County Laois
House Rewires in Laois. The work is around the edges, not in Portlaoise.
If your house is in Portlaoise and it went up in the 2000s, a rewire is unlikely and the honest answer is usually the fuse board. If it is in Mountmellick, Abbeyleix, Portarlington or Mountrath and predates 1991, it is a fair question and testing answers it. Laois has 30,538 homes. 12,771 of them, 41.8%, were standing before 1991, and they are not where the new estates are.
The Laois Split
New in the Middle, Older Around the Edges
Building in Laois has a centre of gravity and it is Portlaoise. Of the county's current completions, 1,325 sit in the Portlaoise electoral area, against 491 in Graiguecullen-Portarlington and 422 in Borris-in-Ossory-Mountmellick. Laois also has a lot of recent housing overall: 15,144 homes, 49.6% of the stock, date from 1991 to 2010, and another 2,623 have gone up since 2011. The Laois people picture, estate roads and cul-de-sacs off the motorway, is largely one town and the ground around it.
The rest of the county is a different age. 12,771 Laois homes, 41.8% of the stock, were standing before 1991: 5,808 from before 1961 and 6,963 from 1961 to 1990. Those houses are concentrated away from Portlaoise, in Portarlington, Mountmellick, Abbeyleix, Mountrath, Borris-in-Ossory and the rural county in between. So the rewire question in Laois is largely a question about where you live, not only about when your house was built. Two houses ten minutes apart can need completely different work.
What that means in practice is two different conversations. In a Portlaoise estate house from the 2000s the cabling is normally PVC twin and earth in sound order, so a full rewire is rarely the answer and the fuse board is where the real work sits. In a house in Mountmellick or Abbeyleix built before 1991, nobody can tell you from the footpath. Testing does. A full rewire of a 3-bed semi is €7,000–€12,000 including VAT and the Safe Electric certificate, an indicative range and not a quote until the house is seen.
Laois In Numbers
When Laois's houses were built
| Built | Homes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Before 1961 | 5,808 | 19% |
| 1961 – 1990 | 6,963 | 22.8% |
| 1991 – 2010 | 15,144 | 49.6% |
| 2011 onward | 2,623 | 8.6% |
Source: CSO Census 2022, table FY033A, period of construction of occupied dwellings in County Laois. 30,538 homes in total. Data pulled 2026-08-05.
In Portlaoise the Answer Is Usually the Fuse Board
Most rewire enquiries from Portlaoise turn out to be fuse board enquiries. A house from the 1991–2010 band, and 15,144 Laois homes sit in that band, was wired in PVC twin and earth with an earth at every socket. The cable is usually sound. What has aged is the board: rewireable fuses or early MCB boards with one RCD covering the whole house, so a fault in the garden trips the sockets upstairs. Add a car charger, a shower or a garden office and the board is the limit, not the cable. A board change with full testing and an IS 10101 certificate is a different job to a rewire, and we will say so rather than sell you the bigger one.
Portarlington, Mountmellick and the Older Towns
Portarlington, Mountmellick, Abbeyleix, Mountrath and Borris-in-Ossory hold a different kind of house. 5,808 Laois homes predate 1961 and another 6,963 date from 1961 to 1990. At the older end you still find vulcanised rubber cable that goes brittle at the fittings, sockets with no earth, and rewireable fuse boards with no RCD at all. At the 1961 to 1990 end the cable is often PVC and sound, but the house has one lighting circuit per floor, a couple of sockets per room and no bonding at the water and gas services. One of those is a rewire. The other frequently is not, and the difference is not visible until the circuits are tested.
What Testing Tells You Before Anything Is Priced
Before quoting a rewire we test. That means measuring insulation resistance on every circuit, checking earth continuity and the earth fault loop, testing each RCD, and opening a sample of sockets, switches and ceiling roses to see what the cable actually is behind the plaster. It takes a few hours in an average three-bed house. You get the readings in writing, and they either show a wiring problem or they do not. If the house passes, we say so. If it fails on one or two circuits, you get the option of putting those right instead of the whole house. All work is certified to IS 10101 and J Cowman Electrical Contractors is Safe Electric registered.
