Wiring a house
Anyone ever have their house rewired and a new panel put in? If so how many floors, how long did it take, what’s the cost and did that cost include patching up the walls?
trini73diva
in General Discussion 6 years and 9 months ago
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RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 6 years and 9 months ago
My house was rewired (actually just a new service, panel box, and additional circuits) back in 1974. My uncle was an electrician who had a business making panel boxes for other electricians. He got one of his friends and customers to do the job. That guy (whose name I’ve forgotten) swore that he had rewired our house in 1938, for the previous owner, and that he was sure that it was OK to leave the old circuits in place.
We replaced the old 30 amp service with 100 amps, which has proved to be adequate for our needs. We were lucky; the electrician who did the actual work had been trained in Italy and was very respectful of the detailed old plaster. We were also lucky that the then-common Federal Pacific circuit breakers WEREN’T used, since those turned out to have a dangerous design flaw and would have had to be replaced.
stickerhappy | 6 years and 9 months ago
Who did you use chemosphere?
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 6 years and 9 months ago
TheMeredithProject,
Rewire completely even if the old wiring is BX?
chemosphere | 6 years and 9 months ago
We rewired. Took about 1 month for the electricians and another couple weeks for the plasterers to close up the holes. The kitchens and baths were gutted but the rest of the house was not. Costs about $5000 per floor for the electricians only, for a relatively simple job, but up to code and fully permitted. 2 new panels and new subpanels on each floor.
We didn’t have that much detailed plaster work but we did have cove moldings and some medallions and they managed to work around them in general. Now you can’t really tell.
greenworks | 6 years and 9 months ago
Following up on all of the good advice here — some electricians used to working with drywall just LOVE to hack away at your beautiful plaster with a sawzall because it’s quick. But you may wind up with plaster separated from the lath bc of the harsh vibrations — you’ll probably lose the key — make sure they use the appropriate tools for cutting holes in plaster!
doublejnyc
in General Discussion 6 years and 9 months ago
I am a high-end residential general contractor focusing on NYC and Brooklyn. With a brownstone, you should always rewire as electrical work was done with cloth wiring back in the day. You will find all sorts of crazy and amazing things behind those walls! You should expect the re-wire to take 1 month if the walls are open / framed. If they are channeling through old plaster and you need to patch it back up and paint everything, that is a different story. You can expect it to be much longer. Please contact me if you’d like a proposal to do this work.
lsp | 6 years and 9 months ago
I have had two houses rewired – one was rewired for everything except the ceiling lights, the other totally rewired. Both houses were four stories plus cellar built in the late 19th century. Both had new panels installed in the basement and sub-panels installed on two of the upper floors. Both were rewired inside and out. Both houses were occupied so the electricians had to cleanup before leaving each day. In one case the electrician was also a skilled plasterer. In the other I hired a plasterer separately.
In addition to the wishlist mentioned by resident2, an electrician can also run ethernet and coaxial cable so think about your communication and media needs/wants as well. Also, think about your outside spaces from both a security/safety and a leisure-use perspective. For example, do you want outdoor outlets and/or floodlights with motion detectors? Do you prefer outdoor lights on a timer or a light sensor?
As mentioned, both of my houses were historic so I was very concerned that the electricians be not only experienced with older houses, but also respectful of the m. If during the interview process an electrician even mentioned running exposed electrical conduits anywhere other than in the cellar or crawl spaces or along the bottom of brick walls the interviews came to an abrupt end. Almost all of my new wires were fished through the walls, even for the outside lights. Someone who truly knows old houses can locate the channels behind the brownstone facade. If the word demolition was used too liberally the interview was also ended. When the larger house (four stories and a cellar; 6,300 square feet) was totally re-wired only the basement ceiling and the hallway ceilings on the second and third floors were demolished. At the end of each day I would find yellow post-its on the walls asking for permission to drill a hole at that location.
As for time and cost, those are both dependent on what you want done, how you want it done, how many are on the work crew, whether the crew has unrestricted access to the building, the size of the building, etc. When my mother had her two bedroom apartment re-wired it took less than three days (they ran conduits along the cement walls) and the charge was by the hour. My houses took six months (with a one man crew) for the smaller and just over a year (with a two man crew and three day work weeks) for the larger. I am not sure what size house Bruce has in mind, but I have seen estimates for historic houses starting at $15m per floor.
Hope this is useful.
brucef | 6 years and 9 months ago
Resident2 is on the right track. Knowing what you are trying to end up with is crucial to making a plan. I sense that all you want is an answer. But anyone who has done this realizes that you must be asking the wrong question.
Why on earth would you want to replicate a disorganized mess of spaghetti cobbled together by multiple challenged electricians or “handymen” over many years. The whole point is to come up with a plan that although expensive, isn’t an abysmal waste of money.
Licensed electricians are not deep thinkers. They are expensive and like a computer, do what you tell them, ofttimes with unintended results. I am not suggesting incompetence or hazard, but more blindly task oriented.
Having no knowledge of your particular situation, I can still quote you a range that can be extrapolated to your project.
Correct the worst of your present problems, and add a new panel located where the present service is, adding a few new circuits, and possibly better service from the street, 15K.
Same as above, but correcting more old/unsafe lines, but keeping basic lay out – 22K
Replacing all circuits into existing walls, keeping panel location etc, 35K
All the above are progressively more expensive compromises. Improvements yes, but sticking with a haphazard layout, rooted in past rationales that are long forgotten.
Complete renovation, new partitions, new panel location, a coherent and forward looking plan – 25K
Add bells and clever whistles, which serve to annoy licensed electricians, 35K and up.
Hope that helps
Bruce
rocketship | 6 years and 9 months ago
We did something similar to 2345bcde – something to keep in mind is that this is not just an electrician. The general contractor actually ran a lot of the circuits for us, because it required trenching into existing walls, replacing most of the cellar ceiling and significant plaster patching throughout the house. We didn’t replace everything, just replaced panels and added a lot of circuits (the upstairs apartment was running on a single 15amp breaker!)
2345bcde | 6 years and 9 months ago
I went from 1 service ( 60 amps ) to 4 services,( (100 amps ) 3 subpanels, and the entire house rewired. The work was done with tenants ( they went on vacation), over tin ceilings, & through plaster walls. The building is four floors and it took about 3 weeks. I did all the patching myself and helped with the wiring. I’m a contractor so I got a pretty good deal of about $20,000. This included getting permits and dealing with Con Edison ( for the new services ). It was a lot of stress and work. The materials alone can be pretty pricey.
resident2 | 6 years and 9 months ago
Unless you are doing a complete gut rehab it is extremely rare that you would do a complete re-wire. Most add circuits, additional lines for specific needs. Separate out a panel for each floor…. update outlets etc.
Try & find a local electrician or two in your area that works on older houses and ask them to come & see what you really need to update to your needs.
But before you do that work out what you think you really want / need: Central A/C, all new computer digital controls? Solar panels? All new kitchen with many more appliances?
Costs can vary greatly due to your needs & wish list. It is best to know exactly what you want before you start or you will find the price goes up very fast as you go.
Electricians do not plaster back to any decent standard and to avoid more demolition than is really needed select an electrician that routinely works on older (occupied) buildings, it will save you money on the back end. As well as mess & dust during the process.