If you are the owner of an older home, or if you have ideas of building new, electrical work is likely a top of mind concern. Hiring a licensed electrician is a must. First, think of safety in the entire home; both in terms of properly insulated and distributed wiring, to proper fuses and adequately sized service panels, and even of adequately supplied main service connections to the street power source. While new construction always requires a full inspection of all of the above to suit a new building or addition, in older homes most wiring is hidden behind walls and above ceilings. As a rule of thumb, before you start any renovation project, hire a licensed electrician to inspect your electrical needs in the home, prior to making any assumptions on what is possible to improve your renovated area.
What questions and ideas should I ask of my electrician?
When planning a new project, where electrical repairs and new wiring is likely required you should always ask an electrician to inspect the home to determine what problems you may be facing. Can the existing service handle additional electrical load? Can existing wiring be extended to other parts of the renovated area? What demolition to existing walls and ceilings will be required to accommodate the new switches/light fixtures or appliances that I want to install? And lastly, is the service from the street adequate? All of these items require planning and budgeting for good reason! Your electrician will help you make many decisions since he/she knows what can be done safely and properly.
When to cut corners with electrical work? Never!
We may want to do that simple renovation to the master bathroom, but if your project places risk to the infrastructure in the home, you must first deal with this problem, then determine what options are available for the new project. For instance, if old knob and tube wiring exists in the home, this needs to be removed safely prior to extending good wiring to a new planned renovation project. In time, the old inadequate wires will fail! If you do not deal with this problem, it will only lead to disappointment down the road, and possibly even worse consequences such as a fire or a failed building inspection upon the resale or new insurance policy on the home. So, doing proper electrical work now, in advance is the only option.
How much does an electrical rewiring cost?
A new build is much less costly to rough in wiring, and fixture choices will be easy to select once you have detailed your plans with your electrician. On the other hand, if you are re-wiring an entire older home, labour costs for fishing wires, and costs for demolishing/repairing parts of walls and ceilings will lead to more time and more money spent. If your home has an adequately sized panel and a good service from the street, you should expect an entire home re-wiring to cost between $5,000 and $15,000 for a standard two storey 1600-2000 square foot home, not including new fixtures and wall repairs. Most of the cost for older home re-wring is labour, and the more fishing required, the more costly the job. In the end, this is money well spent, no matter the project.
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