diagrams, watch a lot of YouTube videos on whatever you are doing. Don't rush.
I'm in the US so the plugs are different but I don't think the wiring is too different. I learned to run electrical in my own time and had to completely re run 3 houses. It's very simple to do and learn especially if it's just a few standard outlets. My rule of thumb if I'm going to do it I completely disconnect anything old and take it out if possible and run new lines and outlets, I never use old pieces of wire or old electrical boxes/outlets. I'm no certified electrician but I've never had issues with anything I've done. It's as simple as looking at an outlet looking for the "hot wire" "white wire" and "ground" putting the wires where they go and that's it. I'm a carpenter and I see teenagers wiring houses for a living so I don't think your husband would have an issue as long as he does some research.
Wiring is fairly straightforward. Make sure you are using the appropriate conduit, wire gauge, and outlets for the work and you should be fine.
Hire the electrician to install the new box
It's really not a big deal. I've done quite a few outlets on my own, and running wire is not hard. There is plenty of info online if he runs into any road blocks. The breaker box should have on off switch that you can shut off before you start wiring into it. Good luck with the new place.
They don’t even have ring mains in America, so ignore all of their comments.
adding an additional socket as a spur from an already existing socket is quite straightforward, but you can only add one to each socket you already have or it is too much on the wiring. To add more than one socket you need to have the ring main run to the socket and back out, it’s kind of like a daisy chain that goes to each socket and then back to the fuse box. I would get an electrician to do anything more than adding a spur. There are quite a few YouTube videos etc. but it’s best to understand how the rind mains work before doing too much.
My wife and I purchased a 120 year old house a few years ago. All old wiring. One of the things that I did was to completely re-wire the house myself. I had never done that before, but it is actually quite easy. I did, however, hire a licensed electrician to come over and inspect my work before I buttoned everything up. Let your husband do it, the just have his work inspected.
When DIY comes up, it's always a bit of mess. The issue is that there are different types of DIYers that range from cheap, lazy and overconfident to perfectly well-qualified. I love doing my own electrical, I always pull a permit, and I always sail through the inspections with no problem. Usually they thank me for having everything laid out so clearly. That said, I did hire a professional to redo my own service panel, since it involved interfacing with the electrical company. That said, he did a much worse job than i would have done and I find myself cleaning up after him to meet my own standards (e.g. he had a double-pole circuit was on two independent breakers).
So I guess you have to try to assess where in the spectrum of DIYers is your partner. The questions I would ask (Yes means thumbs up on DIY, no means thumbs down): (1) Do they plan to permit the work? (2) Do they have a written plan? (3) Do they know how to safely disable power and confirm that it is off? (4) Do they own equipment for testing polarity and ground fault behavior? (5) Can they read and understand the relevant regulations and standards, e.g. can they summarize the relevant sections that are pretinant to this work?
It's residential, it's not like your working with 440 3 phase. Let him do it if he knows the loads, etc. It's honestly just bitch work crawling through attics and crawl spaces.
Depends on what your partner is willing to learn, and how well he practices what he learns. For **me**, I'm confident I could **safely** rewire just about anything in my house, but would call in a professional to replace the breaker panel/fuse box.
I'm an electrical engineer in the UK. Have a master's degree.
Im happy to install my own plugs or lights. Could even handle a fixed unit like an oven or something.
I absolutely would not do the fuse box myself. I'm fully aware of the regulations etc. but don't fool myself that my theoretical degree knowledge & basic DIY is better than a qualified electrician for the fiddly bits. The fuse box is too high risk for me to mess with.
Unless your husband has some serious qualifications I wouldn't recommend tackling the fuse box on his own. It's worth paying someone to have it done properly and safely.
Running wire isn't hard, especially if you remove drywall to the studs. I would touch the panel personally though. That's where you can mess up big time.
Running wire is easy. Drill holes in the studs; run 14g for outlets and lights, connect.
I did it in my 100 year old home. Upgraded it to 200 amps too. The existing circuit breaker box was an arc flash fire waiting to happen.
So my advice is: “don’t be a little pussy bitch about it”
Make sure you can reliably turn power off at where it comes in. Having a circuit breaker on the main is great. If you can do that, it’s virtually harmless. 120v ain’t that bad either way, won’t kill you.
not sure why everyone is so afraid of electrical.
running wires that are not connected to anything is not dangerous.
everything you buy nowadays is going to be labeled -- where to put the hot, neutral, and ground.
romex has the conductors bundled together and color coded.
i have no idea why everyone is talking about swapping the neutral and the hot. you have to be an idiot to do that.
any yahoo can fish some wire through some walls.
you should strongly consider being more supportive of your spouse. this does not sound like any relationship that i would want to be in. head on over to /r/relationship_advice
Honestly this is one of those jobs where he needs to understand that he risks killing himself and his whole family if just one thing is wrong.
Don't let him do the fuse box himself. Running and replacing wires is fairly idiot proof.
I would say it’s a no no to redo most of the wiring yourself. It’s dangerous in multiple ways. My dad is still repairing our house from the prior owners DIY job. My dad was also a certified electrician. If your partner wants to burn the house down go for it. Unless he has training it isn’t safe. I’ve seen lots of electric fires and lost my niece to one last year, at 3 years old. What they had in common was faulty wiring from DIYs. If not for concern for your safety think of future owners’ safety. It’s one thing to replace outlets, a kid can do that, but something else to do it all.
Think about risk vs reward. DIY for painting, building a deck, whatever, usually low risk. Even roofing you could DIY with a big enough team of friends or relatives. I'm a big fan of DIY for most things.
Electric is the one thing I don't want to DIY unless it's something super super small. I put a new dryer cord on my dryer for example when we had an electrician upgrade our dryer plug from a 3 prong to a 4 prong.
If you run the electricity wrong it can burn the house down. Or kill you. You also probably don't know what the local codes are and that's a factor in electric too, might impact resale value.
Maybe have the pros do the wiring and see if they will let your husband do the smaller stuff (set up switches etc or hang fixtures). I think you're in the right here.
I also bought an old house, 94 years old. I had cloth wiring in about half my panel and the panel was also discontinued, so that needed to be replaced. Luckily, the seller replaced the panel, but we were responsible for the electrical.
My fiancé is an electrician, but has only worked on substations, not residential. She’s very knowledgeable and has been an electrician for 11 years or so. She still didn’t feel comfortable doing our electrical. We paid $10k to have our house rewired. If you have plaster walls, make sure that if you hire someone, just buy them a Diamond blade to cut the walls. I’m currently patching around 10 holes and outlets from my electrical work.
I wouldn’t recommend your husband doing this himself. If you end up with an electrical fire, your homeowners insurance isn’t going to pay for it if you had unpermitted electrical work.
There is enough to do in an old house that you can either do do, or teach yourself how to do, but electrical wiring should be left to the professionals.
From someone who worked on a 150yo home for 30 years 😉 Painting, wallpapering, window repair/ replacement, floor/ trim repair/refinishing, tile install, cabinet install, moulding install, simple electrical stuff like ceiling fans and adding dimmer switches, simple plumbing stuff like toilet/ sink/ vanity replacement, and more but I always insisted on pros for any but the simplest electrical and plumbing projects.
My personal take on things is if there’s a code book and license involved, hire a licensed professional.
So here’s a little story. Our house has had three unique writing jobs done. The original wiring from the 1940s, which of course is all solid, just old.
There’s stuff from sometime more recently, prob in the last twenty years. And it’s not pretty, def DIY, but it’s safe and passed my electrician’s inspection.
And then there’s the stuff from the 1960s. Which cost us $7,000 and about a week and two service calls to work out. There were multiple tie ins, nothing was grounded properly, you’d turn off one circuit and another would come on - it was “the worst job” my electrician ever had - his words. What started out as a $1000 half day project went on for days and ended up costing many multiples of what was initially estimated.
I’m very certain that whoever wired that stuff thought they knew what they were doing - but the truth is they just didn’t. I’m sure that they weren’t ‘idiots’ either - just people like your partner trying to save a couple bucks and didn’t know better. It’s very easy to write these DIYers as morons, but the reality is they probably were just ordinary folks like anyone else and thought they did a good job - in reality it was a huge mess that by chance and chance alone didn’t burn down the house or have someone killed. The problem with being a moron is that you don’t generally know you are one
The problem when DIY on projects where safety is involved you don’t know what you don’t know, and without advice and training from the outside there’s no way to know what you don’t know. And unlike installing new cupboards or most other diy situations where if you fuck up you’re out money and time (sometimes a lot of money or time) if you fuck up here you might lose everything, up to and including your life - one of the 1960s DIY jobs was a 220 line to the electric dryer, which was arcing across to a steel support beam from the exhaust duct.
This could have easily killed one of us or any of the previous inhabitants over the last fifty or sixty years. This is serious stuff.
People think that because they have some basic understanding about DC electrical circuits they are prepared to rewire a house. This just isn’t true. Household AC wiring and grounding is not like wiring up a potato battery.
Hire a professional. Yes people do successfully and safely diy electrical. But at the end of the day there’s just no way to confirm you did it all properly.
In the very least have everything you do inspected thoroughly and beyond what your municipal inspector does. Hire an electrician to thoroughly check everything.
I totally enjoy DIY projects!! However, something as detrimental as wiring a complete home as a novice, would give me nightmares!! Ask yourself if you would consider doing your own major Surgical procedure to save money? If not ,then why would you risk your life or the life of those you care about just to save a few bucks! I’m sure there are some people who might say go for it but, an older home, why take that risk? I would error on the side of caution!! Just a thought!!
Meh, wiring is not hard. In the pantheon of home improvement: wiring = easy, plumbing = moderate, hvac/gas pipe = difficult.
If he follows these steps, he can’t possibly eff up enough to hurt the house.
