How long does house wiring last?

Modern PVC-insulated cable is good for decades: fifty years is a reasonable expectation for cable that was installed well and left alone. But “left alone” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and most houses have not left their wiring alone. Extensions, new kitchens, loft conversions and forty years of DIY all add joints, spurs and junction boxes that age faster than the original cable.

The wiring types that came before PVC are a different story. Rubber-insulated cable (common before the 1960s) goes brittle and crumbles; fabric-covered cable is older still. If your house has either, rewiring is not a maybe. Other signs worth acting on: sockets with round pin holes, a fuse board with rewireable fuses, no earth wire at light fittings, and switches or sockets that crackle, buzz or smell warm.

Age alone does not condemn wiring, and this is where guesswork costs people money in both directions. Some 1970s installations test fine; some 2000s ones do not. The way to know is an EICR, which costs from £200 and inspects every circuit. You get the result in plain English with quick certification by email, and if anything fails we quote the fix before we leave.

If the report does say rewire, full rewires start at £4,500 and begin with a free survey, not a sales pitch.