How many sockets per room?

Recommended socket counts, room by room

There's no legal minimum for socket numbers in an existing home — the counts below are what we'd actually fit in 2026, based on how people live rather than how they lived when Blackpool's terraces were wired with one socket per room.

• Living room: 6+ double sockets. TV wall alone swallows four plugs (telly, soundbar, console, streaming box) before you've charged a single phone.
• Kitchen: 6 – 8 doubles, with worktop sockets spaced so no appliance needs a trailing lead — plus dedicated supplies for the big fixed appliances.
• Double bedroom: 4 doubles — one each side of the bed, one for the dressing table or TV, one spare wall.
• Home office: 4 – 6 doubles. Monitor, laptop, printer, router, desk lamp, chargers — working from home is the single biggest driver of socket jobs we see.
• Hallway and landing: 1 – 2 doubles for the vacuum and router.
• Garage or outbuilding: 2+ doubles on their own protected circuit.

Why extension-lead daisychains are a real risk

An extension lead into an extension lead into a four-way block isn't a wiring solution, it's a queue of plugs all drawing through one socket — and one set of contacts — that was designed for a 13-amp load. Heaters and tumble dryers on multiways are the classic overheating story: warm plug, browned socket, and in the worst cases a fire that started behind the sofa. If any plug or socket in your house is warm to the touch, or you ever smell hot plastic, unplug the lot, switch the circuit off and give us a call before using it again.

What adding a socket costs

An extra double socket typically costs £60 – £100 with us, depending on how far the cable has to run and what's in the way. Several sockets fitted on the same visit work out better per socket than one-off visits, because the setup and testing happen once. Full details on our sockets page.

Worth considering: USB-C sockets

Socket faceplates with built-in USB-C ports cost a little more than standard ones but free up the actual 13A outlets for appliances, and they charge phones and tablets without a drawer full of plug-top adapters. Bedside positions and kitchen "phone corners" are where they earn their keep. If we're already fitting new sockets, upgrading a couple to USB-C versions adds very little to the job.

What installation involves

Most new sockets are spurred from an existing circuit or looped from a nearby socket: we lift a floorboard or chase a short run in the wall, fit a back box, run the cable, then test the circuit properly — earth continuity, polarity, loop impedance — before putting the faceplate on. A straightforward extra socket is usually under an hour; runs across the room, through solid walls, take longer. Where the existing circuit is already heavily loaded, we'll tell you honestly rather than pile more onto it — occasionally the right answer is a new circuit, and we'll price both options so you can choose.

Don't forget outside

If the lawnmower or pressure washer currently runs off a lead trailed through the kitchen window, a proper weatherproof outdoor socket is £120 fitted — RCD protected and sealed against the coastal weather, which makes short work of anything that isn't.

A quick word for landlords

Too few sockets is a self-inflicted maintenance problem in rentals and holiday lets: tenants and guests will use multiways whether you like it or not. A round of extra sockets at changeover time is cheap insurance — and it comes up favourably on the next EICR, where heavily-extended circuits attract attention.