Renovation electrics for full and partial home refurbishments in Seville, Spain

Why a renovation is the best time for the electrics

With the walls open, changing or extending the electrical installation costs a fraction of what it would cost later. That is why, in any renovation, full or partial, it is worth planning the electrics from the start and not leaving them to the end, when everything is already tiled.

Good renovation electrics solve three things at once: safety (protections, earthing, cables in good condition), capacity (enough circuits for air conditioning, induction hob, oven and water heater) and comfort (sockets and lights where you need them, without power strips).

What we do in a renovation

• Kitchen: independent circuits for the hob and oven, washing machine, dishwasher and water heater, with the cross-sections and protections set by ITC-BT-25. We go into detail on kitchen electrics.
• Bathroom: sockets, lighting, extractor fan and electric towel rail respecting the protection zones of ITC-BT-27 and the equipotential bonding. See bathroom electrics.
• Living room and bedrooms: new sockets, TV and data points, two-way switches and lines for air conditioning. See extra sockets and lights and air conditioning circuit.
• Lighting: preparing false ceilings for downlights, LED strips or pendant lights.
• Fuse board: new or extended, with RCDs shared out by area and a breaker per circuit. See fuse board replacement.
• Boletín: installation certificate (CIE) registered with the Junta de Andalucía when the renovation requires it.

Conduits, chases and wiring

Part of any electrical renovation is deciding where the cables run:

• Recessed chases. We cut channels in the wall, fit corrugated conduit and junction boxes and close them up. The cleanest option visually.
• Surface installation. Trunking or rigid conduit on view, useful when you want no building work, in business premises or on walls that cannot be chased.
• False ceilings and stud walls. In plasterboard renovations the cabling runs through the cavity and the building work is minimal.

Conduits are covered by ITC-BT-20 and ITC-BT-21 of the Spanish Low Voltage Electrotechnical Regulation. As a guide, cutting a chase and fitting conduit costs 15 to 35 euros per linear metre plus VAT, depending on the type of wall and the work needed.

How we work with your builder

1. Visit and planning. We go round the home with you and the renovation plans and decide which circuits and points you need.
2. Fixed quote item by item, so you know what each thing costs.
3. Coordination with the other trades. We come in with the walls open, before plastering and tiling, and adapt to the schedule of the works or your renovation company.
4. Wiring and fuse board. We pull new cable of the right cross-sections and fit or adapt the fuse board.
5. Finishing. At the end we fit switches and sockets, connect light fittings and appliances and measure insulation, earthing and RCDs.
6. Paperwork. We hand you the boletín where applicable and the circuit diagram.

Partial renovation or complete rewire

If the renovation only affects the kitchen or the bathroom, new circuits can be run from the fuse board and the rest left as it is. But if the home has an installation over 30 years old, with no earthing, fabric-covered or aluminium cables and few circuits, the sensible thing is to use the works to replace it all. We explain it on rewiring old apartments.

Renovations in Seville flats

A very large share of renovations in Seville city are in the 1960s and 1970s flats of Nervión, Los Remedios, Heliópolis or La Macarena: well-located homes with good layouts, but with installations designed for about 3 kW, no earthing and very few circuits. The typical case is a family that buys one of these flats, knocks down the closed kitchen to open it onto the living room and wants an induction hob, an oven, air conditioning in every bedroom and an island with sockets. With the works under way, we run the kitchen and air conditioning circuits from a new fuse board and, if the rest of the wiring is poor, renew it in the same phase so the walls do not have to be opened twice. In the houses of Triana and the city centre, renovations add another challenge: old walls and courtyards that make it important to choose the conduit routes carefully.

Guide prices

These are guide prices. The final quote depends on the square metres, the number of points and circuits and the starting condition. You get it as a fixed price before we start. More work on the electrical installations page.