County Laois
New Builds in Laois. One town, phase after phase.
Laois built 2,239 new homes between 2023 and 2025, and 1,325 of them sit in the Portlaoise electoral area. That is 59.2% of the county's output in one town, a higher share than any other county town we cover. 1,592 of those homes were scheme houses. The electrical work repeats, phase after phase, on the same kind of house in the same place, so it can be priced off the drawings and sequenced against the builder's programme.
Why Laois Is Different
Portlaoise holds 59.2% of Laois new builds, so work repeats
Portlaoise takes 1,325 of the county's 2,239 completions between 2023 and 2025. Graiguecullen-Portarlington accounts for 491 and Borris-in-Ossory-Mountmellick for 422. So more than half the new electrical work in Laois happens inside one town's catchment, and it happens in phases: an estate is handed over in tranches, and the next tranche is often the same house type with the same board position, the same run lengths and the same questions from the buyer. Nothing about that is glamorous. It is, though, the reason a price for it can be a real price.
1,592 of the 2,239 are scheme houses, 71.1% of everything built. That matters more than the total. On a scheme house the spec is set before you ever see the place, the first fix is the same across the row, and the electrician who wired phase one already knows where the meter cabinet sits and how long the run to the far bedroom is. The estimate becomes arithmetic rather than a guess, and the work can be booked against the builder's programme instead of squeezed in when the plasterer finishes.
The other side of it is the 395 one-off houses, 17.6% of the county's completions, and those are out in the county rather than in the estates: past Mountmellick, out by Borris-in-Ossory, over on the Carlow side of Graiguecullen. A one-off is a different job with a different order of work, mostly because of what has to reach the site before the house is wired. We have written that up properly on our Wexford new build page rather than repeating it here. The output itself moved too: 743 homes in 2023, 653 in 2024, then 843 in 2025.
Laois In Numbers
What is actually being built in Laois
| Type | Homes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Scheme houses | 1,592 | 71.1% |
| One-off houses | 395 | 17.6% |
| Apartments | 252 | 11.3% |
Source: CSO new dwelling completions 2023–2025, County Laois. 2,239 homes completed in total. Data pulled 2026-08-05.
Why a Portlaoise phase price is a real price
Send the drawings and the spec and, on a repeat house type, we can price the wiring before walking the site, because 1,592 of Laois's 2,239 completions are scheme houses and the same layouts come round phase after phase. A price built that way holds across the row instead of being re-guessed at every unit. What moves it is whatever sits on top of the standard drawing: extra sockets, outside power, a car charger position, lighting that is not shown. Every circuit is tested and certified to IS 10101, and the Safe Electric completion paperwork goes to you with the keys.
Buying into a later phase in Portlaoise
With 1,325 of the county's new homes in the Portlaoise area, most buyers here are buying into an estate where earlier units are already lived in. Use that. Walk a finished house of the same type and you can see socket positions, where the fuse board ended up, whether the kitchen has enough on the counter, and where the outside light lands. Those are the things people change afterwards, when the walls are closed and the cable has to be chased through finished plaster. On paper, before first fix, they cost nothing to move. Ask for the completion certificate at handover and keep it with the house file.
Portarlington, Graiguecullen, Mountmellick and out west
Outside the county town, Graiguecullen-Portarlington recorded 491 completions and Borris-in-Ossory-Mountmellick 422, and the county's 395 one-off houses sit in that ground rather than in the town. Longer distances between jobs is a scheduling problem more than a technical one, so we work these on a day basis rather than dipping in and out: a first fix goes in and gets finished. If you are building a one-off instead of buying in an estate, the order of work for site services is set out in full on our Wexford new build page, and it reads the same in Laois.
Apartments are a small part of Laois
252 of the 2,239 homes completed in Laois between 2023 and 2025 were apartments, 11.3% of the total. Scheme houses and one-offs together come to 1,987, and everything on this page is written with those 1,987 in mind. An apartment is a genuinely different job, and rather than half-cover it here we have put the detail on our Dublin new build page, where apartments make up most of what gets built. If you are buying one in Portlaoise, read that first, then ring us with the specifics of your block.
