Old homes have old electrics, which is what makes an electrician’s work in Al-Shubaikah different: long-lived cables, insulation that has hardened and cracked, breakers that do not trip when they should, and earthing that may never have existed. We test your house, building or the lodging you manage, tell you honestly what needs renewing now and what can wait, then rewire in stages without emptying the place. Call or WhatsApp 0565564857; we answer 24 hours a day.
Al-Shubaikah is a historic district near the Haram, with old houses, older apartment buildings and lodgings for visitors, many restored or extended over the years. That history shows inside the walls: a cable from one era, a joint from another, a board filled with breakers added one by one. The Gulf Al-Arab Company team works patiently in these buildings, because rushing creates new faults. For our full range, see the home electrician in Makkah page.
Safety in an older Al-Shubaikah building
- Cable testing: insulation resistance on every circuit to find worn wiring before it shorts
- RCDs: protecting people in bathrooms, kitchens and guest rooms
- Earth path: confirming it exists and is continuous, and installing it where missing
- Rewiring in stages: room by room or floor by floor, without closing the house or lodging
- Less breaking: neat surface trunking where old conduit is ruined
- Call us: 0565564857; the price is agreed before we start
Signs that a home’s wiring has reached the end of its life
Cable does not die suddenly; it ages. Its plastic insulation spends years under wall heat and current heat, loses flexibility, turns brittle and cracks with any movement. In very old houses we still find cloth or rubber insulation no longer used today. At that stage a socket yanked too hard or a nail in the wall can cause a short.
- Switches and sockets yellowed or browned at the edges, or warm to the touch
- A faint burning-plastic smell that comes and goes, especially with the AC or heater on
- Lights flickering when another appliance starts in the same room
- Breakers tripping for no clear reason, or old rewireable fuses
- A wooden or rusty metal board, or a board with no cover
- Two-pin sockets with no earth in many rooms
- A slight tingle from a tap or washing-machine casing
Our testing goes beyond looking. An insulation tester applies a test voltage and measures leakage through the insulation, giving a clear number. A thermal camera shows hot spots in walls or the board before they leave a mark. Together they show which circuits genuinely need renewing, so we never ask you to rewire the whole house when only two circuits are tired.
Rewiring in stages
Many owners delay rewiring because they picture broken walls, dust and weeks without power. Done properly, it is nothing like that. We divide the building into circuits and start with the worst: those that failed the insulation test, then AC and heater circuits as the heaviest, then lighting. Each finished circuit goes back into service the same day, so the house stays lived in and the lodging stays open.
Where conduit is intact, we pull the old cable out and draw the new one through the same path, with no breaking. In older buildings, cable is sometimes buried directly in plaster, or the conduit is crushed. Then we choose with you: tidy surface trunking in a colour close to the paint, faster and less disruptive, or small chases cut into the wall and re-plastered, cleaner-looking but slower. In busy guest rooms we lean towards trunking, which finishes a room in a day. Old wooden, rusty or overfilled boards are replaced with a new labelled board with correctly sized breakers, RCDs and a clear earth bar.
| Old component | Risk | What replaces it |
|---|---|---|
| Hardened or cracked cable | Short circuits and fire inside walls | New cable sized for each circuit |
| Old rewireable fuses | Often rewired thicker, protecting nothing | Modern correctly rated breakers |
| Wooden or rusty board | Burning or current on the casing | A new insulated, labelled board |
| Sockets with no earth | Appliance casings can go live unnoticed | Earthed sockets connected to an earth rod |
| Joints wrapped in tape | Loosening, heat and sparks | Sealed junction boxes with proper connectors |
| Heater with no isolator | Hard to switch off in a fault | A nearby isolator and RCD on the circuit |
Why every older home needs an RCD
An ordinary breaker protects the cable from overload, not the person. Someone touching a bare wire or a leaking appliance can carry a current too small to trip a normal breaker but enough to hurt. An RCD compares the current going out and coming back and trips within a fraction of a second at the sensitivity designed to protect people. In older buildings, with more chance of cracked insulation, it matters even more. We fit RCDs to bathrooms, kitchen, washing machine and heaters, and in lodgings to every guest-room circuit, since guests do not know the building.
