County Wicklow
House Rewires in Wicklow. The Band Decides.
31.7% of Wicklow’s 53,142 homes were built between 1961 and 1990, a heavier share of that band than any county outside Dublin, and it is the band where the answer genuinely depends on which end your house sits at. One end is a rewire. The other is a fuse board. Twenty minutes of testing says which, and we do that before we talk money.
Why Wicklow Reads Backwards
The towns that build least need us most
Between 2023–2025, Wicklow town took 1,797 new homes, more than four in ten of everything built in the county, and Greystones took 832. Bray, long the county’s biggest town, took 424 across both its areas, barely more than Arklow. That is not decline; it is a town that already did its growing, and it did most of it between 1961 and 1990. The band those decades left behind is the county’s biggest, 16,829 homes, and it is the stock where fuse wire, rewireable carriers and boards with no RCD still turn up behind tidy front doors. So the county reads backwards: the quiet towns generate the rewire questions, and the busy ones generate board and charger work on houses only a few years old.
Find Your Era
What each era means, and where it sits in Wicklow
The wiring rules are national. What changes the job is the decade. Each row links to the full detail for that era.
Usually a genuine rewire
The old harbour and town cores, and the farmhouses of west Wicklow. Rubber-insulated cable at the end of its life and lighting circuits with no earth are the classic finds.
Heaviest outside Dublin. Depends which end
The heaviest county-level share of this band outside Dublin, concentrated in the towns that grew as Dublin pushed south. PVC cable that reads as modern, over rewireable fuse carriers and boards with no RCD.
Almost never a rewire
The boom estates around every town from Greystones to Arklow. Sound cable, an earth on every circuit, and a board at its upgrade point: grouped RCDs, no surge protection, no spare way.
Capacity, not replacement
Concentrated around Wicklow town and Greystones, where the building is. Nothing degrading. The question is whether the board carries the car charger nobody specified for it.
Source: CSO Census 2022, table FY033A, period of construction of occupied dwellings in County Wicklow. Completions from CSO new dwelling completions 2023–2025. Era data is county-level; town growth eras are described qualitatively. Data pulled 2026-08-05.
How We Quote It
Three things that decide a Wicklow rewire quote
We test before we quote, and the band makes that non-negotiable here
Wicklow has more of the 1961 to 1990 band than any county we cover outside Dublin, and it is the band where age alone answers nothing: an early-sixties house and a late-eighties house are different jobs wearing the same pebbledash. Insulation resistance circuit by circuit, earth continuity, loop impedance and RCD trip times take about twenty minutes and separate the two. You get the readings themselves, including when they show the cheaper answer.
The coast is part of the spec, not just the view
From Bray harbour to Arklow, outdoor kit lives in salt-laden air, and it corrodes external metalwork faster than anything inland. On coastal jobs we specify enclosures, fittings and charger mountings for a marine environment rather than fitting the standard box, because the difference shows up in year three, not week one. It is a small line on a quote and a large one in five years.
Making good is stated, in or out
In the county's older stock, the harbour terraces, the west Wicklow farmhouses, walls are often solid, so cable is chased and plastered back. Whether the plastering back is inside the price is the commonest reason two quotes on the same house sit thousands apart. Ours states which it is, in writing, and we would tell you to ask every other quote the same question before comparing numbers.
| 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 | Spec, making good, occupied or empty |
The figures above are indicative ranges for guidance only, not a quote and not an offer. On band-era stock the spread inside one estate can be the full spread of the table, which is exactly why the test comes first. 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 Wicklow 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 Wicklow: what we get asked
How much does a rewire cost in Wicklow?
€7,000 to €12,000 is a realistic range for a three-bed semi, including VAT and the Safe Electric certificate. It is an indicative range rather than a quote: circuit count, spec, occupied or empty, wall construction and how much making good is included all move it. On Wicklow's stock profile the first question is whether you need one at all, because the 1961 to 1990 band produces both answers regularly, and the test that decides it costs twenty minutes. The accurate figure comes after testing, as a fixed written price.
Our house in Bray is from the 1970s. Is that a rewire?
It is the exact stock this page exists for, and the honest answer is that the decade alone cannot say. Bray grew hard through the sixties, seventies and eighties, and houses from that band span the changeover from rubber to PVC cable and from fuse wire to breakers. An early example can need a full rewire; a late one usually needs a board. What settles it is insulation resistance circuit by circuit and whether the lighting has an earth. Where the cable tests sound, the job collapses into a fuse board upgrade, which is a different price by thousands.
We bought in a new estate near Wicklow town. Surely we need nothing?
Almost nothing, and you are in the county's newest stock: more than four in ten of Wicklow's recent completions went up around Wicklow town. Nothing in your installation is degrading. What arrives anyway is capacity work: a car charger wanting its own circuit, a garden office wanting a proper supply, a board with no spare way for either. Those are planned, certified additions rather than repairs, and if someone has quoted you a rewire on a house that age, get a second opinion before signing anything.
The house is an old farmhouse near Baltinglass. What does the job look like?
Bigger than the house, usually. West Wicklow's older rural stock carries the county's genuine rewire candidates: rubber-insulated cable, earthless lighting, and boards extended over decades. On a farm the survey also takes in the yard: a submain feeding sheds wired at different times, and any pumped water supply, each needing its own protection. We test the lot and quote it split between house and yard so you can stage the work. We cover west Wicklow on the same runs as the south of the county, so it is not a special trip.
Does being beside the sea actually change electrical work?
Outdoors, yes, measurably. Salt-laden air corrodes external metalwork faster than inland, which matters for outdoor sockets, garden lighting, EV chargers on exposed gables and the enclosures of anything mounted outside. Indoors it changes little. On coastal jobs from Bray to Arklow we specify external kit for a marine environment rather than fitting the standard box, and the price difference is small against what replacing corroded kit in three years costs.
Can we stay in the house while it is done?
For a board change, yes: power off for a few hours, typically a morning. For a partial rewire, yes, room by room with power available everywhere else. For a full rewire most people live in one end of the house while we work through the other, because floors come up and power is off for stretches. A three-bed typically runs five to eight working days for a team of two, and the quote comes with a day-by-day plan so you know which rooms are affected when.
Will I get a certificate?
Yes, on the day the work finishes. A Completion Certificate is legally mandatory for electrical works other than minor works, and only a Registered Electrical Contractor can issue one. Ours comes with the test results attached rather than a one-line pass. Keep it with the house papers: a buyer's solicitor will ask for it, and so will the next electrician who works on the house.
Do I need a rewire before selling?
No law requires one. What happens in practice is that the surveyor flags an older installation, the buyer's solicitor asks for certification, and the question lands mid-sale with a deadline attached. On Wicklow's band-heavy stock that sequence is common, and it cuts both ways: testing before listing frequently shows sound wiring with a dated board, which is a small planned job instead of a five-figure negotiation. If past work was done and the certificate is missing, chasing the paperwork early is what actually protects the closing date.
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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