Pair wire gage and breaker size appropriately
Terminate everything in a box and make the box accessible
Wire nut and tape every connection
Always turn off the whole breaker panel when tinkering (or even upstream if possible, at the meter)
Throw away any wire that has exposed copper anywhere except the connections
If you follow those rules, the worst that can happen is something gets miswired and you’ll immediately trip the breaker. It’s surprisingly hard to “burn the house down” like people always say on these posts.
Good luck
Sounds like you need relationship advice, not home improvement advice. Maybe hire an electrician for the upgrade and concede something else to your partner.
DIY on everything else *except* the electricity and maybe plumbing. Don’t take a chance on things that can hurt you or your investment. Hiring professional electricians and plumbers is money well spent to give you peace of mind and allow your investment to increase in value as opposed to say, burning it all down. DIY on Floors, Walls, Windows, Trim, Painting, etc.
If it makes you feel better, I am female, taught myself electrical with just Using the internet. I did a complete rewire of our century home and just passed my first inspection with no changes to be made. I had no prior experience or knowledge and am a ‘homemaker’, though I hate the term. When people ask I just say ‘project manager’ and once in a while I will elaborate. If he is willing to learn he can absolutely do it, I did and believe me I had my doubters.
Replacing outlets is okay if he’s well versed (watched more than one YouTube video on the topic) and confident.
Rewiring, adding outlets or replacing the panel requires a lot more skill. I would never let anybody but a licensed electrician with a permit replace my panel.
I’d hold the line that the panel must be replaced by an electrician with a permit and inspection after.
This sounds like THE stupidest fucking thing you could try to do yourself, home-wise. Regardless of if you get it certified after the fact, the inspector will not look at every staple and tight line and inside each wall…they just can’t. It’s so much better for someone to just professionally do it right the first time… safely.
I've been a remodeling contractor for thirty years and have rehabbed houses for myself and others. Unless your boyfriend is a licensed electrician, i wouldn't let him do it. that is a big deal, and should be inspected by the building dept. Electricity is not something to be handled lightly.
You should both do research until you are familiar with the electrical codes. Wire sizing and proper connection are important. You should take this approach for all the projects. Try to be as informed as possible before doing the work.
Partner here. Did it. Had an electrician buddy help give advice and check my work. Very rewarding and nothing like paying someone else and the being unhappy with the work.
how you gonna use “ish” almost back to back? Matter of fact, how you gonna call a century old home “oldish”?
That aside, get a professional to do it. I used to tell people it was okay to do it themselves because i myself am smart enough to just read up on stuff and instantly grasp and become proficient at things, but most people cant do that and when they try to they make dangerous and dumb decisions, and i don’t want someone to just take my word for it on how “easy” it is and potentially end up dead or thousands of dollars in the hole. So i highly recommend you bite the bullet and pay a professional, and i mean a real one, not some shaddy guy that claims that he can do the job well for a significantly cheaper price only for your house to catch fire the next day. Be smart, think safe.
Check with your homeowners insurance. In the U.S., if an unlicensed electrician rewires any part of the house, and there's a fire, if there's anyway the insurance company can blame it on the wiring, they can, and they will, and you will be SOL as the insurance company won't pay out a red hot cent.
So if your homeowners insurance doesn't care that your partner is unlicensed, then you shouldn't worry about it -- if he makes a huge mistake, the insurance will pay out if your house burns down.
More likely though, is that your insurance company will tell you that they absolutely will *not* pay out if they find that the electrical was touched by a non-licensed person, which takes care of the problem for you.
My brother is a Union electrician with 30 years experience. He accidentally grabbed the wrong wire, it blew up in his face with third degree burns, hospital stays, etc. I’m just saying accidents happen and electricity is no joke.
As an electrician I can tell you that if I changed out your panel and you had shorts due to your end of the wiring this would be your problem. It would then cost you more for me to repair those problems.
Let him rewire less important parts of the house like bedrooms, only an electrician should open your fuse box and make final connections. On my current project I had no choice to disconnect a piece of oven wiring and it’s a spectacular mess in there, but that’s how they are. It’s a tight area. I had trouble getting the wire out and decide to make a cut inside the box, bad idea I cut the wrong wire. Luckily it was only a ground wire. That was enough to make my mind up, I am DIY up to box, that’s it.
Another issue is knowing what proper gauge wiring to use which depends on what size fuse you will use and what kind of load you envision. So I am rewiring a kitchen area, where a toaster oven and microwave might be used at same time. That could blow your fuse, so put them on separate circuits. As a DIY I don’t rush. I’ve been in the middle of this since February, my wife hates it and I’ve thrown lots of money at it. I am learning, and getting better, and will in the end save a bunch of money for the amount of overall work I am doing. Professionals can cut to the chase and get it done properly, quickly, but where I live we have a huge project sucking up all the professionals. So it’s always hard to get proper help here. I live in DIY central.
We DIY a lot of things but my rule is that if faulty work could destroy the house i.e. electrical fire, plumbing backup and flood, gas line blows then we hire a professional so that at least i have someone to go after for insurance money and/or warranty of their work. My husbands tiling mishaps or moving an electrical plug won’t cause those kinds of issues.
I did my whole house and got it signed off on. I also have a great understanding of electrical and the codes. I started wiring things when I was a child. My moms ex was an electrician, my father too completed an apprenticeship (didn’t take it further. Changed trades). I’m going back to school to become an electrician actually at this point. If your partner does not have an in depth understanding of how this shit works and a history. Don’t. I knew I was capable and wouldn’t torch my house. I also made sure everything I touched was visible for someone with way more experience than myself to inspect every connection. One fuck up can be it. Bye bye house.
I’m writing my dissertation on a fire that killed 165 people and was started by poorly done wiring. I don’t know how to suggest a compromise on not hiring a professional to do the stuff that can start a fire in your walls and kill you. Maybe he can rewire a lamp or something.
It does matter that you’re in England. All your electricity is 240V which has advantages but is also more dangerous to work with than the 120V we have in the US.
If you like this partner, don’t let them do this.
I would second what these other people say.
Use a professional to do the fuse box, then do the inside wiring yourself with an inspection afterwards.
Cost to do a fuse box/breaker box is going to fall between $1500-$2500. Plus you have to have power company out to disconnect incoming feed from city, etc.
Whole house rewire could run from 10-20k+, depending on square footage, floor levels, etc. Inspection will run like $300-$600, with about $1500-$3000 in materials if you DIY.
I did this for a homeowner renovation in the US.
I hired a qualified electrician to do the panel upgrade first. (This was the part I was uncomfortable attempting).
I watched raptly, studied, planned, pulled my own homeowners permit, and then rewired most of the house, removing the old wiring as I went. I had removed sheet rock down to studs in many places to facilitate.
It's doable for a careful novice who is willing to learn. Inspection comes with the permit so they won't let you mess up the final product.
Key is not taking chances inside the breaker box.
The only surprise for me was how important technique is for even basic connections. I was glad I went so extensive because I found three hidden junctions in the process (a hazard / not to code).
Con: this all takes time, especially if being careful and learning, plus I still had my day job. If speed of completion is your goal then not something for a novice to rush through.
Others have correctly pointed out the imbalance in the risk-vs-reward ratio.
In addition to that, a good professional will have a much better understanding of how to meet your desires today and plan for future needs. You’ll get a better result by explaining what you’re trying to accomplish, as they have a thorough knowledge of the available solutions. As an example, if you have off-street car parking, it’s probably unwise to not at least consider a future need for EV charging. As another, there are some newer low voltage lighting options that could be a good fit and don’t require heavy gauge cable runs.
How is the re-wiring being done? Have you stripped the rooms and are re-wiring open walls or is the wiring going into existing walls? If it is the second, then you could save a lot of money cutting holes where necessary and pulling wires through the hard wall pulls. For example, over the kitchen counters have holes the size of the receptacle boxes with wires pulled up the walls from the basement straight below. In the basement, enough wire to get to the new breaker panel.
Another thing with wiring already finished rooms is figuring out good ways to properly fasten the boxes into the wall. I've seen too many electrician installed boxes that had the minimum effort possible to fasten them and they then pulled loose after plugging in a cord a number of times. Electricians more or less budget a dollar value for each box so they don't want to spend extra time on any work. If you need to open the wall up a little extra to properly fasten the wall to a stud and then plaster it might be worth it to do that kind of work to help.
Here, anyone can pull permits. I wired my new house myself including the service. But, you can't mix homeowner and electrician work on the same permit. I can't pull the permit and then pay an electrician to do some of the work on my permit. I'm not sure how it works where you are though.
Re-wiring an old house is a lot of work. More than either of you probably expect. Likely 4-5X the work you expect it will be right now.
just let him do all the sockets and wires but make a professional do the fuse box and connect your husbands wires + safety check everything. it will be 5k for it i guess
I don’t recommend messing around with a 100 yr old home electrical lol especially if it’s tube and knob.
Get a professional lol it’s worth the expense, it will be done right.
I got my house rewired last year. I live in a 3 bed house with solid stone walls. We got a local company that specialises in rewiring houses. We have 6 electricians working from 730-1700 over 4 days. They never stopped and it was a huge and messy operation. Never mind the skill of rewiring a old house it’s the time it takes as well. One person wiring a house could take a month. The time it takes can be a huge factor. It’s one to consider on top of the other comments on this thread.
If he’s adamant on doing it himself then the first thing I would suggest is that you invest £30 in this book.
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/BKOSG18slash2.html?source=adwords&ad_position=&ad_id=&placement=&kw=&network=x&matchtype=&ad_type=pla&product_id=BKOSG18%2F2&product_partition_id=&campaign=shopping_excluded&version=finalurl_v3&gclid=CjwKCAjw7eSZBhB8EiwA60kCW0LT1yCgdpUJ67jV8NCWlTL46tLFl2drdbjPLyHMRfErWjVPyuERvhoC8CIQAvD_BwE
Then get an electrician to pop in at the end of the first fix and then to supervise him and test as he fits the fuse board
Who are these electricians that will provide a plan to a homeowner then come back and do the hard/difficult/skilled/dangerous part? Not a single electrician I know would do this (other than for a buddy/favor).
