So you’ve purchased a fantastic property: prime location and a decent size to squeeze in those additional bedrooms. Of course, you’re thinking student accommodation. And with so much money to be made, it’s a market any property developer or landlord should be looking at. But what happens if this property isn’t all it appeared, and now you need to rewire the full place. What can you expect from this electrical work? Here at Walker Electrical, we are commercial and residential electrical experts. As a result, we have produced this guide to rewiring student accommodation.
What to look out for
The first place to start is how do you know it needs rewiring, and you cant just ignore the problem? Well as a landlord, you legally can not ignore the issue. Before you get your tenants in there, you need a record of an electrical safety inspection. And this needs to be completed on a regular basis, so even if the problem suddenly occurs, its up to you get it fixed. These inspections will pick up on the electrical warning signs. These include:
- Visible signs of wear and tear with exposed wiring and aged sockets
- Hot sockets, and sparking sockets.
- A visibly old fuse box, perhaps fitted to a wooden panel with wooden wiring and cast iron switches.
- Flickering lights.
What does a full rewire involve?
If your property needs a full rewire its best to conduct this before you move any students in. This is because it can take up to 4 weeks for a qualified and professional electrician to fully rewire the property. The electricians will need access to all rooms throughout the working hours and may in some cases need to channel through walls to remove cabling. As a result, there will likely be a lot of disruption.
All of the wiring that is currently in use will need to be removed. Depending on the amount of sockets and lights in the property, and the size of the rooms, the amount of time it takes will vary.
Of course, once the wiring is removed, new wiring will then need to be installed, along with new fixtures and a new fuse box.
In summary
A full rewire will cause disruption to your tenants. However, you do have a legal obligation as a landlord to keep the electrics in the property in safe working order. Replacing all the cables, fixtures and the fuse box can take up to a month in some properties. If you need a property rewire, contact the professionals at Walker Electrical today.