Electrical costs

Two quotes for the same job can differ by thousands and both be honest. The drivers are access (open basement vs. finished plaster), whether the utility has to touch the service drop, and how much of your existing work has to be brought up to the code edition your jurisdiction enforces.

Panel work is the clearest example. This Old House puts a 200-amp panel plus installation at $1,300–$3,000, with 400-amp service at $2,000–$4,000 for an upgrade and $4,000–$6,000 for a new install. Inch Calculator's 2026 guide lands in a similar place — a $1,800 national average, $800–$3,000 typical — and notes that if the utility has to upgrade the lines feeding your house, the total can roughly double or reach around $5,000. That utility piece is the single most common reason a quote comes in high, and it is worth asking about directly.

Adjacent items that get bundled in: subpanel installation runs about $400–$1,750, panel relocation $800–$3,000, meter box replacement $1,800–$3,500 installed, and AFCI/GFCI breakers around $35–$60 each, per This Old House. Inch Calculator puts a subpanel at $500–$1,000 and a single breaker swap at $50–$100.

Rewiring is a different order of magnitude. Replacing knob-and-tube or failing wiring commonly runs $12,000–$36,600 with an average near $24,300, or roughly $8–$17 per square foot, per HomeGuide's 2026 data — with a panel upgrade adding $1,500–$4,000 and drywall or plaster repair adding $1,000–$5,000 on top. Some electricians price this per opening instead, at $100–$300+ per outlet, switch or fixture.

Labor is usually quoted at $50–$130 per hour, with a service call fee covering the first hour. That fee is not padding — it is how a shop covers the truck, the stock and the drive. What is worth challenging is an unexplained flat rate on a job nobody has diagnosed yet.

How to choose

Ask what the price does not include

The three usual exclusions are permit fees, utility coordination charges, and drywall/plaster repair. All three are real costs. Get them named in the quote rather than discovered later.

Get three quotes for anything over $1,500

For panel and rewire work the spread is genuinely wide. Three quotes tells you where the honest middle is; two tells you nothing.

Beware a panel upgrade sold as a repair

If you called about one dead circuit and the answer is a $3,000 panel replacement, ask what specifically fails and why a targeted repair will not work. Get it in writing.

Price the whole plan, not the first step

If you intend to add an EV charger, heat pump or ADU later, ask the electrician to size the service for that now. Doing the panel twice costs far more than doing it once.

Financing is not a discount

Contractor-arranged financing is a loan. Compare the total repaid to the cash price, and treat a 'today only' price on a five-figure job as a pressure tactic.