Who You’re Dealing With
Why this job is safe with us
J Cowman Electrical Contractors is based in Wexford and covers Laois as part of our Leinster service area. Same crew, same registration, same certificate on completion.
Safe Electric registered
Registration A6700
Verifiable on the public register
Public liability insurance
Up to €6.5M
Cover in place on every job
Crew size
10 electricians
Trading since 2021
Fixed-price quote
Within 48 hours
WhatsApp replies within the hour, Mon–Fri
Building in Laois: what we get asked
Do I need my own electrician if I'm buying a new house in an estate in Portlaoise?
Not for the house wiring itself. On a scheme house the developer's electrician does the first and second fix and hands over the completion certificate, and 1,592 of the 2,239 homes finished in Laois since 2023 are scheme houses, so that is the normal route. Where we get called is everything the standard drawing does not carry: extra sockets, a car charger, outside power, a shed or garden circuit, a feed for a home office. The time to ask is while the estate is still in build, because running cable through an open wall is a different job to chasing it through a closed one.
Can you price the electrics off the drawings, or do you need to see the site?
Off the drawings, for a repeat house type. Laois built 2,239 homes between 2023 and 2025 and 71.1% of them were scheme houses, so the same layouts come round again and again in the same town. Send the layout, the spec and the phase you are in and you get a real figure rather than a vague range. For a one-off, or for anything with a garage, a shed, an annexe or a heat source that is not on the plan, we would rather walk it. Ten minutes on site beats a phone call full of assumptions.
What paperwork should I get when the house is handed over?
A completion certificate from a Safe Electric registered contractor, covering the installation and certifying it to IS 10101, the national wiring rules. Keep it with the house file. Your solicitor may want sight of it, and so will the next buyer years from now. If you have had extra work done outside the developer's contract, that work gets its own certificate, and it should come to you rather than being left with the builder. J Cowman Electrical is Safe Electric registered, and everything we finish in Laois is certified, down to a single added circuit.
How far ahead should I book an electrician for a Laois new build?
As early as you have a programme date, and earlier again if you are in Portlaoise. Laois completions went 743 in 2023, 653 in 2024, then 843 in 2025, so the county is finishing more houses now than it was two years ago, and 1,325 of that three-year total sit in the one electoral area. That concentration is what lets us hold consecutive days in the same place instead of criss-crossing the county. Give us the first fix date and the plaster date, and we will work backwards from those two.
We are building a one-off outside Mountmellick. Is that a different job?
Yes, and mostly before the wiring starts. 395 of the county's 2,239 completions since 2023 are one-off houses, and they are out in the county rather than in the estates, which means the site services are yours to organise rather than a developer's. We have set that sequence out in full on our Wexford new build page instead of repeating it here, and it reads the same in Laois. The house wiring itself is standard work, tested and certified to IS 10101, exactly as it would be on a scheme house in Portlaoise.
We ended up buying a second-hand house in Laois instead. What changes?
The job changes completely. Laois has a standing housing stock of 30,538 homes against 2,239 built in the last three years, so most houses on the market here are not new, and an older house is assessed rather than built to a drawing. Start with a test on the existing installation before anyone quotes you for work. Where a full rewire is genuinely needed, a 3-bed semi runs roughly €7,000–€12,000 including VAT and the Safe Electric certificate, and that is an indicative range rather than a quote. Our Laois page covers what the county's existing stock actually needs.
Are you based in Laois?
No. J Cowman Electrical is based in Wexford and covers 13 counties across Leinster and the south-east, Laois included. Jamie Cowman is Safe Electric registered and every installation is certified to IS 10101, whichever county it is in. The practical answer for Laois is the same thing that makes the county work for us: 1,325 of its 2,239 recent completions are in the Portlaoise area, so we plan the diary around blocks of work in the one place rather than single scattered calls.
Where to go next
Written and checked by
Jamie Cowman, Registered Electrical Contractor
Jamie runs J Cowman Electrical Contractors and holds Safe Electric registration A6700, which is what allows a Completion Certificate to be issued on this kind of work. Everything on this page reflects how the job is actually priced and sequenced on site, not a generic specification.
From a Single Rewire to Full Developments: Send Us the Details.
Send us your plans or a quick description. We return a fixed-price quote within 48 hours, no obligation, no sales calls.