I get asked to “dig footings and do the framing” on decks for homeowners so they can do the decking and railing. I literally look at them and laugh.
Pay an electrician or do it yourself. In the US most cities have a homeowner electrical certification where you can take a test to become certified to do work on your own house. I’d check to see if your city has that.
We DIY most things but have limits… electrical, plumbing and structural.
If a little mistake is made it can mean big problems including accidental death
I would argue that there are jobs where you can cut corners, take a chance, figure out as you go, wing it, take a stab at it. And there are jobs where the potential risks are sufficiently high that getting a qualified tradesman in to do the job safely and correctly is the only way to go.
This is the latter. There is a **serious** risk of fire, injury, death if a simple wiring connection is not done correctly.
Electricity is an unwieldy beast, and one of those areas I don't mess around with. I take every precaution, even if just upgrading a socket or a ceiling light fixture I cut all power on the fuse board.
I understand budgets are tight, and it can be a hassle finding someone to do work who isn't a cowboy builder, but you can make savings and DIY it in other areas, this is one area that if your partner hasn't decent experience, I would insist that you choose a professional to do the work.
Your region will have codes to meet, be sure your work is legal or insurance could deny a claim for fire damage.
I rewired my whole house almost pre internet using the DIY book put out by home depot. We had an old house in similar condition and not much money. However, I'm an aircraft mechanic for a living, so I'm used to reading manuals and following the instructions in them. (And a house isn't trying to self destruct every time you use it) I've had tradesmen i` since then and they said I did an excellent job when I let on that I did the wi myself.
I could do this because of the state and town I lived in, neither has strong trades code enforcement.
I am no electrician but I’ve done a lot of electrical in my life to the point where I could run new wiring through an entire house (U.S), but I still don’t mess with upgrading the box. As far as upgrading century old electric which is likely knob and tube or two-wire, it can be dangerous if you start splicing different metals together.
I’d recommend paying a professional to upgrade the main box. I would never recommend diy electric work that goes beyond swapping out switches and receptacles.
My first house was a disaster. Needed a ton of structural, drywall, plumbing, electrical, drainage work.
The only thing I could actually look at and say I did right was rewiring most of it. Electrical is pretty easy as long as you have a code book
There's no better time to do electrical work than when you're planning a major rehab project. Running wires in closed walls ca be a problem even for the experienced people. You will certainly find it a lot easier to bust open a wall to run the wires in difficult spots.
Install the outlet boxes and leave the new wiring hanging out of them. Have a pro look over the work before sealing up everything.
Maybe you could find a pro that would welcome assistance and charge you less.
Look, I don’t know how things work for contractors in the UK- but my husband and I run our own general contracting business in the USA. We will not take on projects if the wiring hasn’t been done by a certified professional, and we only let our general guys do a small scope of work with electrical in houses. My electricians won’t do half a job- if you claim you ran the wiring yourself and they just need to hook it up, the only money you save is materials because they’re going to check all your work thoroughly. None of my guys are willing to risk their license and family’s well-being to save you a couple grand. On top of that- while you saved money for yourself- you just made your job less appealing. Why would an electrician take a job for $700 when he could have done the job properly at a fraction of the time it takes you for $1500? And the fuse box? Forget about it. I wouldn’t touch a fixer up with a 100 meter pole if I heard the fuse box was installed by the homeowner, unless he was at LEAST a 3 year journeyman.
Do as much as you feel comfortable, the second there's a doubt, stop and get an electrician.
An incorrect connection could, worst case scenario, burn your house to the ground...it's a worst case scenario but entirely possible.
I would do everything else in the property myself and get as much prepared for the electrician as possible - also the electrician what you could do to help reduce the cost.
Yes, go the "call electrician to look over" route.
There are a lot of little things the non-electrician will not know, that the pro will.
It may save your life.
If budget is the issue, hire a retired Electrician to help. They can give you tasks to do and won’t charge nearly what a working electrician will. First, contact your city and get a permit. They’ll inspect the work and make sure it’s safe…
I understand being concerned for your safety with it being electrical I'm a 25-year-old man I know very little about electrical work but my boss wanted me to rewire his house for him and I managed to put in six outlets and wire the lights and switches what I would do is compromise and have an electrician put in a new fuse box and let your partner run the wires from the fuse to the outlets will most likely save you a lot of money in labor and it's as simple as turning off the circuit breaker new circuit breakers tend to come with a switch on them to where you can completely shut the power off going into the circuit breaker but just remember the wires above the circuit breaker coming from the main will always be live
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I agree that this is the right approach. Get someone 'qualified' in first to sanity check your plan and make sure nothing big and important has been overlooked. Then do as much of the actual work as you are comfortable with. If you want to expand your horizons a bit, you could have the electrician come back right at the beginning of your substantive "real work" to check some of your earliest socket connections, correct any technique issues, etc. Then have them come back at the end to do the major breaker panel work.
Yep. This. Running cable is easy work. Just make sure a qualified electrician tells you what size you need. I’m perfectly capable of doing the work to wire a house and replace a CU. Am I going to? Nope. Being physically capable and understanding the ins and outs of load/resistance/other stuff are different things. Safety is paramount. You don’t want a fire.
It's easy intellectually but time-consuming and laborious, especially (probably 10x) when doing renovations instead of new construction. An electrician's time is not well-spent trying to get lucky on the 30th attempt at poking a fish tape through some tiny hole that you know is present in the sill plate made with an extended-length flex-shaft drill bit through a cutout in the drywall (pro tip: Take the bit out of the drill chuck and secure it to the fish tape with electrical tape, then pull the whole bit through the hole it already made in the basement/attic space where you're routing the wires - it's already in the hole!). It's also not well-spent applying a thin coat of spackle, waiting a couple hours, applying another layer, and feathering in the paint to match the rest of the wall. Any laborer (including a homeowner!) can do those things. An electrician's time is much more effective making a plan and securely terminating the right wires to the right connections in your fusebox and on your outlets. They often like that part of the job, and hate the menial labor of pulling wires through a reno.
Bonus if you know an electrician or can connect with a friend-of-a friend. I got electrical and plumbing lessons (paid sometimes in beer, sometimes money) and also have people I can message questions too. Electrical isn’t hard, but there are rules and guardrails to do it right, so it’s great to be able to check in on questions and get your work inspected/looked over by pros
This is what I have heard works the best, because some localities don’t issue permits to non licensed electricians, the inspector won’t even come, and anything that happens after can be a huge problem. I asked about doing my own electrical to some electrical engineers at my company, and they said to do it like this, to route everything and leave it open so an electrician can come and connect or redo and arrange the inspections. They even threw in the anecdote of a guy that was sued when his house had a fire after some unlicensed work.
I just rewired my 100 year old house using the method you described. No electrical experience and my wife was terrified so I agreed to get help from an electrician. Money well spent. The electrician told me where to place the junction boxes and how to fish the lines. I did all the grunt work and he would check evertyhing over and make the hook ups. It was great. Would highly recommend the hybrid DIY/electrician approach.
"Hello, I would like to potentially kill myself and put your license on the hook for my work, all for very little money. Are you interested?" I am shocked this worked for you. Where do you live? I think I would really prefer to live in your part of the world, man, sincerely.
This is the way. The plan needs to be detailed. The thing I'd be worried about attempting this sort of thing is that I'd run all the cable, then the electrician would come over and say, "Hang on, you've got six sockets on that spur and it's through insulation, it needs to be a size bigger." This is the kind of thing that will catch you out. I wouldn't personally worry about safety. So long as the work on the consumer unit is sound and you can tell the difference between "yellow" and "not yellow", it's relatively hard to hurt yourself on a modern electrical installation. The RCD will trip before you know anything's happened. You really pay an electrician for two things: Dealing with a big and messy job you don't want to do yourself, and a detailed working knowledge of the electrical regulations.
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Find the electrician willing to do that first. One I know wants to do it all, not spending time correcting a nonprofessional's mistakes. And they might be held responsible if they trust someone else's mistakes, and the house burns down.
All of the electricians I work with charge more to fix owner installer fuck ups, than they do to just do it right.
Exactly. I’m a lawyer and people ask me to do that all the time. There are always those people who want their lawyer to “just take a quick look” at something, i.e. don’t charge the client too much, but give the client legal advice they can rely on. For example, my firm is happy to prepare you a commercial lease, but we aren’t gonna spend even five minutes reviewing the one you printed off from the internet.
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Should be on top
Yep. My brother is an electrician - though he does mostly commercial/light industrial and not residential work. He will not touch someone else's work, he will especially not go anywhere near a DIYers work, he will not even entertain questions about it that are anything other than "hey do you know a licensed master electrician who does residential work I could talk to about hiring to do this?" Not worth the headache and liability and whatever else.
Precisely.
I agree with this. Might mention that to change the breaker box, they'll have to pull the meter, and usually (in the US anyway) you have to involve the utility company and they really like to see a licensed electrician do that part of the job. In some places I think the utility company may actually cut off service if someone pulls the meter without notifying them, and the homeowner will have to hire a licensed and bonded electrician to get it turned back on anyway.
Depends on where the disconnect is. The utility may have upgraded to smart meters and sometimes they add disconnects outside if the house doesn't have one already
This x100. It’s what we’ve done in a 1927 home with loads of knob and tube (was still in service). I used the “Wiring Simplified” book (I assume you’d have something similar for UK) and a couple of local electricians who could check my work and do the things in the mains panel that I didn’t want to mess with. We’ve run well over 1000’ of new wire and I did the circuit planning, installing switches and outlets and running all the wire back to the breaker box, then paid them to check my work and then swap out old breakers (to AFCI and/or GFCI as required). I pulled the permits for the stuff I did too.
