Have you ever updated your electrical in your house?

Question

Did you do it yourself or did you have a professional install the wiring? In my house only part of the electric is updated and most of the wiring cases are brittle which fall off the leave bare wire. We are remodeling our kitchen and upstairs so part of my house is down to the studs and I feel that this would be the best time to update electricity as well.

About how much does it cost to rewire a home that is about 1800 sq ft? Or how hard is it to do yourself if you have very basic wiring skills?

Answer 1

If you have very basic wiring skills I'd leave it well alone and would get a professional to do it for me, but hey it's your home.

Where I come from if your wiring isn't certificated as secure you don't get fire insurance and we do want fire insurance so we got the house rewired about 5 years ago, but it's only 500 sq ft including the garage.

It cost about $2000 including the main panel

Answer 2

IF YOU ARE REMODELING NOW,YA IT IS THE BEST TIME TO DO THIS,HOWEVER ARE YOU PERMITTING THIS REMODEL?

I THINK TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE I WOULD HAVE A PROFESSIONAL DO IT.AND IF ITS PERMITTED, IT WILL HAVE TO BE INSPECTED BY THE CITY OR CO.

Answer 3

I did my own and yes now is the time after I got the estimate from an electrian I did it myself. Home depot book Wiring 123 will help you do everything you need. Without experience and very apprehensive I'm glad know saved me about $4000.00 after I purchased materials and if I got into any trouble I just called home depot and asked for their master electrician for advise. I am fully confident to do any of my wiring now.

Answer 4

The actual work is fairly easy, but there's a lot of detail you will have to learn.

There are Code requirements for appliance circuits in the kitchen

and dining area. Some kitchen and toilet, (and laundry?), appliance

circuits must be GFI protected.

AFCI breakers are required for receptacle circuits in bed rooms.

Best to get a licensed Pro' to at least do the layout and install

any changes to your service equipment for you.

He might agree to allowing you to install the wiring, which takes most of the time. Do be prepared to pay him for the design.

Answer 5

get different estimates.  since the walls are down, now would be the less costly time to get the wiring done.  no one wants a house fire.

Answer 6

Yes and yes, I am an electrician. The condition you describe is very dangerous, with the insulation coming off of the wires. Start with a removal of all of the wiring that you can access, install a new service and meter base and power panel and properly ground the system. Then install new copper wire system throughout the house.  You may want to investigate the new smart house wiring systems and then decide what you want to do. This an update to electrical design that allows computer control of your electrical system from a remote location. It is an innovation that makes a home more saleable in the future.

As to the cost of a rewire of your house, it varies from area to area. A power panel,  meter base and service entrance could run about $1000. Breakers are about $12 each and it is typical to need 30 or more.  No matter what you decide to do, plan in advance the location of every light and outlet and switch.  It is faster and easier to call a qualified professional electrician to do the work.  

A friend built his own home about 30 years ago, and was going to take 2 weeks off work from his job as an electrician to do the work.  The week before he asked the local electrical contractor for an estimate. The contractor did the work for less than my friends wholesale cost of the material and it took only 3 days.  Sometimes even the professionals can not compete with a professional who specializes in the work.  Good luck, call a contractor and ask.  

Answer 7

I have done significant electrical work in every house I have ever owned.  There is no good way to estimate the cost, although it will be significant -- the price of copper has skyrocketed in the past few years.  As long as you have walls opened up, by all means upgrade the wiring -- and if the house has fuses or the old Zinsco breakers, replace these as well (these, fortunately, are reasonably priced).  You can learn all you need from any of the numerous do-it-yourself books on the market; your home supply store will have a selection.  The basic principles are really simple:

White wires are ground (except in switch stubs -- and on these, I always use a Magic Marker to make the white wire not white).

Colored wires (except for green) are hot wires, and if the circuit has a switch, the hot wires are connected to it.

Green wires, or uninsulated copper, are safety ground.  I run these to a separate bus bar in the breaker box; whether the neutral bus gets connected to the ground bus depends on local code, but it usually does at the main breaker box.

Answer 8

to save some dough, run all the wires and connect boxes yourself. then hire an electrician to make the connections at the junction box. this will save you many hours of billable labor.