Old or poorly installed wiring impacts the electrical experience at your home. Rewiring your property can make your home more energy efficient, reduce power outages, and increase the overall safety by reducing risk of electrical fires. At the same time, rewiring opens up opportunities for additions or expansions and boosts the value of your property.
In this blog post, we’ll break down the factors affecting house rewiring costs in Seattle, helping you understand what to expect when budgeting for this important project.
Factors Affecting House Rewiring Costs
- Size and Age of Your Home: Larger homes naturally require more wiring and electrical components, driving the cost up. The age of your home also plays a role. Homes built before the 1950s likely have outdated knob-and-tube wiring that necessitates a complete rewiring.
- Extent of Rewiring: A partial rewiring of specific circuits might be necessary for smaller jobs. Conversely, a full rewiring project involves replacing all the wiring in your house.
- Accessibility of Walls and Ceilings: Easily accessible crawl spaces and attics can make the rewiring process smoother and less labor-intensive, reducing overall costs. Conversely, houses with finished walls and complex layouts might require additional work to access wiring, increasing the cost.
- Electrician Rates: Electrician rates in Seattle typically range from $50 to $130 per hour. Most rewiring projects involve at least a two-person crew, so factor in labor hours when considering the total cost.
- Permits and Inspections: Obtaining necessary permits and inspections add to the overall project cost.
Ballpark Costs for Seattle House Rewiring
While an exact cost depends on the factors mentioned above, here’s a general idea:
- Partial Rewiring: $4,000 – $8,000
- Full Rewiring (Smaller Home): $12,000 – $16,000
- Full Rewiring (Larger Home): $16,000 – $20,000+
Eight Signs You Should Consider Electrical Rewiring
Take a look at these eight signs to help you determine if it’s time for electrical rewiring:
- Recurring blown fuses or tripped breakers: An electrical breaker’s job is to turn off the electrical system of your home when something goes wrong to prevent electrical fires. Tripped breakers could mean your circuits are overloaded, shorting or subject to a ground fault. Our electricians can determine the cause of your blown fuses and breakers and help you replace the affected wires and find the source of the error.
- Dimming or flickering lights: Flickering lights can be the sign of an overloaded circuit that wasn’t designed to sustain the power you need. However, flickering lights could also be caused by everything from fluctuating electrical voltage to aging wires. Considering that electrical wiring issues cause 67% of home fires, it’s essential to replace your old wiring as soon as possible.
- Discolored or hot-to-the-touch switch plates, outlets, or cords: Light switch plates that are hot to the touch are a sign that your wiring needs to be replaced immediately. Hot switch plates can be caused by faulty wiring, bad installation or the wire carrying more amps than it should. Regardless of why your light switch plates are hot, you should get your wiring replaced by a certified electrician.
- Lightbulbs that frequently burn out: If your lightbulbs burn out frequently, your wires likely carry more than the appropriate voltage for their bulb. First, make sure your bulbs are the right wattage for the lamps you’re using, and if the problem persists, call an electrician and see what can be done to rectify the problem.
- Buzzing sounds: If you hear a buzzing or loud hum coming from your appliances or inside your walls, you may have an overloaded wire, loose wire or improperly grounded wire. Whenever you hear a loud buzzing, turn off your electricity right away, as buzzing could be a symptom of a potential fire hazard. If your circuit breaker ever starts making a large hum, turn it off right away and contact a certified electrician. Never mess around with buzzing electricity by yourself.
- A burning smell: When you get a whiff of something burning, it’s time to turn off your circuit breaker and contact an electrician — or even the fire department — immediately. A burning smell is an indication of an improperly installed outlet, damaged wires, or an overloaded circuit. Try to detect where the burning smell is coming from and then contact a certified electrician in Seattle right away.
- Loose outlets: If your electrical outlets are loose, that’s a sign they’re connected to an electrical box located too far away from the outlet. When the outlet and the electrical box are too far away, wires can become damaged and disconnected.
- Electrical shock when you plug in or touch a cord: Electrical cords become dangerous when they’re unstable or damaged. Over time, electrical shocks can cause burn marks and cracks on your outlets and appliances and seriously harm your family. Minimize shock risk by having your home rewired by a professional electrician.
Getting estimates from a rewiring electrician
Before hiring an electrician to rewire your home, remember to:
- Get 3 to 5 in-person estimates to compare.
- Look for electricians specializing in house rewiring in Seattle.
- Check their reviews on HomeGuide and Google.
- Hire a licensed, bonded, and insured company established for at least 5 years.
- Avoid going with the lowest bid as quality may suffer.
- Get a detailed contract and warranty in writing before the work begins.
- Never pay in full before the work is complete. Work out a payment plan instead.
Questions to ask
- Are you licensed, bonded, and insured?
- How long have you been in business?
- What experience do you have rewiring houses?
- Can you provide references with contact information?
- Is this an estimate or a firm bid?
- What additional costs might come up during the rewiring?
- Do you handle the permitting process?
- Can you rewire the house without opening the walls?
- Do you offer financing?
- How long will the job take?
- What condition do you leave the house in after the rewire?
- Can I be living in the home during the rewiring project?
- Do you offer a warranty? If so, what does it include?
Can you rewire a house without removing walls?
Yes, you can rewire a house without removing walls. Depending on your home’s architectural design, an electrician can install new wiring by pulling it through the attic, basement, floor joists, or crawl spaces. Alternatively, the electrician can make small patchable holes in your drywall and feed the new wire through these holes.
These two methods won’t work for all homes, however. In some cases, the only option will be to break down walls completely to access wiring.