Does My Old Home
Need Rewiring?

Older homes on the Sunshine Coast and through Brisbane's established suburbs frequently still carry original wiring. Some of it is fine. Some of it crumbles when you touch it. The only way to know which you have is for someone to look.

What old cable actually looks like

Rubber and VIR

Pre 1960s homes often have vulcanised india rubber cable, usually with a black fabric braid outer. Rubber insulation hardens and cracks with age and heat, and once it does, the conductors inside are effectively bare. This is the wiring type that most clearly needs replacing.

Early PVC

From the sixties onward, PVC insulated cable became standard and it ages far better. PVC from the seventies is often still serviceable. The issue with homes of that era is usually not the cable itself but the number of circuits, which was designed for a house with far fewer appliances.

Cotton covered and cloth braid

Visible cotton or cloth braiding in the roof space, particularly where it is dusty, brittle or has been chewed, is a strong indicator that the installation predates anything you should rely on.

Signs from inside the house

• Lights dimming when a large appliance starts
• Warm switches, outlets or faceplates
• Discoloured or scorched power points
• A burning or fishy smell, which is urgent
• Very few power points, with extension leads and double adaptors everywhere
• Two pin or round pin outlets still in use
• Frequent tripping, or fuses that keep blowing on the same circuit

Extension leads running through doorways are not a wiring problem, they are a symptom of one. The house does not have enough circuits or outlets.

Full rewire or partial?

A full rewire replaces all fixed wiring and the switchboard. A partial rewire targets the circuits that are actually failing, often the lighting circuits or a particular wing of the house, and leaves sound PVC circuits in place.

We prefer to assess and recommend the smaller job where it is genuinely adequate. There is no benefit in replacing cable that has decades of service left, and there is no sense in leaving rubber cable in the ceiling because a full rewire was quoted as one big number.

How we stage it so you can stay in the house

Nobody wants to move out. We work section by section, keeping power and lighting to the parts of the house you are using while we rewire the rest. Typically that means the kitchen and one living area stay live throughout, and bedrooms are done in pairs.

• We map the existing circuits and agree the staging with you before starting
• New cable is run through the roof space and wall cavities, using existing paths where possible
• Each stage is tested and made live before the next begins
• The switchboard is replaced as part of the work, with RCD protection on every circuit
• You receive a certificate of testing and compliance on completion

What it costs and what affects it

Access is the biggest variable. A single storey home with a generous roof space and a subfloor is far easier than a two storey brick house with a flat roof and no access. Heritage and character homes need more care with cornices, VJ walls and ceilings, which takes longer.

We quote a fixed price after inspecting the roof space and board. Read more about our rewiring service, or about switchboard upgrades, which are part of every rewire we do.