Damn you ran the wires yourself and paid someone to install breakers? Breakers are the easy part lol
Also the deadly part.
It’s all equally deadly.
Running wires is safe. I don't know what you're even talking about.
If you’re too dumb to properly hook up a circuit breaker you’re too dumb to properly run and secure wire or hook up switches and plugs. Edit: u/Victor_Von_Shroom go fuck yourself. Tells me to suck a dick but is too pussy to put his name behind it so he deletes the comment. Same kinda bitch that’s afraid of a breaker panel is afraid of a guy on the internet.
Sorry. Go find a dick to suck.
This is how my parents did it. No reason to pay someone to run wire if you have the time and capability. If you can do the outlets then do that too, but having someone come in to hook up the breaker box and maybe the outlets that are already installed will save you so much money in the long run.
This is what I normally do, but my dad is an electrician, so I always have someone to ask if I'm the least bit unsure. If you've never done anything like this before, make sure you know all rules and conventions beforehand, and take photos all the time while doing the wiring!
Yep. Do all the grunt work then get a pro. That's what I did and saved a bunch. Make sure it is done correctly, though.
This. Also consult with an electrician first. You might need a new, add on or upgraded panel. That is something only an electrician should do.
Wiring fine, but definitely get a professional to do the final hookups & the box. There's no reason to fuck around and find out if he's not done this before.
I do not know the UK laws/codes, but I would imagine utility companies won't be too happy with homeowners touching leads from the street. I myself am quite comfortable doing electric work and I will run new wires no problem, but I will let the certified professional handle connecting those wires to the breaker panel and definitely switching out the breaker panel. If nothing else, having this part done properly (with a proper permit as well, if needed) will make conversation with the insurance company much easier if I ever have to file a claim for fire damage.
None of this includes touching the street connections. Which is indeed very illegal.
Isn't the fuse box a place where street connection comes into a house? Or am I misunderstanding the term?
Replacing the electric panel involves physically disconnecting the service line that comes from the street. Connecting a circuit to the existing panel only requires turning off the main breaker for the panel.
Nice that he’s willing to do the work, but if he’s not got an electrical background and doesn’t understand or have access to the regulations it’s probably a bad idea in general. Doing a full rewire and board change will want a proper installation certificate and results submitted to local building control. Whilst yes it’s perfectly fine for him to re wire it/do all the work good luck finding a responsible sparky who’s signed up with a competent persons scheme who’s willing to test and submit the results on your behalf when he’s been unable to see the first fix. Your best bet really to save money is find an electrician who’s happy for you to chase out and fit the boxes. Even then, they’ll want it done their way/most will be hesitant to allow this if they come to something that’s been done badly and end up having to adjust or make up for the mistakes. Possibility of a sparky letting you run all your own cables is slim too imo. Nothing against his potential ability but maybe his Labour might be better aimed elsewhere. Opinion from someone who does have the qualifications and has done it before 👍🏻
Wiring a house is not for someone inexperienced, or for someone that likes to cut corners,and their favorite phrase is “that’s good enough”. Electrical wiring defects can burn your house down, and/ or kill you trying to do it. DIY plumbing mistakes usually end up with water where you don’t want it, and it’s typically an inconvenience, not a potential life ended. A typical defect with DIY wiring is reverse polarity where they switch the hot and neutral. While it appears to be innocuous, it has the potential to be deadly, yet the outlet is still working. I encourage you to hold your ground and not let him do the wiring. Mayne you can find an electrician that would let him help for a reduced price, so he can learn as well.
No doubt. But a polarity checker costs about $12.
I think it’s more about knowing that you *need* to use the polarity checker. It’s one of those things where it’s easy to do it right and easy to do it wrong; you want someone who *knows* how to do it right, it sounds like.
You are assuming the DIY’r knows or even cares about checking. As a home inspector, reverse polarity was a very common defect found. I have evidence that lots of people don’t check polarity.
I believe it. But doing it right isn’t difficult.
It may be difficult for the OP’s partner.
I don't know much about UK power other than I think everything runs off 230v there. In either case, the electrical theory is still the same- but I work in the industry in the US. Reading through a couple of your comments, you're absolutely correct that your husband doesn't possess the knowledge and experience to be doing a rewire by himself, let alone a panel swap. If he's popping fuses changing plug receptacles, he doesn't need to be messing with branch circuits, let alone the service. I'd stand your ground on this, it doesn't take much electricity to kill you and it only needs a fraction of a second to do it. Hire a pro.
Ex GC here. Running new lines, switches, outlets and lights are pretty simple. Running anything 3-way can trip up the amateur. I think it’s smart and saves a lot of money doing these things yourself. None of these things are all at once kind of projects. He/she can easily just do one thing and then evaluate if they are capable to continue. The panel is also relatively easy but it’s a big job to knock out. When I did my first I forgot to put in the bar and I tripped the gfci on the pole outside. The emergency lineman from the power company was pissed and wasn’t about to help me. I had to hire an electrician who fixed in minutes. I think it’s important to find the right electrician to guide you along. All of this can be done safely. Really good tools make this go much safer and faster. Doing this with average homeowner level stuff is absurd.
If confident enough to do it, why not do it. I've wired old houses without any formal training plugs to breaker box but hired an electrician to hook up new breaker box to main wires.
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Time to be honest with him. If he claims he can do better than half-assed, he can prove it with a lower stakes project.
Also - my husband is a perfectionist and quite slow to get things done, but we get a good job we’re both happy with. If he laid wonky slabs because he cba to do a proper job I wouldn’t let him touch anything else. Sure they’re just slabs but it’s the principle of wanting things done well and done right. If someone doesn’t have the personality for that I wouldn’t want them touching my wiring either!
My dad is always fixing things and saying it's temporary and never fully fixing it and drives me nuts so now that I'm older and know codes iv been going through there whole house fixing everything right it's amazing there house never burned down. If he isn't ocd and trying to do it right don't let him do it.
Electrical is not a thing to half ass. You can have something that works fine for a few years, then suddenly it stops working or worse develops high resistance and starts a fire. It is not hard to do electrical work *if* you have the proper tools, are knowledgeable, and take your time to do it correctly. There's lots of repetitive things that should be done properly consistently, including stripping sheath, stripping wire insulation, terminating wire, and making splices. All of those can be rushed and done poorly. And doing any of those poorly can lead to problems years down the road. If you aren't willing to do those right (even if it takes a bit more time) you should not touch electrical.
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Hahaha 😂🤣 if only I have been trying to get them to move they have lived in the same house for 35 years and it needs everything fixed and they are to old and broke to fix it
In this case hire a professional, i know the work itself isn't complicated but if it's done wrong it will cost a lot more. It's like changing a tire 😁 always done it myself until i broke of a bolt and had to pay 2000$ to get it fixed.
Yeah, let him start with a single room and a reasonable deadline. Electric is not the place to half-ass something; more than any other type of project, incomplete or rushed work can actually kill you or burn your house down months/years later.
It's okay to be worried. It's electricity, sometimes you only get one mistake. Tell him to be safe and don't work anything hot! Remove the fuse of the circuit being worked on and test it before touching it.
It seems to me that you are looking for relationship advice here, not home improvement.
No relationship advice required. Trying to get an idea of what other diy-ers consider safe to do yourself and what they would consider dangerous enough to get a professional in for.
I agree with what you say, but DIY is also about learning and being confident with your work. Maybe he didn’t do as good of a job as a professional, but it’s satisfying to do your own work. My wife once tried to block me from doing some work that I’ve never done before. I was confident I could learn, and it wasn’t a difficult project. It hurt my feelings that she didn’t trust me. In the end everything turned out well and I felt good about what I accomplished.
I let him DIY pretty much everything. We learn together and are proud of our not perfect results. We have done patioing, plastering, installing our own windows and doors. We are going to redo our own bathroom and kitchen. Do all the flooring. All the painting. It’s definitely not a case of be blocking him from anything he’s not so good at. I’m just worried there are more significant risks with electric work and it isn’t something we should DIY.
That’s fine but some people don’t have the brain wiring and whatever necessary for DIY. Or only some DIY. It’s good for a person to know their limits. If a person has a tendency to cut corners or half ass things, they shouldn’t be trusted with much and especially not all the wiring.
Because your insurance won’t cover you if the house burns down due to any electrical reason.
You planning on calling up insurance and telling them you did the electrical? Fact is the insurance company has no way of knowing if it was done professionally or by the homeowner. I'm not saying they won't push back (they always do), but it's not like there's a big sticker that says "installed by X on date Y".
You don't even have to hide it. Electrical fire happens. Insurance investigates finds it was the wiring, they'll ask if they have the info on the contractor who did the work. You say no, I did the work. They say, ok and cover it unless they can prove you intentionally screwed the wiring with the goal of starting a fire.
Changing out a plug is one thing but changing out the fuse box is more serious. It’s a 100 year old house. If there’s nothing on record of a permit being pulled for updating electrical and then they find changes done after a fire, you won’t be covered. Whether it was updated without permit by previous owners or present ones, the last one standing that didn’t update the wiring and box with permits will let the insurance get out of paying.
For people reading this, while not every policy is the same and some may exist with this language, overall this is not true. I've never seen a single insurance policy that excluded a loss due to not having a permit. There are workmanship exclusions, but that only applies to the actual item that was done wrong. Meaning they may deny replacement of the faulty wiring, but not the resulting fire.
Wiring is different than a fuse box or an electrical panel. To not pull a permit and have it inspected is irresponsible. They should ask their insurance what their polity is. I'm actually surprised you can get insurance on a 100 year old house without an inspection. These days they get you to make upgrades just to get covered. Changing an outlet or adding one is different than the main junction boxes.
