If your home's electrical system is outdated or damaged, it's crucial to address the issue to ensure your family's safety. While the cost of rewiring a home can vary depending on several factors, understanding these factors can help you make informed decisions.
The main 6 factors that affect the price of whole-home rewiring include:
Let’s take a closer look at how these factors affect the pricing of whole-home rewiring.
Typically, the larger your home, the more it will cost to rewire it.
Why? Well, it’s simple: A larger home has more wiring to remove and replace. And this means more labor and more materials will be needed to complete the job. The price increases even more if you have various floors (vs a one-story home) because the electrician will need to figure out how to best run the wiring up and down to the different floors.
If your home’s wiring is easy to access, the cost to rewire it will be considerably lower. Wiring that’s easy to access makes the job easier and quicker, which lowers the cost of labor.
So, what do we mean by “easy to access”? Well, typically, if the home has at least 16 to 20 inches of crawlspace and/or a basement/attic that’s accessible, the wiring will be considered “easily accessible”.
Having an accessible crawl space/attic/basement allows the electrician to run wiring to the lowest and highest floors of the home without cutting into walls. This method is called “fishing” and is ultimately the cheaper method of removing/replacing wiring versus cutting into the walls.
If your home has aluminum wiring, you’ll want to replace it eventually. But rewiring a home with aluminum wiring can be done in 2 ways, you can either:
Replacing aluminum wiring means to take out all the of the aluminum wires in the home and install new copper wiring. Replacement is the more expensive option because it requires removing walls and bringing all new wiring up to code.
Repairing or “pigtailing” the existing aluminum wiring is the less expensive option because it does not require removing walls/drywall. Instead, only the wiring at connection points (i.e., outlets, switches, fixtures, etc.) is updated with copper wiring.
Want to learn more about these 2 rewiring options? Just check out our in-depth blog on this subject, “How Much Does It Cost to Repair or Replace Aluminum Wiring?”.
If your home has “knob and tube” wiring, your whole-home rewiring cost will increase.
Knob and tube wiring is an outdated wiring method that involved running copper wiring through black tubes that were held in place by nailed-in porcelain “knobs”. Because knob and tube wiring has no ground wire and because the wire insulation degrades over time, most electricians will suggest completely removing the system to prevent electrical fires.
Removing knob and tube wiring raises your overall cost, though, because electricians will have to manually cut out the individual tubes and knobs, which is extremely tedious.
Unfortunately, most homes that need to be rewired also need to upgrade their main electrical panel. Why? Well, in most cases, an older home that needs rewiring also has an electrical panel that provides less than 100 amps. For example, most homes built in or before the 1960s have 60-amp panels.
Most homes today, though, require at least a 100-amp or 200-amp panel to satisfy the electrical load of most modern electronics. Also, the NEC (National Electric Code) requires that homes have at least a 100-amp panel. So, if your home has an electrical panel that provides less than 100 amps, you’ll need to upgrade your electrical panel.
Related: How Much Does It Cost to Upgrade an Electrical Panel?
Typically, the higher the skill and the more experience an electrician has, the more they’ll charge.
That said, don’t choose an electrician based on who offers the lowest price. This will likely lead to costly repeat work or worse—an electrical fire. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for.
Our suggestion is to get quotes from various electricians and stay away from any contractors who offer much lower prices than others.
Once you’ve crossed off any low-priced electricians, vet the remaining professionals according to whether:
Remember, prioritizing safety and quality over cost when dealing with your home's electrical system is crucial. This guide should help you navigate the process of rewiring your home while considering the various factors involved.
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