Electrical · Service

Rewiring a house — including the parts nobody quotes

How much wall gets opened, who patches it, whether you can live in the house while it happens, and why most homes that "need rewiring" actually need something smaller.

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In short

What is whole house rewire?

A whole house rewire replaces the branch wiring throughout the building — the cables running from the panel to every outlet, switch, light and appliance — along with the boxes, devices and usually the panel itself. It is the most disruptive residential electrical job there is, because the wires are inside finished walls and ceilings. The honest headline: the electrical work is rarely the expensive part. Access and making good is.

Triggers

Signs you need whole house rewire

The house still has knob-and-tube or early cloth-covered wiring in service, not just abandoned in the attic
You have aluminium branch wiring from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s and remediation has already been judged impractical
Outlets are two-prong throughout, meaning there is no equipment ground anywhere in the branch circuits
Insulation on cables is visibly cracking, crumbling or falling away when disturbed
Repeated burning smells, warm outlets or scorch marks in more than one location — a pattern, not a single fault
An insurer has refused cover, surcharged the policy or set a deadline for the wiring to be replaced
You are already gutting the house for a renovation, which is the one time the access cost disappears

Seeing something not on this list? Browse electrical problems by symptom →

The job

How whole house rewire actually works

Assessment — and the partial-versus-whole question

A competent electrician opens a sample of boxes, looks in the attic and basement, and establishes what is actually in the walls. Many houses turn out to be mixed: some circuits replaced in the 1980s, some original. The finding that matters is whether the bad wiring is confined to identifiable runs or is genuinely everywhere.

Watch for: A whole-house quote produced from a walkthrough and the year the house was built. If nobody has opened boxes and looked in the attic, they are pricing a guess — and the guess is always the bigger job.
The circuit plan, written before anything is opened

A rewire is a chance to redesign, not just replace. Kitchen and laundry circuit requirements have changed substantially, bedrooms now typically need arc-fault protection, and outlet spacing standards are tighter than in any pre-war house. This is also where you decide what you want that you do not have — outdoor circuits, a garage feed, data cabling pulled while the walls are open.

Watch for: A like-for-like replacement. Rewiring to the same layout you had spends the disruption budget and leaves you with a 1950s circuit plan in new cable.
Deciding how the cable gets from A to B

This is where the real cost sits. Cables can be fished through existing stud bays from above and below, which is slow and needs limited access holes, or walls can be opened along the runs, which is fast and destructive. Balloon-framed older homes often allow long vertical fishes; homes with fire blocking, plaster and lath, or spray foam frequently do not.

Watch for: A quote that does not say which method is assumed. "Minimal drywall damage" is a marketing phrase unless it is accompanied by a specific statement of where holes will be cut.
Opening up — the disruption map

Expect access holes at every outlet and switch, along the tops and bottoms of wall runs, and at ceiling boxes. Plaster and lath does not cut back neatly the way drywall does, and rewiring a plaster house realistically means larger repairs. Furniture moves, floors get covered, and rooms come out of use in sequence rather than all at once.

Watch for: Whether patching is included. In most quotes it is not, and drywall repair, plaster repair, texture matching and repainting across a whole house is a five-figure surprise on top of a five-figure job. Get it priced by someone, in writing, before you start.
Rough-in and inspection

New cable is pulled, boxes are set, and everything is left open for a rough-in inspection before anything is closed. In many jurisdictions this inspection is mandatory and covering work before it happens means opening it again.

Watch for: Any suggestion of closing walls before rough-in is signed off. It is a hard failure and the cost of undoing it lands on you.
Panel, service and the old wiring

A rewire almost always includes a new panel, and frequently a service upgrade too — doing them separately means paying twice for panel work and coordinating two inspection cycles. Old cable is disconnected at both ends and, where it cannot be pulled out, made permanently dead rather than left live in a wall.

Watch for: Abandoned wiring left energised "just in case". It is the thing that hurts the next person who opens that wall, and a rewire is the moment to end it.
Trim-out, final inspection and making good

Devices, plates, fixtures and covers go on, protective devices are tested, the panel directory is written from actual tracing, and the final inspection follows. Then, separately, the building gets repaired: patching, sanding, priming, painting.

Watch for: A final walkthrough done before the making-good. Sign off the electrical work and the repair work separately, and hold retention against the second one.

Money

What does whole house rewire cost?

Rewiring a house is priced largely by size and by how hard the cables are to run — a small, accessible, single-storey home sits at the bottom of the range and a large plaster-walled house with finished ceilings at the top. Assume five figures, and assume drywall repair and repainting are extra unless the quote says otherwise.

See the full whole house rewire cost guide — by material, size and region →

Straight answer

When whole house rewire is the wrong call

Everyone else ranking for this is paid when you say yes. Here's when you shouldn't.