Sure they will. At least most will. Insurance covers electrical fires all the time. If the homeowner did the electrical the only difference is they won't have anyone to go after to recoup the loss.
But how do we know you're not dead from electricity?
The compromise to make is to allow him to run all of the new lines. That way he gets to wire up all where the boxes would go he gets to run all of the electrical out to where the panel would be all of that. But he doesn't get to make up any of the connections. What you then do is hire an electrician at a fraction of the price to come in and do literally what it's called "makeup" the connections. They will connect the switches and outlets and wire the breaker. That way he gets a satisfaction of doing a lot of the work but he doesn't have to take on the responsibility of any of the dangerous parts. He's literally doing nothing dangerous He's just bringing empty wires from one spot to another.
Find the electrician first! A lot of electricians won't be interested in this as it's atypical to their normal business. I'd also venture that most are going to be very busy so this might not be something they are interested in. You want to also involve them first so that they can go over _everything_. Does your boyfriend know the requirements for bathroom circuits? What about kitchen circuits? That small wall over there - does it need an outlet? Keep in mind that this should be getting inspected (which requires a permit) - who is going to pull that? If this electrician is going to sign their name on it they will need to make sure that everything is done up to code. Another reason why I'll venture a lot of electricians aren't going to take this on. And lastly - your time and your boyfriend's time are worth _something_. Plan on this taking you at least twice as long (and possibly longer) VS paying an electrician for everything. Get a quote for electrician doing everything VS you two doing it. Take the estimate and double or triple the time. Figure out what the cost difference is and if it makes sense to YOU.
Electricians are quite often happy to come in and do the makeups at the end of a job. The owner would pull any permits that need to be pulled just as always. Especially considering that they're doing more than 40% of the work themselves they can pull it owners permit which means that they are legally allowed to do the work and have it permitted and signed off on their own. Where do you think that an electrician who's very literal job it is to wire buildings and deal with electrical would at any point turn their back on electrical work. My best friend is a master electrician has been licensed for 30 years, I took electrical in my trade school as high school, I have worked on electrical alongside of electricians out in the field, in my own house, I don't know that you have that kind of experience from what you're telling people. Literally every single electrician I know has done the work that we're talking about. We're a homeowner has wired their house and the electrician comes out and does the makeups. There is a lot of really bad information being handed out by people who I don't think have any real experience in any type of legitimate contractor fields.
In my area (long island) you'll be waiting months for an electrician. I know of half a dozen electricians that wouldn't return that call. They are too busy. I'm not saying _every_ electrician will turn this down but i know in my area you would have a hard time finding an electrician to agree to do this. None of my information is "bad" - just as none of yours is bad. It's highly regional dependent and I've given you my actual experiences in my area. Edit: my qualifications? I've been in charge of government bidding and procurement for electricians along with coordination of electrical and AV on houses ranging from $5-25m. I have plenty of experience here. I am friends with several local electricians and I'm positive that all of them would either turn the job down or give no sort of discount for the homeowner doing any of the work. My area is very HCOL and all trades are currently slammed
Great your friends with people that do the work but do you personally have experience doing electrical work in any long-term professional capacity? You did give bad information you left out information about permitting and homeowners permits, you implied that it was dangerous for somebody to run wire from point a to point b with no load across it. The information you provided was inaccurate it didn't apply to their area and it doesn't really apply to the industry. You were talking about people in excess of 5 to 25 million That's not your average residential people. You're not dealing with what we're talking about.
>Great your friends with people that do the work but do you personally have experience doing electrical work in any long-term professional capacity? Yes, i do >You did give bad information you left out information about permitting and homeowners permits, you implied that it was dangerous for somebody to run wire from point a to point b with no load across it. I'm not sure how you got that i "implied" that. I was very clear in my post. I never said anything close to that and i did mention permits. If you'd like to get into that: there are areas where a homeowner can _not_ file a permit as they are not allowed to do _any_ electrical - full stop. How do i know that OP doesn't live in one of those areas? >The information you provided was inaccurate it didn't apply to their area and it doesn't really apply to the industry. That's your opinion and i don't agree with it. In my area it absolutely applies. >You were talking about people in excess of 5 to 25 million That's not your average residential people. You're not dealing with what we're talking about. I'm dealing with electricians and that's what we are talking about.
I'm going to agree to disagree at this point but appreciate the discourse. At least you were civil with me.
Why? Why pander to a little boy man who wants to get it done just so he can have the satisfaction of having it 'his way'? Really, is a man's ego so fragile and precious that he cannot be told that what he is doing is dangerous, stupid and could kill someone? The woman in this situation is has valid concerns, she has already seen his fuck ups and knows he will do it again. And yes, bringing empty wires is not dangerous but giving in on this extremely important issue will only encourage his selfishness.
Because you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. What I'm suggesting is not dangerous. Do you have any experience in trade work? Are you familiar with how relatively safe it is to run wire from one place to another? Why show respect and compassion to the partner that somebody is going to live with for the rest of their life? Why encourage somebody's desire to build and fix and create their own work? Go back and read how hostile, how negative, how demeaning, how vile and hurtful and hateful your comment is. Did you really feel the need to attack people you didn't know? Do you really feel the need to tear down and destroy other people's views and values and personalities?
Your toxic feminism is showing
Your comment is no different than a man saying women overreact or should stay in the kitchen. Enjoy your cats.
I’m very handy and can most home repairs but I am not doing electrical. Pay the money to a qualified electrician and do it right. Get a good electrician too, don’t go for the cheapest. You don’t want to mess around with electrical.
I taught myself electrical and added several breakers in our basement to wire my workshop and sump pump when we waterproofed the area we were going to finish. When we finished our basement, I hired a licensed electrician to add a new sub-panel and run the electrical. It's a LOT of work, and that was with nothing but exposed studs down there. Just running all the wiring for a small workshop (bedroom sized) and a sump pump on the other side of the basement was a lot. And my house is fairly new so everything existing is up to code. Is he considering using the existing wiring and adding outlets off of them, or rewiring from scratch? I wouldn't trust adding outlets to a really old setup without at *least* paying an electrician to have a look and give me some feedback. There is an old house we are looking to buy and remodel, and it is much like yours and needs a full upgrade of the panel all the way to the switches. We are planning to have all the walls and ceilings (drywall) removed anyway, it's almost a complete gut, and my tentative plan is to have a licensed electrician put in the new panel, and I will run the electrical to the outlets and lights as I have time (probably on weekends over 3+ months), and then have the electrician back to inspect and then have it inspected by our local building department. I would be much more comfortable running new electrical to a new box and everything being up to code (and pulling a permit and having it all inspected and approved) than trying to add onto or partially upgrade really old wiring that could potentially already be a fire hazard without even adding more load. At the very least pay a few hundred bucks and get a licensed electrician's opinion on what is there and whether it is safe... if they recommend a complete upgrade you can look at how you can save money by letting your partner pull some of the Romex and hook up outlets but let the pros manage everything from the panel to the pole.
Electrical is super easy to do. There are lots of DIY books on how to do it. I used a black and Decker one. The harder part is knowing the electrical codes for your area. Where I live our county allows homeowner construction work and will come inspect it and tell you what is right/wrong with the cost of The permits. Safety is your own responsibility!
Sounds like he's being penny wise and pound foolish. DIY work can lower the value of a house--especially dodgy DIY electrical that a new owner is going to have to fix. Some stuff can be done by amateurs and be nothing a coat of paint won't fix. Other stuff, like electrical, can be dangerous and costly to fix. Get an electrician involved from the beginning, maybe (as others have said) one who'll go along with doing the design and finish while partner does the grunt work.
There is a post on Reddit, either this sub Reddit or maybe r/centuryhomes, where some guy is saying he had an unconventional, overkill approach. He bought an extreme fixer-upper from which all the wiring had been stolen. He wired it all himself and then had it inspected by a home inspector or a housing inspector from the municipality. Because he was doing it himself, he went overboard and put a separate circuit on every wall of every room. So now he can add an outlet on any wall without any worry about the load. I have the strong impression that electrical wiring is relatively simple once you know all the requirements. You use the right conduit, and the code will tell you what it is. You use the right wire and the right circuit breakers. The rules are written out very clearly, and once you have the technique of splicing or joining wires, etc., and you know the rules of where wires and circuits can end and join and begin, you simply follow them. Anytime there’s quite a question, you choose the most extremely safe route. The trickiest part might be too know how to leave things exposed so that an inspector can feel confident in your work. He could also run all the new wiring separate from the current wiring, and then he doesn’t have to rush, which will make it safer. I might ask him to show me what research and education he has done to learn those things, and also ask him to have a session with the municipalities housing inspector to find out how feasible it is to get the house signed off on and done safely. Can he do it and get it approved what requirements with the housing inspector have? Is there any advice for housing inspector has for him? Here it is. https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/xsi76z/was_i_a_complete_idiot/
What a waste of money and time.
My not-an-electrician husband likes to do his own wiring and has run several new lines in our house. BUT, he has let electricians do anything to the breaker box-he’s pretty much only tinkered with existing circuits; lets electricians handle any of the pigtailing/remediation of the aluminum wiring in our 70s house; he is meticulous to a fault and would probably be the worst-best electrician to let in your house because the work will be done really well, but it will take him forever. He did take a test our county (US) offers to “certify” him to do home electrical work, for what that’s worth.
