How Much Does It Cost To Rewire A House
Rewiring a house is often essential to meet safety electrical codes. If you have an old home, you may need to rewire it not only to meet electrical codes but also to guarantee safety. However, what you must know is that rewiring a house is not cheap. The cost can run to thousands of dollars depending on several variables. Read on and find out how much it will cost you to rewire your house today.
Typical Cost Of Rewiring A House
The typical cost of rewiring a house depends mainly on the size of the house. A moderate-sized home can be rewired for $3,500 to $8,000.
A large home can be rewired for $8,000 to $20,000.
Included In The Price Of Rewiring A House
This estimate includes the following:
- Professional fees for an electrical contractor ($70-$120 per device such as outlet, fixture, and switch)
- Building permits
- Electrical panel replacement ($800-$3,000)
- Copper wires ($1,000-$3,000)
Factors That Affect The Price Of Rewiring A House
Size of your home. As mentioned above, the size of your home can greatly affect the cost of rewiring. In fact, truly large homes may need up to $30,000 for a complete rewiring job. This is because large homes usually are more complicated to work on, especially that it may require a lot of time for the contractor to finish the job. Plus, more copper wires are needed. Small to medium homes may need around $1,000 worth of wires while large homes need $3,000 worth of wires.
Access. If your home has good access such as a basement and attic, the contractors can work their way easily when speaking of the rewiring process. Hence, the overall cost can be lower. On the other hand, homes without at least 18 inches of crawlspace are hard to work on, which means the contractors have to cut holes in the drywall and plasters. This only means a more expensive labor.
Electrical panel. Not all homes require an updating of the electrical panel. If your house does not need one, you can deduct $800 to $3,000 from the total cost of rewiring your home. Most of the time, old homes using fuses are the ones that require a panel upgrade.
Location. The area where you live can affect the rewiring cost as well. This is true not only for the price of materials but as well as the cost of building permits. Some areas may price permits higher while others can offer it lower. The overall cost of permits can make your total bill low or high.
Contractor. Your choice of contractor also has a lot to say with the cost of rewiring a house. Experienced and reputable contractors charge higher, especially if they have years of experience in the field. The price can be competitive if there is a stiff competition among contractors in the area. Also, people who choose to do the rewiring themselves can save a lot of money as they do not have to worry about labor fees.
Additional Costs
If your home has less than 18 inches of crawlspace, it will be impossible for the electrician to access your home’s wiring. With this, he may need to cut holes in the drywalls or plaster so as to gain good access for the rewiring process. The repair of the holes afterwards can mean around $1,000 extra cost. However, some electrical contractors include the repair in their pricing so you better check this extra cost with them.
Extra jobs such as working on smoke detectors, kitchen extractors, showers, TV sockets, heating circuits, burglar alarms, bathroom fans, and the like may mean an extra cost as well.
The rewiring process can be a dusty and invasive work at home. Hence, you may need to rent a storage unit for your valuable items at home. This can go anywhere from $40 to $200 per month.
Tips Before You Decide To Rewire A House
Doing the project in a DIY manner is not always recommended. Rewiring requires a licensed electrical contractor to ensure success and safety of the work done. After all, in some areas, only licensed electricians are allowed to do projects like this.
When looking for a contractor, don't focus much on the price. Find a contractor that is licensed and qualified by your state as well as experienced, credible, and efficient. Rewiring is a very complicated process and you don't want inexperienced hands to handle it.
Check with your local planning department the specifics of getting permits for the rewiring process. If you hire a licensed contractor, you can basically skip this process. A good contractor knows specific requirements and works on obtaining the permits themselves for you.
Before finally picking a contractor, review the details of their contract. Take note that contractors offer different kinds of services for their quoted price. Hence, you may want to check whether or not materials are included as well as the repair of access holes.
If you don't have enough money to cover the rewiring of the whole house, you can consider rewiring the house little by little. For instance, you can work on upgrading the electrical panel first or rewiring one room at a time.