What Work Is Needed After a House Rewire?

By Jamie Cowman · Electrician · Safe Electric Registered

You've just had the house rewired and the lads have packed up. The sockets work, the lights come on — but the walls are still scarred with filled-in channels and the place needs a fair bit of tidying before it looks finished. This is the part most homeowners don't see coming, so here's the honest version of what happens after the rewire, what's already done, and what's a separate job you'll need to plan and pay for.

What "Making Good" Actually Means

A rewire means cutting channels — we call them chases — into your walls to run new cable, plus lifting floorboards and cutting holes for back-boxes, ceiling roses and the consumer unit. "Making good" is the trade term for putting all that back. As standard, a Safe Electric electrician fills the chases with bonding or backing plaster so the walls are flush and solid again, refits floorboards, and clears away the debris and offcuts. What that filling does not include is the final skim coat, sanding and painting that makes a wall look like nothing ever happened. That last layer is a plasterer's and decorator's job, not an electrician's — and it's the single biggest source of "I thought that was included" on a rewire.

Plastering and Painting: Usually a Separate Trade

Here's the plain truth: unless your quote specifically says otherwise, final plastering and painting are not in the electrician's price. We fill the chases so the surface is sound and level, but a filled chase still needs a thin finishing skim and a repaint to disappear. On a full rewire you're typically looking at a plasterer skimming affected walls, then a decorator priming and painting. Some homeowners do the painting themselves to save money; the skim is best left to a plasterer. The reason this matters is timing — you don't want to be choosing paint colours the day the electrician leaves. Sort your plasterer and decorator before the rewire finishes so they can start straight after second fix.

The Safe Electric Completion Certificate

The most important thing you receive after a rewire isn't a tidy wall — it's paperwork. When a registered electrician completes a new installation or a rewire in Ireland, they must issue a Safe Electric Completion Certificate. This is the legal record, lodged with Safe Electric (the regulator overseen by the CRU, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities), that the work was carried out by a registered contractor and inspected. Only a registered electrical contractor can issue one — it is not something you, a builder, or an unregistered handyman can produce. Keep the original safe: you'll need it if you sell, let, or remortgage the property, and your insurer may ask for it. If a quote is suspiciously cheap, ask outright whether a Completion Certificate is included. If the answer is vague, walk away.

Testing to IS 10101 — What Actually Gets Checked

Before that certificate can be issued, the whole installation is tested against IS 10101, Ireland's National Rules for Electrical Installations (these replaced the old ET 101 rules). Testing isn't a quick once-over with a screwdriver — it's a defined sequence of measurements on every circuit, including continuity of conductors, insulation resistance, polarity, earth fault loop impedance, and the trip times of the RCDs or RCBOs protecting each circuit. Modern installations use RCBOs so each circuit is individually protected — a fault in the kitchen won't plunge the whole house into darkness. The results are recorded on the certificate. If you ever want to understand the documents in more depth, we've written a full guide to electrical testing and certification that breaks down each test in plain English.

Snagging: Catching the Small Stuff

Snagging is the walk-round at the end where you and the electrician note anything missed or not quite right — a socket that ended up an inch off where you wanted it, a switch that's loose in the wall, a light fitting that needs adjusting, a blanking plate that hasn't gone back on. On a job with dozens of new accessories, a short snag list is normal and nothing to worry about. A good electrician expects it and books a short return visit to clear the list. The trick is to do your snagging walk in daylight, room by room, and test every socket and switch yourself. Bring a phone charger and a lamp — plug something into every outlet. Write the list down rather than relying on memory.

What Is and Isn't in the Electrician's Price

This is where most disputes come from, so get it nailed down in writing before work starts. As a rule of thumb, here's how a standard rewire quote breaks down:

• Almost always included: all cabling and accessories, the new consumer unit with RCBOs, filling chases with backing plaster, refitting lifted floorboards, full testing, the Safe Electric Completion Certificate, and a snagging visit.
• Usually NOT included unless agreed: final skim plastering, painting and decorating, carpet lifting and relaying, fitted-kitchen removal and refit, tiling or making good around bathrooms, and any specialist finishes.
• Worth asking about specifically: who lifts and relays carpets, whether old cable is removed or left dead in the walls, and whether the consumer unit position is changing (which can mean extra making-good near the meter).

Ask for the quote to spell out making-good explicitly. A line that simply says "rewire" can mean very different things to two contractors. A clear quote will state, for example, "chases filled with bonding plaster; final skim and decoration by others." That one sentence saves a lot of grief.

Are There Grants for Any of This?

Be careful here, because there's a lot of bad information online. Ireland has no general homeowner "rewire grant." If a website tells you otherwise, treat it as a red flag. What does exist are targeted schemes where rewiring can be covered as part of wider works:

• Housing Aid for Older People — for older people (generally 66+) in poor housing condition, with an effective maximum grant of €10,700 covering up to 100% of works. See gov.ie — Housing Aid for Older People.
• Housing Adaptation Grant for a Disability — funds works including re-wiring where needed to make a home suitable for a person with a disability. See gov.ie — Housing Adaptation Grants.
• Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant — up to €50,000 to renovate a vacant property, or up to €70,000 for a derelict one (a €20,000 top-up on top of the €50,000), where a rewire forms part of the refurbishment. See gov.ie — Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant.

Grant rules and amounts are set by the SEAI and local authorities and change — confirm current figures with them. Eligibility, income limits and the application route all run through your local authority, so check before you assume you qualify.

A Sensible Order of Events

To save yourself stress, this is the order that works in practice:

1. Electrician completes second fix — sockets, switches and consumer unit live.
2. Full testing to IS 10101 and the Safe Electric Completion Certificate issued.
3. You walk the house and agree a snag list; electrician returns to clear it.
4. Plasterer skims the filled chases and any disturbed walls.
5. Decorator primes and paints once the plaster is fully dry.
6. Carpets and any fitted units go back last.

Trying to paint before the snagging visit, or laying carpet before the cert is signed off, is how things get damaged or have to be redone. Patience at this stage pays off. If you're still at the planning stage and want the full picture of the rewire itself, our guide on what to expect during a full house rewire walks through the eight-day process from survey to certificate, and the cost guide covers what the wiring itself runs to.

When to Call Us

If your rewire was done by someone else and you're not sure it was certified properly, or you've a snag that was never cleared, get it checked. We carry out rewires and the testing and certification that go with them — see our rewire service and testing and certification pages. The wiring behind your walls is the one part of the house you can't see, so the paperwork that proves it's safe is worth more than any fresh coat of paint.