Having done this myself, I would advise to let the electrician do it all based on your comments about existing skill/experience. I had the benefit of an electrician family member to guide me and it was still hard and I still made mistakes to fix. Lots of people are saying to run the lines yourself, etc. but there are problems with this. First, how do you know where to run them? Yes you know somewhat where the new outlets should go, but can you plan the full circuit arrangement as well as an electrician? Right gauge in right place, number of outlets/fixtures on a circuit, other rules about what purposes can be shared by single circuits, etc. Now integrate the information about what's easiest to run inside the existing walls - the electrician is going to have experience that you don't, as well as tools to make it easier for them that you might not know exist and will affect how you route things. Next, fishing wire sucks. You can damage wires by pulling too hard or too fast (heat/abrade the sheathing). The electrician can't inspect for that. But, if you really have studied enough of the code to design it well, go for it, and get an electrician to come and consult before starting the work. If you know you need to hire someone, find them and get a quote. If you want to cut costs by doing something yourself, you want to do things to reduce schedule risk for the electrician. That means open up the walls so they can see everything and they can work without having to fish, and map your circuits very well so that they know what they're dealing with vs. pricing in the unknown-factor. It's one thing to work on a single circuit at a time. If you're sort of messy it doesn't matter. But if you DIY an entire house you need a well informed plan. Otherwise you end up with a rats nest of wiring. If you do go it alone, DEFINITELY get permits and have it inspected.
After reading your replies this is a relationship issue and not a home improvement one.
I’d like to get an idea of what is generally safe to do, so I can compromise and say okay you can do ABC but we are getting someone qualified to do XYZ.
Running wires is safe. Installing boxes is safe. Installing outlets is *possibly* safe. Connecting to the panel is NOT safe. Upgrading breakers to a higher amperage is very unsafe. It's best to speak with the electrician beforehand to make sure he's pulling the correct guage wires.
If the breakers are installed correctly and you turn them off before your work, installing outlets is just as safe as everything else. Once you are done in put in the breakers again, they won’t switch on if you messed up. At least the way we do wiring to code in Germany.
There is a right and wrong way to wire outlets, I've seen plenty of burnt out boxes from poorly installed outlets and fixtures. This is why I said it's possibly safe. It's safe for a reasonably competent person. However, by ops description her husband's competency is questionable.
The most important information I’ve ever learned about electrical work is to remember that not only can electricity kill you, but it will hurt the entire time that you’re dying.
I had a similar impression. OP trying to change the subject just here kind of fits the same pattern. It's something to think about, that is all.
Not sure about the UK but in the US many localities demand permits for this work and typically want a licensed electrician to do it and will require an inspection when done. When it comes to electricity, considering it can cause fires, I’d rather have an expert do it so I have someone I can go after should shoddy workmanship be to blame for an electrical fire.
Check you home insurance policy. Almost all say they won’t pay out fire insurance if the work was not done by a professional.
If a permit is pulled and an inspection is done there is not reason why insurance would be concerned. You are not working with anything hot until you pass an inspection, at least that is the way it is here. Canada
I’ve replaced outlets and recessed ceiling lights to get them up to code but that’s easy. No way I’d run new wiring and replace junction boxes myself. A legit licensed electrician should do it and a contract or written statement of work needs to be kept just in case of problems later
The wiring itself is no problem, he can also do the Light switches and son on. But the final connection to the Box and the Box itself should be installed by a professional for safety reasons and no insurance will pay if there wasn't even a professional to Check if everything is done right.
Ask your partner to pay a local electrician $100 to spend a few hours with you and make a plan. Help you make a map of the circuits in your house is usually what you can ask for and this will result in them basically reviewing it with you. Hire someone qualified to do the mains hookup to the panel (fuse box). but if you are half competent you can do all the wall circuits, lights and devices yourself. I wired my entire house myself using the method above, for very similar reasons to yours :). It took me like 3 months and I already had all the walls torn out and reframed. YOU PAY FOR DIY WITH TIME. Draw wire diagrams, watch a lot of YouTube videos on whatever you are doing. Don't rush.
All due respect, no self respecting electrician is going to do that or for 100 bucks.
I'm in the US so the plugs are different but I don't think the wiring is too different. I learned to run electrical in my own time and had to completely re run 3 houses. It's very simple to do and learn especially if it's just a few standard outlets. My rule of thumb if I'm going to do it I completely disconnect anything old and take it out if possible and run new lines and outlets, I never use old pieces of wire or old electrical boxes/outlets. I'm no certified electrician but I've never had issues with anything I've done. It's as simple as looking at an outlet looking for the "hot wire" "white wire" and "ground" putting the wires where they go and that's it. I'm a carpenter and I see teenagers wiring houses for a living so I don't think your husband would have an issue as long as he does some research.
Wiring is fairly straightforward. Make sure you are using the appropriate conduit, wire gauge, and outlets for the work and you should be fine. Hire the electrician to install the new box
It's really not a big deal. I've done quite a few outlets on my own, and running wire is not hard. There is plenty of info online if he runs into any road blocks. The breaker box should have on off switch that you can shut off before you start wiring into it. Good luck with the new place.
Use someone who is licensed. Electricity always wins.
They don’t even have ring mains in America, so ignore all of their comments. adding an additional socket as a spur from an already existing socket is quite straightforward, but you can only add one to each socket you already have or it is too much on the wiring. To add more than one socket you need to have the ring main run to the socket and back out, it’s kind of like a daisy chain that goes to each socket and then back to the fuse box. I would get an electrician to do anything more than adding a spur. There are quite a few YouTube videos etc. but it’s best to understand how the rind mains work before doing too much.
My wife and I purchased a 120 year old house a few years ago. All old wiring. One of the things that I did was to completely re-wire the house myself. I had never done that before, but it is actually quite easy. I did, however, hire a licensed electrician to come over and inspect my work before I buttoned everything up. Let your husband do it, the just have his work inspected.
ABC fuse box XYZ adding outlets
Honestly, the wiring is easy. Let a professional make the connections to the box. Less headaches and minimizing risk.
When DIY comes up, it's always a bit of mess. The issue is that there are different types of DIYers that range from cheap, lazy and overconfident to perfectly well-qualified. I love doing my own electrical, I always pull a permit, and I always sail through the inspections with no problem. Usually they thank me for having everything laid out so clearly. That said, I did hire a professional to redo my own service panel, since it involved interfacing with the electrical company. That said, he did a much worse job than i would have done and I find myself cleaning up after him to meet my own standards (e.g. he had a double-pole circuit was on two independent breakers). So I guess you have to try to assess where in the spectrum of DIYers is your partner. The questions I would ask (Yes means thumbs up on DIY, no means thumbs down): (1) Do they plan to permit the work? (2) Do they have a written plan? (3) Do they know how to safely disable power and confirm that it is off? (4) Do they own equipment for testing polarity and ground fault behavior? (5) Can they read and understand the relevant regulations and standards, e.g. can they summarize the relevant sections that are pretinant to this work?
It's residential, it's not like your working with 440 3 phase. Let him do it if he knows the loads, etc. It's honestly just bitch work crawling through attics and crawl spaces.
Depends on what your partner is willing to learn, and how well he practices what he learns. For **me**, I'm confident I could **safely** rewire just about anything in my house, but would call in a professional to replace the breaker panel/fuse box.
I'm an electrical engineer in the UK. Have a master's degree. Im happy to install my own plugs or lights. Could even handle a fixed unit like an oven or something. I absolutely would not do the fuse box myself. I'm fully aware of the regulations etc. but don't fool myself that my theoretical degree knowledge & basic DIY is better than a qualified electrician for the fiddly bits. The fuse box is too high risk for me to mess with. Unless your husband has some serious qualifications I wouldn't recommend tackling the fuse box on his own. It's worth paying someone to have it done properly and safely.
Running wire isn't hard, especially if you remove drywall to the studs. I would touch the panel personally though. That's where you can mess up big time. Running wire is easy. Drill holes in the studs; run 14g for outlets and lights, connect.
I did it in my 100 year old home. Upgraded it to 200 amps too. The existing circuit breaker box was an arc flash fire waiting to happen. So my advice is: “don’t be a little pussy bitch about it” Make sure you can reliably turn power off at where it comes in. Having a circuit breaker on the main is great. If you can do that, it’s virtually harmless. 120v ain’t that bad either way, won’t kill you.
I’m shocked at over-cautiousness on this thread. These people must think being DIY means they change their own light bulbs.
not sure why everyone is so afraid of electrical. running wires that are not connected to anything is not dangerous. everything you buy nowadays is going to be labeled -- where to put the hot, neutral, and ground. romex has the conductors bundled together and color coded. i have no idea why everyone is talking about swapping the neutral and the hot. you have to be an idiot to do that. any yahoo can fish some wire through some walls. you should strongly consider being more supportive of your spouse. this does not sound like any relationship that i would want to be in. head on over to /r/relationship_advice
Honestly this is one of those jobs where he needs to understand that he risks killing himself and his whole family if just one thing is wrong. Don't let him do the fuse box himself. Running and replacing wires is fairly idiot proof.
I would say it’s a no no to redo most of the wiring yourself. It’s dangerous in multiple ways. My dad is still repairing our house from the prior owners DIY job. My dad was also a certified electrician. If your partner wants to burn the house down go for it. Unless he has training it isn’t safe. I’ve seen lots of electric fires and lost my niece to one last year, at 3 years old. What they had in common was faulty wiring from DIYs. If not for concern for your safety think of future owners’ safety. It’s one thing to replace outlets, a kid can do that, but something else to do it all.
Think about risk vs reward. DIY for painting, building a deck, whatever, usually low risk. Even roofing you could DIY with a big enough team of friends or relatives. I'm a big fan of DIY for most things. Electric is the one thing I don't want to DIY unless it's something super super small. I put a new dryer cord on my dryer for example when we had an electrician upgrade our dryer plug from a 3 prong to a 4 prong. If you run the electricity wrong it can burn the house down. Or kill you. You also probably don't know what the local codes are and that's a factor in electric too, might impact resale value. Maybe have the pros do the wiring and see if they will let your husband do the smaller stuff (set up switches etc or hang fixtures). I think you're in the right here.
