You’ll finally get that insurance policy approved. No more rejections, no more premium hikes, no more scrambling to find coverage before your mortgage lender pulls out.
Your home becomes sellable again. Buyers won’t walk away during inspection. Appraisers won’t dock your value. You can actually move forward with your plans.
The fire risk disappears. Those cloth-wrapped wires with crumbling insulation aren’t sitting in your walls anymore. You can add insulation where you need it. Your electrical panel can handle what you’re actually plugging in – not what homes needed in 1940.
You get grounding. Real protection from shocks and surges. Outlets that work with three-prong plugs. An electrical system that matches how you live now, not how your grandparents lived.
We’ve been working on pre-1950 homes across Barrington for years. We know what’s behind your plaster walls because we’ve opened them before.
Barrington has one of the highest concentrations of older homes in Rhode Island. That means we’re not learning on your house. We’ve already figured out how to run new wire through balloon framing, how to minimize wall damage, and how to work around horsehair plaster without destroying it.
We’re licensed, insured, and we pull permits for every job. Our work passes inspection the first time because we know exactly what Rhode Island electrical code requires for old home electrical wiring replacement.
We start with a full assessment of your current system. We map out where the knob and tube runs, check your panel capacity, and figure out the cleanest path for new wiring. You’ll know upfront what walls we need to access and what the timeline looks like.
Then we pull permits and schedule the work. We shut off power to the circuits we’re replacing, fish new Romex wiring through your walls using access points that make sense for your home’s layout, and install new outlets and switches with proper grounding. We upgrade your panel if it’s still 60-amp service – because you need at least 100 amps for a modern home.
The old knob and tube wiring gets disconnected and removed where accessible. We don’t just abandon it live in your walls. Every connection gets made in proper junction boxes, not twisted together and hidden. Everything gets labeled.
After rough-in inspection passes, we close up access points, patch walls, and finish the installation. Then we schedule final inspection. You get a signed-off permit and documentation that proves to your insurance company the work is done right.
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You get complete removal of active knob and tube circuits. We replace them with modern NM cable that’s rated for today’s electrical loads and properly insulated for safety.
Your panel gets upgraded to handle modern demand. Most Barrington homes we work on still have 60-amp service. We install 100 or 200-amp panels depending on your home’s size and needs. That means you can run your AC, charge your car, and use your kitchen appliances without tripping breakers.
Every outlet and switch gets grounded. That’s not just for code compliance – it’s actual protection from electrical shock and fire. We install GFCI protection in bathrooms, kitchens, and anywhere else code requires it.
In Barrington, where 89% of homes are owner-occupied and the median home value reflects significant investment, this work directly protects your property value. Insurance companies know that homes built in the 1940s – which make up a large portion of Barrington’s housing stock – often still have original wiring. That’s why they’re refusing coverage or charging premiums that don’t make sense. An electrical system upgrade for old homes removes that obstacle completely.
Most Barrington homeowners spend between $8,000 and $18,000 for a complete knob and tube upgrade, depending on home size and how much of the system needs replacement. A 1,500 square foot home typically runs $10,000 to $15,000.
That includes new wiring, panel upgrade, permits, inspections, and wall patching. If you only need partial replacement – say, just the second floor – costs drop accordingly. But partial fixes don’t always solve your insurance problem, so make sure you’re clear on what your insurance company actually requires before you decide on scope.
The price varies based on how accessible your walls are, whether you have a basement or crawl space, and how much of your existing system is knob and tube versus newer wiring. Homes with plaster walls cost slightly more to work on than drywall because the repair work is more involved.
Yes. Once you replace knob and tube wiring with a modern, grounded system, insurance companies treat your home like any other updated property.
You’ll need documentation proving the work was done – that means permits, inspection certificates, and often photos of the completed installation. Most insurance companies want to see that a licensed electrician did the work and that it passed municipal inspection.
Some insurers give you 30 to 60 days to complete the upgrade after they discover the knob and tube. Others won’t insure you at all until it’s gone. If you’re shopping for new coverage and the home still has old wiring, expect either rejection or premiums that are double what they should be. The upgrade pays for itself pretty quickly when you factor in what you save on insurance over just a few years.
A full-house rewire typically takes five to ten days, depending on the size of your home and how much of the existing system needs replacement.
Smaller jobs – like rewiring just one floor or a few circuits – can be done in two to three days. Larger homes or homes where we need to work around finished spaces without major demolition take longer.
The timeline includes rough-in work, inspection, and finish work. You’ll have power during most of the job – we work on individual circuits and keep the rest of your system live. There will be a few hours here and there where we need to shut off power to specific areas, but you won’t be without electricity for days at a time.
We can minimize wall damage, but we can’t eliminate it completely. Running new wire through finished walls requires access points.
In most Barrington homes, we use existing openings where possible – through the basement, attic, or behind outlet boxes. We fish wire through wall cavities from these access points. But in some cases, we need to open walls at specific locations to navigate obstacles like fire blocks or to make connections.
When we do open walls, we make surgical cuts in places that are easy to patch and less visible – like inside closets or along baseboards. We don’t tear out entire walls unless the home is already under renovation. After the electrical work passes inspection, we patch holes with matching materials. You’ll need to paint, but the structural repair is included in our scope.
The goal is to get your home up to code with the least disruption possible. That’s a balance between access and aesthetics, and we’ve done it enough times in older homes to know what works.
We disconnect it completely and remove it wherever it’s accessible. That means if we can pull it out through the basement, attic, or wall openings, we do.
Some knob and tube runs are buried in walls or inaccessible without major demolition. In those cases, we disconnect both ends, cap them properly, and leave them dead in place. They’re no longer connected to your electrical system and can’t carry current.
This is standard practice and meets code requirements. The important part is that all active circuits are new, grounded wiring. Nothing in your home is running on knob and tube anymore. Insurance companies and inspectors care that your electrical system is safe and compliant – not that every inch of old wire is physically removed from the structure.
In most cases, yes. If your home still has knob and tube wiring, there’s a good chance you also have an outdated 60-amp panel or even an old fuse box.
Modern homes need at least 100 amps of service – and many need 200 amps depending on size and electrical load. A 60-amp panel can’t safely handle central air, electric heat, modern kitchen appliances, and everything else you’re running. Upgrading the panel at the same time you replace the wiring makes sense because the work overlaps and you only disrupt your home once.
A new panel also gives you proper circuit breaker protection, room for additional circuits, and the capacity to add things like EV chargers or backup generators down the road. It’s not just about meeting code – it’s about having an electrical system that actually works for how you live.
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