Only part of the house is actually bad. This is the most common overreach. If the knob-and-tube is confined to the upstairs lighting and the rest was redone in the eighties, a targeted replacement of those runs is a fraction of the price and gets you the same insurance outcome.
The problem is capacity, not wiring condition. Tripping breakers and a shortage of outlets are usually solved by adding circuits and upgrading the panel. Replacing perfectly sound cable does not add capacity — the panel and service do.
You plan to renovate in the next two or three years. Rewiring finished walls and then opening those same walls for a kitchen or bathroom remodel is paying the access cost twice. Wait and do it during the demolition, when the marginal cost of the wiring is dramatically lower.
You cannot fund the repair work. A house with new wiring and unpatched walls is worse to live in and worse to sell than a house with old wiring. If the budget only stretches to the electrical, phase the job by area instead of doing all of it badly.
Two-prong outlets are your only complaint. Where a ground genuinely cannot be run, current code in most jurisdictions permits specific alternatives such as ground-fault protection with the required labelling. That is a legitimate, inspectable solution, not a fudge — ask about it before committing to a rewire.
You are selling and hoping to recover it. Rewiring rarely returns its cost in sale price. Where the wiring is genuinely unsafe, the choice is between doing it and disclosing it — and disclosing with a couple of contractor quotes in hand is sometimes the better financial outcome.

Your options

Types of whole house rewire

Partial rewire

Replacing identified runs rather than every circuit.

Knob and tube replacement

When the old wiring is specifically knob-and-tube.

Aluminium wiring remediation

Connector-based repair instead of full replacement.

Romex and modern cable

What replaces the old wiring, and why.

Compare electrical options side by side →

Before you sign

What to check when hiring for whole house rewire

How did you establish that the whole house needs rewiring?

The answer should involve opened boxes and an attic. If it involves the year the house was built, get a second opinion before spending five figures.
Are you fishing the cables or opening the walls, and where exactly will holes be cut?

This is the difference between the two quotes you are comparing. Ask for it room by room.
Is drywall or plaster repair included? Painting?

Almost always excluded, and almost always assumed to be included by the homeowner. This single question is worth more than everything else on the list.
Can we live in the house, and how do you sequence the rooms?

A crew that works room by room and restores power nightly is running a different job from one that kills the house for a week. Both are legitimate; you need to know which you bought.
Is the panel — and the service — included, or a separate job?

Doing them separately costs more overall and doubles the inspections. If it is separate, understand why.
What happens to the old wiring you cannot pull out?

It should be disconnected at both ends and made dead. Anything else is a hazard left for whoever opens that wall next.
How many inspections, and who books them?

A rewire normally has at least a rough-in and a final. Both belong to the contractor, and the rough-in gates when walls can be closed.

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Local pros

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Related work

Often done at the same time

Knob and Tube Replacement

The most common reason for a rewire

Aluminum Wiring Repair

Often an alternative to rewiring

Panel Upgrade

Nearly always part of the job

Electrical Inspection

Find out what is actually in the walls

All electrical services →

FAQ

Whole House Rewire — questions people ask

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Do I have to move out while my house is rewired?

Not always, and the answer depends on how the crew works. Many rewires are done room by room, with power restored to the rest of the house at the end of each day — liveable, dusty and unpleasant, but liveable. Where the whole house is opened at once, or where there are small children or anyone with respiratory sensitivity, moving out for the disruptive phase is the usual choice. Ask specifically how the job will be sequenced and whether the kitchen and one bathroom stay live.

How much drywall will you cut, and who repairs it?

Expect openings at every device box, at the top and bottom of wall runs, and at ceiling fixtures — more where fire blocking, plaster and lath, or insulation prevent fishing. Repair is the part that catches people out: most electrical quotes cover a rough patch at best, and many cover nothing. Drywall finishing, plaster repair, texture matching and repainting are usually a separate trade and a separate bill. Get that number before you start, not after.

How long does rewiring a house take?

For a typical single-family home, plan in weeks rather than days — commonly one to three weeks of electrical work depending on size and access, plus inspection waits between phases, plus the repair and repainting afterwards. Anyone quoting "a few days" for a whole house is either describing a very small home or has not included the making-good.

Can a house be rewired without removing drywall?

Partly, sometimes. Skilled crews fish a great deal of cable through existing stud and joist bays using small strategic access holes, especially in balloon-framed homes with open runs from basement to attic. But fire blocking, plaster and lath, blown-in or spray-foam insulation and finished ceilings under a second storey all defeat fishing, and in those areas cutting is the only option. "No drywall damage" is not achievable across a whole house; "limited, planned openings" is.

Does a rewire include a new panel?

Nearly always, and it should. The new circuit plan needs more breaker spaces than the old panel has, and arc-fault and ground-fault protection requirements mean a lot of the breakers are new types anyway. Whether it also includes a service upgrade depends on the load calculation — but if it does, do them at the same time. Sequencing them separately means two sets of panel work and two inspection cycles.

Will rewiring fix my insurance problem?

Usually, and for many owners the insurer is the actual reason the work is happening. Insurers commonly surcharge or decline knob-and-tube and certain aluminium wiring. What they want is documentation: the permit, the final inspection sign-off, and a letter from the licensed electrician describing what was replaced. Ask your insurer exactly what evidence they need before the work starts, because retro-fitting paperwork is much harder than collecting it.