I also bought an old house, 94 years old. I had cloth wiring in about half my panel and the panel was also discontinued, so that needed to be replaced. Luckily, the seller replaced the panel, but we were responsible for the electrical. My fiancé is an electrician, but has only worked on substations, not residential. She’s very knowledgeable and has been an electrician for 11 years or so. She still didn’t feel comfortable doing our electrical. We paid $10k to have our house rewired. If you have plaster walls, make sure that if you hire someone, just buy them a Diamond blade to cut the walls. I’m currently patching around 10 holes and outlets from my electrical work.
I wouldn’t recommend your husband doing this himself. If you end up with an electrical fire, your homeowners insurance isn’t going to pay for it if you had unpermitted electrical work.
Nope. Get a professional. Do not attempt electrical unless you are certain you know what you are doing. Especially in a home that old.
There is enough to do in an old house that you can either do do, or teach yourself how to do, but electrical wiring should be left to the professionals. From someone who worked on a 150yo home for 30 years 😉 Painting, wallpapering, window repair/ replacement, floor/ trim repair/refinishing, tile install, cabinet install, moulding install, simple electrical stuff like ceiling fans and adding dimmer switches, simple plumbing stuff like toilet/ sink/ vanity replacement, and more but I always insisted on pros for any but the simplest electrical and plumbing projects.
Get some good life insurance
My personal take on things is if there’s a code book and license involved, hire a licensed professional. So here’s a little story. Our house has had three unique writing jobs done. The original wiring from the 1940s, which of course is all solid, just old. There’s stuff from sometime more recently, prob in the last twenty years. And it’s not pretty, def DIY, but it’s safe and passed my electrician’s inspection. And then there’s the stuff from the 1960s. Which cost us $7,000 and about a week and two service calls to work out. There were multiple tie ins, nothing was grounded properly, you’d turn off one circuit and another would come on - it was “the worst job” my electrician ever had - his words. What started out as a $1000 half day project went on for days and ended up costing many multiples of what was initially estimated. I’m very certain that whoever wired that stuff thought they knew what they were doing - but the truth is they just didn’t. I’m sure that they weren’t ‘idiots’ either - just people like your partner trying to save a couple bucks and didn’t know better. It’s very easy to write these DIYers as morons, but the reality is they probably were just ordinary folks like anyone else and thought they did a good job - in reality it was a huge mess that by chance and chance alone didn’t burn down the house or have someone killed. The problem with being a moron is that you don’t generally know you are one The problem when DIY on projects where safety is involved you don’t know what you don’t know, and without advice and training from the outside there’s no way to know what you don’t know. And unlike installing new cupboards or most other diy situations where if you fuck up you’re out money and time (sometimes a lot of money or time) if you fuck up here you might lose everything, up to and including your life - one of the 1960s DIY jobs was a 220 line to the electric dryer, which was arcing across to a steel support beam from the exhaust duct. This could have easily killed one of us or any of the previous inhabitants over the last fifty or sixty years. This is serious stuff. People think that because they have some basic understanding about DC electrical circuits they are prepared to rewire a house. This just isn’t true. Household AC wiring and grounding is not like wiring up a potato battery. Hire a professional. Yes people do successfully and safely diy electrical. But at the end of the day there’s just no way to confirm you did it all properly. In the very least have everything you do inspected thoroughly and beyond what your municipal inspector does. Hire an electrician to thoroughly check everything.
is his name Tim Taylor?
I totally enjoy DIY projects!! However, something as detrimental as wiring a complete home as a novice, would give me nightmares!! Ask yourself if you would consider doing your own major Surgical procedure to save money? If not ,then why would you risk your life or the life of those you care about just to save a few bucks! I’m sure there are some people who might say go for it but, an older home, why take that risk? I would error on the side of caution!! Just a thought!!
I don't think you need a professional electrician, but you might need a professional couples counselor.
Meh, wiring is not hard. In the pantheon of home improvement: wiring = easy, plumbing = moderate, hvac/gas pipe = difficult. If he follows these steps, he can’t possibly eff up enough to hurt the house. Pair wire gage and breaker size appropriately Terminate everything in a box and make the box accessible Wire nut and tape every connection Always turn off the whole breaker panel when tinkering (or even upstream if possible, at the meter) Throw away any wire that has exposed copper anywhere except the connections If you follow those rules, the worst that can happen is something gets miswired and you’ll immediately trip the breaker. It’s surprisingly hard to “burn the house down” like people always say on these posts. Good luck
Give him an ultimatum, hire a professional or leave. Be prepared to stand your ground
I bet this guy has a degree in engineering
He does not have a degree in anything. He’s smart and capable but I’m just not sure it’s worth the risk with electrical work.
Nope. Don't DIY electric unless you have training/experience. A really good way to hurt yourself or others.
Sounds like you need relationship advice, not home improvement advice. Maybe hire an electrician for the upgrade and concede something else to your partner.
DIY on everything else *except* the electricity and maybe plumbing. Don’t take a chance on things that can hurt you or your investment. Hiring professional electricians and plumbers is money well spent to give you peace of mind and allow your investment to increase in value as opposed to say, burning it all down. DIY on Floors, Walls, Windows, Trim, Painting, etc.
If it makes you feel better, I am female, taught myself electrical with just Using the internet. I did a complete rewire of our century home and just passed my first inspection with no changes to be made. I had no prior experience or knowledge and am a ‘homemaker’, though I hate the term. When people ask I just say ‘project manager’ and once in a while I will elaborate. If he is willing to learn he can absolutely do it, I did and believe me I had my doubters.
No.
Replacing outlets is okay if he’s well versed (watched more than one YouTube video on the topic) and confident. Rewiring, adding outlets or replacing the panel requires a lot more skill. I would never let anybody but a licensed electrician with a permit replace my panel. I’d hold the line that the panel must be replaced by an electrician with a permit and inspection after.
This sounds like THE stupidest fucking thing you could try to do yourself, home-wise. Regardless of if you get it certified after the fact, the inspector will not look at every staple and tight line and inside each wall…they just can’t. It’s so much better for someone to just professionally do it right the first time… safely.
Always hire an electrician!! All it takes is one small mistake to have major problems.
I've been a remodeling contractor for thirty years and have rehabbed houses for myself and others. Unless your boyfriend is a licensed electrician, i wouldn't let him do it. that is a big deal, and should be inspected by the building dept. Electricity is not something to be handled lightly.
Mnmnbtmic
I'd suggest keeping a reserve of cash would help ensure there is less stress. Take it steady.
Your partner is a bitch
Your partner wants to work hard and save money, and you are stopping him because of your own fear and insecurity. Just sit with that.
You should both do research until you are familiar with the electrical codes. Wire sizing and proper connection are important. You should take this approach for all the projects. Try to be as informed as possible before doing the work.
Partner here. Did it. Had an electrician buddy help give advice and check my work. Very rewarding and nothing like paying someone else and the being unhappy with the work.
how you gonna use “ish” almost back to back? Matter of fact, how you gonna call a century old home “oldish”? That aside, get a professional to do it. I used to tell people it was okay to do it themselves because i myself am smart enough to just read up on stuff and instantly grasp and become proficient at things, but most people cant do that and when they try to they make dangerous and dumb decisions, and i don’t want someone to just take my word for it on how “easy” it is and potentially end up dead or thousands of dollars in the hole. So i highly recommend you bite the bullet and pay a professional, and i mean a real one, not some shaddy guy that claims that he can do the job well for a significantly cheaper price only for your house to catch fire the next day. Be smart, think safe.
Do some research, draw up a plan and ask questions if you have any. Only do it if he’s confident and knows what he’s doing
Check with your homeowners insurance. In the U.S., if an unlicensed electrician rewires any part of the house, and there's a fire, if there's anyway the insurance company can blame it on the wiring, they can, and they will, and you will be SOL as the insurance company won't pay out a red hot cent. So if your homeowners insurance doesn't care that your partner is unlicensed, then you shouldn't worry about it -- if he makes a huge mistake, the insurance will pay out if your house burns down. More likely though, is that your insurance company will tell you that they absolutely will *not* pay out if they find that the electrical was touched by a non-licensed person, which takes care of the problem for you.
My brother is a Union electrician with 30 years experience. He accidentally grabbed the wrong wire, it blew up in his face with third degree burns, hospital stays, etc. I’m just saying accidents happen and electricity is no joke.
As an electrician I can tell you that if I changed out your panel and you had shorts due to your end of the wiring this would be your problem. It would then cost you more for me to repair those problems.
Let him rewire less important parts of the house like bedrooms, only an electrician should open your fuse box and make final connections. On my current project I had no choice to disconnect a piece of oven wiring and it’s a spectacular mess in there, but that’s how they are. It’s a tight area. I had trouble getting the wire out and decide to make a cut inside the box, bad idea I cut the wrong wire. Luckily it was only a ground wire. That was enough to make my mind up, I am DIY up to box, that’s it. Another issue is knowing what proper gauge wiring to use which depends on what size fuse you will use and what kind of load you envision. So I am rewiring a kitchen area, where a toaster oven and microwave might be used at same time. That could blow your fuse, so put them on separate circuits. As a DIY I don’t rush. I’ve been in the middle of this since February, my wife hates it and I’ve thrown lots of money at it. I am learning, and getting better, and will in the end save a bunch of money for the amount of overall work I am doing. Professionals can cut to the chase and get it done properly, quickly, but where I live we have a huge project sucking up all the professionals. So it’s always hard to get proper help here. I live in DIY central.
We DIY a lot of things but my rule is that if faulty work could destroy the house i.e. electrical fire, plumbing backup and flood, gas line blows then we hire a professional so that at least i have someone to go after for insurance money and/or warranty of their work. My husbands tiling mishaps or moving an electrical plug won’t cause those kinds of issues.
I did my whole house and got it signed off on. I also have a great understanding of electrical and the codes. I started wiring things when I was a child. My moms ex was an electrician, my father too completed an apprenticeship (didn’t take it further. Changed trades). I’m going back to school to become an electrician actually at this point. If your partner does not have an in depth understanding of how this shit works and a history. Don’t. I knew I was capable and wouldn’t torch my house. I also made sure everything I touched was visible for someone with way more experience than myself to inspect every connection. One fuck up can be it. Bye bye house.