If a new RCD trips often, it is usually doing its job: it has exposed a leak that existed for years, from a corroded heater element, damp cable in a bathroom wall or water in an outdoor socket. We isolate circuits one by one, find the source and fix it. We never advise removing an RCD because it is inconvenient.
Earthing in older buildings
Many old buildings went up before earthing was routine in homes, or have an earth wire that never actually reaches the ground. Some people bond the earth to a metal water pipe, which is unreliable, especially now most pipes are plastic. Proper earthing needs a buried rod or an approved building earthing system, with an adequately sized conductor to the board’s earth bar and from there to every socket and metal appliance. In a multi-flat building we look for the building’s system first and measure it; if none exists, we suggest the owner installs one for the whole building rather than each tenant improvising.
In an older house especially: if you smell burning or see smoke from a socket or switch, switch off the main breaker at once, keep water away from anything electrical and get everyone out. If a breaker trips again after one reset, do not try a third time; with old cable, that trip may be the only thing preventing a fire.
Lodgings and rented homes: maintenance with minimal disruption
Owners of lodgings near the Haram need an electrician who understands that an occupied room cannot be opened whenever it suits. We plan around empty rooms, do shared areas and the main board at quiet times, and enter occupied rooms only with management’s knowledge. Before the busy seasons we recommend a full round: insulation tests, RCD tests, heaters and ACs in each room, and emergency lighting in the corridors.
Check your older home before it surprises you
Send photos of the board and a few old sockets to 0565564857 on WhatsApp, and we will tell you whether an insulation test or rewiring is needed.
Call nowWhatsApp 0565564857All services in Al-Shubaikah
Details are on our electrician in Makkah page:
Faults that cannot wait
Outages, short circuits, burnt sockets and burning smells.
Boards
Old board replacement, new breakers, labelling and load balancing.
Restoration wiring
First and second fix for restored rooms, annexes and flats.
Light fittings
Chandeliers including heavy ones, spotlights, hidden LED and fans.
Heaters and cooling
Heater connection and element checks; dedicated AC lines.
Pumps and floats
Tank pumps and float switches in older buildings.
Entry and cameras
CCTV, intercoms, doorbells and TV mounting.
Odd jobs
Surge protection, generator changeovers and shop signs.
How a visit works
- Call or WhatsApp 0565564857 and say whether it is a house, building or lodging, and roughly how old.
- Send a photo of the board and of any discoloured sockets or switches.
- We send an electrician the same day where possible and tell you the real arrival time.
- Insulation testing, thermal imaging and an earth check, explained in plain language.
- A staged plan, with price and parts agreed before work; you may supply parts.
- Each stage done with genuine parts, power restored to each circuit and tested with you.
- You pay after testing; the work carries a workmanship guarantee, and the electrician tells you its period.
How rewiring prices are set
Old buildings are never alike, so we do not publish fixed prices. One room with sound conduit is rewired in hours; another with cable buried in plaster needs trunking or chasing and re-plastering. A large chandelier on a high ceiling may need a lift and days of assembly. The price is set once the electrician sees the place, or photos and videos on WhatsApp, and agreed before any work.
| Job | What sets the price |
|---|---|
| Insulation testing | Number of circuits, building size, and whether thermal imaging is needed |
| Rewiring a room or floor | Conduit condition, trunking or chasing, number of points |
| Replacing an old board | Number of circuits, RCDs required, board location |
| Fitting an RCD | Circuits protected, board space, cable condition |
| Installing or repairing earthing | Whether a building system exists, ground conditions, bonding length |
| Pre-season lodging maintenance | Number of rooms, appliances per room, available working hours |
| Replacing old sockets and switches | Number and type of parts, condition of the boxes |
Send photos of the board and sockets to 0565564857 on WhatsApp and we will price it before the visit if the photos are enough, or after a short inspection.
A simple monthly habit: press the RCD test button once a month, and feel the covers of sockets feeding heavy appliances after an hour of use. A warm cover is an early warning worth a call.
Neighbouring areas we reach
From Al-Shubaikah we also cover Ajyad, Al-Misfalah and Al-Iskan, and the rest of Makkah.
Electrician number for Al-Shubaikah
0565564857, call and WhatsApp 24 hours a day. An older home should not wait.
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