Extensions and Attic Conversions on Older Wiring
A lot of the 12,771 pre-1991 houses in Laois have been added to since. A kitchen extension in the 1990s, an attic conversion in the 2000s, a converted garage after that. Each one tends to get spurred off whatever circuit was nearest, so a 1970s ring feeding a modern kitchen ends up carrying the oven, hob, dishwasher and washing machine. The board fills up, the spare ways go, and the last addition gets doubled up on an existing way. That layering is a common reason an older Laois house needs more than a board change but less than a full rewire. Testing sorts out which circuits still carry the load and which have to be replaced.
| The job | Typical range | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|
| Fuse board upgrade, sound wiring | See the fuse board page | Ways, board position, surge protection |
| Partial rewire, targeted circuits | Quoted from test results | How many circuits actually fail |
| Full rewire, 3-bed semi | €7,000 – €12,000 | Walls, making good, occupied or empty |
The figures above are indicative ranges for guidance only, not a quote and not an offer. Wall construction, making good, and the condition of what is already behind the plaster all move the number, and none of it can be judged from a photograph. Jamie gives you an accurate fixed price in writing after the installation has been tested.
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
Rewires in Laois: what we get asked
Does a 2000s house in Portlaoise need a rewire?
Almost never. Houses in that band were wired in PVC twin and earth with an earth at every socket, and 15,144 Laois homes, 49.6% of the stock, date from 1991 to 2010. What ages first in those houses is the fuse board, not the cable behind the plaster. If your trip switches are going for no obvious reason, if there is one RCD covering the whole house, or if you are adding a shower, a car charger or a garden office, the board is normally the limiting part. We test before saying either way, and if the cable is sound we will tell you that.
How much does a full rewire cost in Laois?
A full rewire of a standard 3-bed semi is €7,000–€12,000 including VAT and the Safe Electric certificate. That is an indicative range, not a quote. Where a house lands inside it depends on how many rooms and sockets you want, whether floors are solid or timber, whether the house is lived in while the work is done, and how much making good is involved. A pre-1961 house in Abbeyleix with lath and plaster sits differently to a 1980s house in Portarlington. We will not put a figure on your house until we have been in it and tested what is there.
My house in Mountmellick is from the 1970s. Does it need a full rewire?
It is a fair question and testing answers it, which is the honest reply for most of the 6,963 Laois homes built between 1961 and 1990. Cable from that period is usually PVC and often still sound. The problems are elsewhere: no RCD protection, a couple of sockets per room, one lighting circuit per floor, missing bonding at the water and gas, and a board with no spare ways. Plenty of those houses need a new board, added circuits and some rewiring rather than a full strip out. Some do need the lot. The readings decide it, not the year on the deeds.
How do I tell whether it is the fuse board or the wiring?
You cannot tell from the outside, and neither can we without testing. Insulation resistance readings tell us whether the cable is breaking down. Earth continuity and loop readings tell us whether the circuits are safe under fault. If those come back good and the only problem is an old board with rewireable fuses or a single RCD, it is a board job. If insulation resistance is low across several circuits, or we open sockets and find rubber cable behind them, it is a rewire. Two houses on the same road in Mountmellick can go different ways on that, so the readings matter more than the address.
Do I need a rewire before putting in a car charger?
Usually not. A car charger is normally its own circuit run from the fuse board, so the real question is whether the board has a spare way, the right protection and the headroom to take it, not whether the house needs rewiring. In a Portlaoise house from the 2000s that is very often a board upgrade and one new circuit. In an older house in Mountrath or Borris-in-Ossory with a rewireable board and no RCD, the board has to be sorted first, and the testing that goes with it may turn up other work. Either way the installation is certified to IS 10101.
Do you cover all of Laois?
Yes. J Cowman Electrical Contractors is based in Wexford and covers 13 Leinster and south-east counties, Laois included, from Portlaoise and Portarlington through Mountmellick, Abbeyleix, Mountrath and Borris-in-Ossory and out into the rural county. We are Safe Electric registered and every job is certified to IS 10101. Because we travel, we prefer to do the testing and the survey in one visit and give you the readings and the options together rather than making two trips. If you are on a one-off rural site, say so at the enquiry stage and we will allow the right time.
What paperwork do I get when the work is finished?
A completion certificate for the installation, certified to IS 10101 and issued through Safe Electric. That is the document people look for when a house is being sold, valued or insured, and it shows the work was done by a registered contractor and tested rather than just wired in. You also get the test readings for every circuit, so there is a record of what the installation measured on the day. If we only do part of the house, the certification covers the part we did and the report says plainly what was left and why.
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.
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