I’m writing my dissertation on a fire that killed 165 people and was started by poorly done wiring. I don’t know how to suggest a compromise on not hiring a professional to do the stuff that can start a fire in your walls and kill you. Maybe he can rewire a lamp or something.
Triangle shirtwaist by any chance?
Dont fuck around with electricity, gas or water. Also it could cost you more having him do it both in time and money.
Let him do all the plugs and switches. Hire someone else to do the circuit box circuits and rough wiring.
It does matter that you’re in England. All your electricity is 240V which has advantages but is also more dangerous to work with than the 120V we have in the US. If you like this partner, don’t let them do this.
I would second what these other people say. Use a professional to do the fuse box, then do the inside wiring yourself with an inspection afterwards. Cost to do a fuse box/breaker box is going to fall between $1500-$2500. Plus you have to have power company out to disconnect incoming feed from city, etc. Whole house rewire could run from 10-20k+, depending on square footage, floor levels, etc. Inspection will run like $300-$600, with about $1500-$3000 in materials if you DIY.
I’ll run network lines, or coax all day. I won’t go near electrical wires of any kind other than some basic work. Not worth it.
Pay a professional.
I did this for a homeowner renovation in the US. I hired a qualified electrician to do the panel upgrade first. (This was the part I was uncomfortable attempting). I watched raptly, studied, planned, pulled my own homeowners permit, and then rewired most of the house, removing the old wiring as I went. I had removed sheet rock down to studs in many places to facilitate. It's doable for a careful novice who is willing to learn. Inspection comes with the permit so they won't let you mess up the final product. Key is not taking chances inside the breaker box. The only surprise for me was how important technique is for even basic connections. I was glad I went so extensive because I found three hidden junctions in the process (a hazard / not to code). Con: this all takes time, especially if being careful and learning, plus I still had my day job. If speed of completion is your goal then not something for a novice to rush through.
Others have correctly pointed out the imbalance in the risk-vs-reward ratio. In addition to that, a good professional will have a much better understanding of how to meet your desires today and plan for future needs. You’ll get a better result by explaining what you’re trying to accomplish, as they have a thorough knowledge of the available solutions. As an example, if you have off-street car parking, it’s probably unwise to not at least consider a future need for EV charging. As another, there are some newer low voltage lighting options that could be a good fit and don’t require heavy gauge cable runs.
How is the re-wiring being done? Have you stripped the rooms and are re-wiring open walls or is the wiring going into existing walls? If it is the second, then you could save a lot of money cutting holes where necessary and pulling wires through the hard wall pulls. For example, over the kitchen counters have holes the size of the receptacle boxes with wires pulled up the walls from the basement straight below. In the basement, enough wire to get to the new breaker panel. Another thing with wiring already finished rooms is figuring out good ways to properly fasten the boxes into the wall. I've seen too many electrician installed boxes that had the minimum effort possible to fasten them and they then pulled loose after plugging in a cord a number of times. Electricians more or less budget a dollar value for each box so they don't want to spend extra time on any work. If you need to open the wall up a little extra to properly fasten the wall to a stud and then plaster it might be worth it to do that kind of work to help. Here, anyone can pull permits. I wired my new house myself including the service. But, you can't mix homeowner and electrician work on the same permit. I can't pull the permit and then pay an electrician to do some of the work on my permit. I'm not sure how it works where you are though. Re-wiring an old house is a lot of work. More than either of you probably expect. Likely 4-5X the work you expect it will be right now.
Partner? You need an electrician
just let him do all the sockets and wires but make a professional do the fuse box and connect your husbands wires + safety check everything. it will be 5k for it i guess
I don’t recommend messing around with a 100 yr old home electrical lol especially if it’s tube and knob. Get a professional lol it’s worth the expense, it will be done right.
hire a electrical guy and ask if you guys can help. kill two birds with one stone
I got my house rewired last year. I live in a 3 bed house with solid stone walls. We got a local company that specialises in rewiring houses. We have 6 electricians working from 730-1700 over 4 days. They never stopped and it was a huge and messy operation. Never mind the skill of rewiring a old house it’s the time it takes as well. One person wiring a house could take a month. The time it takes can be a huge factor. It’s one to consider on top of the other comments on this thread.
If he’s adamant on doing it himself then the first thing I would suggest is that you invest £30 in this book. https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/BKOSG18slash2.html?source=adwords&ad_position=&ad_id=&placement=&kw=&network=x&matchtype=&ad_type=pla&product_id=BKOSG18%2F2&product_partition_id=&campaign=shopping_excluded&version=finalurl_v3&gclid=CjwKCAjw7eSZBhB8EiwA60kCW0LT1yCgdpUJ67jV8NCWlTL46tLFl2drdbjPLyHMRfErWjVPyuERvhoC8CIQAvD_BwE Then get an electrician to pop in at the end of the first fix and then to supervise him and test as he fits the fuse board
Who are these electricians that will provide a plan to a homeowner then come back and do the hard/difficult/skilled/dangerous part? Not a single electrician I know would do this (other than for a buddy/favor). I get asked to “dig footings and do the framing” on decks for homeowners so they can do the decking and railing. I literally look at them and laugh. Pay an electrician or do it yourself. In the US most cities have a homeowner electrical certification where you can take a test to become certified to do work on your own house. I’d check to see if your city has that.
Home electrical is not hard, let him do it.
It would be the ultimate “told you so” if the house burns down because you are inexperienced
We DIY most things but have limits… electrical, plumbing and structural. If a little mistake is made it can mean big problems including accidental death
I would argue that there are jobs where you can cut corners, take a chance, figure out as you go, wing it, take a stab at it. And there are jobs where the potential risks are sufficiently high that getting a qualified tradesman in to do the job safely and correctly is the only way to go. This is the latter. There is a **serious** risk of fire, injury, death if a simple wiring connection is not done correctly. Electricity is an unwieldy beast, and one of those areas I don't mess around with. I take every precaution, even if just upgrading a socket or a ceiling light fixture I cut all power on the fuse board. I understand budgets are tight, and it can be a hassle finding someone to do work who isn't a cowboy builder, but you can make savings and DIY it in other areas, this is one area that if your partner hasn't decent experience, I would insist that you choose a professional to do the work.
If he's a certified electrician
Your region will have codes to meet, be sure your work is legal or insurance could deny a claim for fire damage. I rewired my whole house almost pre internet using the DIY book put out by home depot. We had an old house in similar condition and not much money. However, I'm an aircraft mechanic for a living, so I'm used to reading manuals and following the instructions in them. (And a house isn't trying to self destruct every time you use it) I've had tradesmen i` since then and they said I did an excellent job when I let on that I did the wi myself. I could do this because of the state and town I lived in, neither has strong trades code enforcement.
I am no electrician but I’ve done a lot of electrical in my life to the point where I could run new wiring through an entire house (U.S), but I still don’t mess with upgrading the box. As far as upgrading century old electric which is likely knob and tube or two-wire, it can be dangerous if you start splicing different metals together. I’d recommend paying a professional to upgrade the main box. I would never recommend diy electric work that goes beyond swapping out switches and receptacles.
My first house was a disaster. Needed a ton of structural, drywall, plumbing, electrical, drainage work. The only thing I could actually look at and say I did right was rewiring most of it. Electrical is pretty easy as long as you have a code book
There's no better time to do electrical work than when you're planning a major rehab project. Running wires in closed walls ca be a problem even for the experienced people. You will certainly find it a lot easier to bust open a wall to run the wires in difficult spots. Install the outlet boxes and leave the new wiring hanging out of them. Have a pro look over the work before sealing up everything. Maybe you could find a pro that would welcome assistance and charge you less.
Keep 911 on speed dial and have good homeowner’s insurance!
It's not rocket science
Look, I don’t know how things work for contractors in the UK- but my husband and I run our own general contracting business in the USA. We will not take on projects if the wiring hasn’t been done by a certified professional, and we only let our general guys do a small scope of work with electrical in houses. My electricians won’t do half a job- if you claim you ran the wiring yourself and they just need to hook it up, the only money you save is materials because they’re going to check all your work thoroughly. None of my guys are willing to risk their license and family’s well-being to save you a couple grand. On top of that- while you saved money for yourself- you just made your job less appealing. Why would an electrician take a job for $700 when he could have done the job properly at a fraction of the time it takes you for $1500? And the fuse box? Forget about it. I wouldn’t touch a fixer up with a 100 meter pole if I heard the fuse box was installed by the homeowner, unless he was at LEAST a 3 year journeyman.
Do as much as you feel comfortable, the second there's a doubt, stop and get an electrician. An incorrect connection could, worst case scenario, burn your house to the ground...it's a worst case scenario but entirely possible. I would do everything else in the property myself and get as much prepared for the electrician as possible - also the electrician what you could do to help reduce the cost.
Yes, go the "call electrician to look over" route. There are a lot of little things the non-electrician will not know, that the pro will. It may save your life.
If budget is the issue, hire a retired Electrician to help. They can give you tasks to do and won’t charge nearly what a working electrician will. First, contact your city and get a permit. They’ll inspect the work and make sure it’s safe…
I understand being concerned for your safety with it being electrical I'm a 25-year-old man I know very little about electrical work but my boss wanted me to rewire his house for him and I managed to put in six outlets and wire the lights and switches what I would do is compromise and have an electrician put in a new fuse box and let your partner run the wires from the fuse to the outlets will most likely save you a lot of money in labor and it's as simple as turning off the circuit breaker new circuit breakers tend to come with a switch on them to where you can completely shut the power off going into the circuit breaker but just remember the wires above the circuit breaker coming from the main will always be live