Is old wiring automatically unsafe?

No. Age is a reason to look, not a verdict. What matters is the condition of the insulation, whether the installation is earthed properly, and whether it has RCD protection. Plenty of older installations are sound; some newer ones are not, because the fault is usually workmanship or overload rather than years. An inspection tells you which one you have.

Can you rewire without breaking all the walls?

Often a lot less than people expect. How much chasing is needed depends on whether the existing cable is in conduit and whether the routes are still usable — where they are, new cable can frequently be drawn through the existing conduit. We will tell you what is realistic for your house at the survey rather than after the plaster is off.

What is an RCD and do I need one?

An RCD (or ELCB) detects current leaking to earth — through a person, for instance — and cuts the supply in milliseconds. A fuse does not do this; it protects the cable from overload, not you from a shock. If your board has rewirable fuses and no RCD, that is one of the strongest reasons on this list to have the installation looked at, whatever else is true.

Do you charge for the inspection?

No. The visit and the assessment cost nothing and there is no obligation to go ahead — you only pay once you accept a quote. If the answer is that you need a consumer-unit upgrade and some remedial work rather than a full rewire, that is what we will tell you.

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Does my house need rewiring? A Kerala checklist

Tick the warning signs you have actually noticed. Nothing you tick leaves this page, and we will tell you if a rewire is not warranted.

Mon–Sat, 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM IST

How this works

Rewiring a house is disruptive and expensive, and plenty of houses that people worry about do not need it. The useful question is not "is my wiring old" but "is it doing anything dangerous". This checklist sorts the signs that mean call someone today from the ones that mean get it inspected sometime from the ones that mean nothing much at all.

Some of these are not gradual problems. Heat at a fitting, a burning smell, scorch marks, sparking from a socket, or a tingle off a tap or an appliance are all live faults — heat means a loose or overloaded connection, and a tingle almost always means a failed earth, which in a wet Kerala bathroom or kitchen is genuinely dangerous. If you tick one of those, this page will tell you to stop using that circuit and call a licensed electrician, and it will say so regardless of how little else you ticked. That is intentional: no scoring average should ever talk somebody out of ringing an electrician about a burning smell.

The rest is judgement. Cloth or rubber-sheathed cable and round-pin sockets are pre-1970s and long past the end of their life. Rewirable fuses with no RCD are a generation out of date — an RCD is the thing that interrupts a shock before it stops your heart. But breakers that trip and lights that dim under load are often a tired consumer unit, one overloaded circuit or a bad joint, and those are fixable without pulling cable through your walls. We would rather tell you that than sell you a rewire.

Common questions

Is old wiring automatically unsafe?: No. Age is a reason to look, not a verdict. What matters is the condition of the insulation, whether the installation is earthed properly, and whether it has RCD protection. Plenty of older installations are sound; some newer ones are not, because the fault is usually workmanship or overload rather than years. An inspection tells you which one you have.
Can you rewire without breaking all the walls?: Often a lot less than people expect. How much chasing is needed depends on whether the existing cable is in conduit and whether the routes are still usable — where they are, new cable can frequently be drawn through the existing conduit. We will tell you what is realistic for your house at the survey rather than after the plaster is off.
What is an RCD and do I need one?: An RCD (or ELCB) detects current leaking to earth — through a person, for instance — and cuts the supply in milliseconds. A fuse does not do this; it protects the cable from overload, not you from a shock. If your board has rewirable fuses and no RCD, that is one of the strongest reasons on this list to have the installation looked at, whatever else is true.
Do you charge for the inspection?: No. The visit and the assessment cost nothing and there is no obligation to go ahead — you only pay once you accept a quote. If the answer is that you need a consumer-unit upgrade and some remedial work rather than a full rewire, that is what we will tell you.