WHOLE-HOME REWIRE
Knob-and-tube, aluminum branch, or aged Romex. Documented before quoting, rewired room-by-room, inspected before drywall closes.
Keil Electric performs partial and whole-home rewiring across San Diego County and the Austin metro. We document existing conditions during rough-in, replace knob-and-tube, aluminum branch wiring, or aged Romex with current code-compliant cable, and pull permits where required. Rewires are quoted room-by-room with a clear before/after plan.
Same scope on either side. Pick the shop that covers your area and we will route you to the right crew.
Before we quote a rewire, we need to know what is in the walls. We inspect accessible runs in attics, crawlspaces, and basements; pull a sample of outlet and switch boxes; and identify the wiring vintage and condition. The documentation goes in the file with photos so the scope and cost are based on real conditions, not estimates.
Whole-home rewires are rarely done in a single weekend with the family living in the house. We phase the work by room or zone, energize new circuits before de-energizing old ones, and coordinate with any drywall or finish work happening alongside. The result is a rewire the homeowner can live through without losing power for days.
Knob-and-tube (pre-1950, ungrounded, documented fire and insurance risk). Aluminum branch wiring at 12 and 14 AWG (1965-1973, terminations expand and contract until they fail). Aged Romex with brittle insulation (typically pre-1980 cable with degraded jacket). Cloth-jacket BX with rubber insulation. We replace with current-code Romex (NM-B) or MC where required.
Every jurisdiction we work requires a rough-in inspection before drywall covers the new wiring. We schedule any inspection, walk any inspector through the work, and pass before the cover-up trades come back. The inspection trail goes in your permit file.
Licensed electrician inspects accessible wiring, samples termination boxes, and documents the conditions with photos.
Room-by-room scope, cable type, breaker count, panel implications, and phasing schedule. Fixed-price quote.
When the local AHJ requires a permit, we pull it. Permit requirements vary by district. We then run the new cable, install boxes and devices, and schedule the rough-in inspection.
After drywall closes, we trim out devices and fixtures, energize, and call for final inspection.
Not every job requires a permit. When the local AHJ requires one, we pull it, schedule the inspection, and stay with the job until it passes. No paperwork on you.
Written warranty: 5-year on outlets, fixtures, and EV chargers; 10-year on wire and breakers; lifetime on panelboxes and surge protection. Parts and labor. Transfers with the home.
Knob-and-tube wiring in homes built before 1950 is a documented insurance and fire risk when buried in insulation or modified incorrectly. Aluminum branch wiring (1965 to 1973 vintage) is a documented fire risk at outlet and switch terminations. Both warrant remediation when revealed during renovation work.
Real work from our San Diego and Austin shops. Same standards, same warranty, every job.
For home electrical rewiring, here's the honest comparison. We'd tell you the same thing if we weren't trying to win the job.
Most home electrical rewiring calls start when the homeowner is planning ahead: a renovation, an addition, an EV charger, a generator, a panel upgrade, or any project where the existing electrical needs to be sized correctly for the new load. The earlier we walk the property, the cleaner the project sequencing. Bringing us in before the drywall closes saves rework. Bringing us in before the contract is signed with the GC saves scope confusion. We are happy to walk a property at the planning stage even if the install is still months out.
A walk of the property with attention to the panel (age, capacity, available breaker space), conduit accessibility, attic / crawlspace conditions, and the load picture (current loads + planned future loads). For installs that touch the service drop, we factor utility coordination from the start. The estimate we leave with is fixed for the scope as walked. Change orders only happen for genuinely new findings during the work, you hear about them before we proceed.
Whole-home rewiring is a major investment and the most disruptive electrical work a property owner takes on. Done right, it eliminates a known failure mode in the property and resets the wiring lifecycle for the next forty to fifty years. Done wrong, it leaves the homeowner with finish damage, a permit that never closed, and circuits that pass inspection but were not documented.
Pre-1950 knob-and-tube, with the porcelain insulators visible in the attic. 1965 to 1973 aluminum branch wiring, identifiable by stamped “AL” on the cable jacket and silver-colored conductors. 1970s and earlier Romex with cloth braid jacket and rubber insulation, which gets brittle and crumbles. Each one has a different failure profile and a different remediation strategy.
Owners sometimes ask for a “kitchen-only” or “first-floor-only” rewire to manage cost. We will do partial rewires, but we will say in writing what is being left behind and why. The risk is leaving aged wiring on circuits that are easy to forget about (attic lighting, exterior receptacles, the back of a basement) and having a fire start there years after the rewire is forgotten.
Cost is driven by square footage, accessibility (slab vs basement vs crawl), wall finish (drywall vs plaster), the number of circuits and devices, and panel work. Whole-home rewires on older homes typically run a meaningful project, and we quote in writing per room before any work begins.
Rough-in for a typical 2,000 sq ft home with reasonable access is one to two weeks. Trim, drywall coordination, and inspections add another one to two weeks. Larger or harder-access homes run longer. We give you a real schedule before we start.
Usually no. We phase the work so power stays on in occupied rooms and outages are scheduled. Larger homes can be rewired while the homeowner stays in place.
Many insurance carriers will not write or renew a homeowner policy on a house with active knob-and-tube or aluminum branch wiring. If your carrier flagged your wiring, we provide a remediation report after the rewire so the policy can be renewed.
Not necessarily. Where access is available from above (attic) or below (crawlspace, basement), we can fish new cable without opening drywall. In modern slab-on-grade homes with insulated attics, more wall openings are usually required. We map the access path during the site walk.
A licensed licensed electrician walks the property, documents existing conditions, and writes a room-by-room rewire scope with phasing and cost. The quote you sign is the bill you pay.
