New construction residential is one of our fields of expertise. We can efficiently and cost effectively wire your residence or home addition in no time at all. We stay abreast of the latest code changes and additions to the National Electrical Code, so you can rest assure knowing your wiring will be installed neatly, correctly and up to code.
Re-wiring an entire house is quite a project. Each outlet, switch and light takes 1 to 3 hours a piece, so it can get pretty costly. Some customers will have us re-wire only their ungrounded outlets rather then rewiring their entire residence. Others will keep the existing wiring throughout, and just have us run a ground conductor to each outlet they want grounded so that 3 prong outlets can be installed in place of the 2 prong outlets.
The only time we typically recommend re-wiring your entire residence is if it was wired with “Knob and tube wiring”. Knob and tube wiring (sometimes abbreviated K&T) was an early standardized method of electrical wiring in buildings from the 1880s to the 1940s. It consisted of single-insulated copper conductors ran within wall or ceiling cavities, passing through joist and stud drilled holes via protective porcelain insulating tubes, and supported along their length on nailed-down porcelain knob insulators. Where conductors entered a wiring device such as a lamp or switch, or were pulled into a wall, they were protected by flexible cloth insulating sleeving called loom. Wire splices in such installations were twisted together for good mechanical strength, then soldered and wrapped with rubber insulating tape and friction tape (asphalt saturated cloth), or made inside metal junction boxes.
Reasons why you should re-wire your residence if you have K&T wiring:
- It is a ungrounded system, it didn’t confine to only switching the hot conductor, this is considered a shock hazard.
- Rodents are more likely to chew up this type of wiring due to the type of insulating material the copper is wrapped with, and may have possibly damaged the wiring over time already.
- It creates a much larger magnetic field than romex wiring does which can interfere with some of your low voltage wiring systems in your residence.
- The biggest reason we recommend a re-wire if you have K&T wiring is, it permitted the use of in-line splices in walls, ceilings and basements without a junction box. These “free air splices” are potential fire hazards of an uncontained spark caused by a splice going bad and starting to arc.
