Your insurance company gave you 30 days. You’re worried about what removing knob and tube wiring will do to your walls – especially if you have original horsehair plaster that’s impossible to match.
Here’s what changes after we’re done. You get full insurance coverage back, usually within days. Your home can handle modern electrical loads – multiple devices, appliances, everything today’s families actually use. You have grounded outlets throughout, a new panel that meets code, and wiring that won’t start a fire.
And your walls? They look the same as before we arrived. No gaping holes. No mismatched plaster repairs. No dust settling into your furniture for months. Our camera system lets us locate and remove old wiring through existing outlets, so there’s little to no damage – maybe a small notch here or there at most, nothing like what happens when electricians start cutting into walls.
Lightning Electric has been working in Rhode Island for over 30 years. We’re licensed Master Electricians who specialize in older homes – the kind with character, history, and wiring that hasn’t been updated since Eisenhower was president.
Barrington has some of the most beautiful historic properties in the state. Homes built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many with original details that make them worth preserving. We understand what’s at stake when you’re trying to modernize a home like that. You can’t just rip into walls and hope for the best.
That’s why we invested in a specialized camera system that no other electrician in this area uses. It’s how we inspect, locate, and remove knob and tube wiring without destroying what makes your home special.
We start with an inspection using our camera system. We insert the camera through your existing outlets and feed it into the walls to see exactly where the knob and tube wiring runs. This shows us the full layout – where it connects, where it’s damaged, whether mice have chewed through insulation, and if there are covered junction boxes or open joints that need attention.
Once we map everything out, we remove the old wiring by working through those same access points. No cutting large sections of wall. No demolition crew. The camera guides us so we know exactly what we’re doing at every step. If we need to make a small notch somewhere for access, it’s minimal – nothing that requires a plasterer to come fix later.
After the old wiring is out, we install new wiring rated for modern electrical loads. You get a new panel, grounded outlets throughout the house, and circuits that meet current Rhode Island electrical codes. We document everything for your insurance company – proof that a licensed electrician did the work and that it passed inspection. Most of our clients get their coverage reinstated within days, and some even see their premiums drop.
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Barrington’s median home was built in 1956. A lot of houses here are older than that – beautiful properties with horsehair plaster walls, original woodwork, and the kind of craftsmanship you don’t see anymore. When you own a home like that, the last thing you want is someone tearing into your walls and leaving you with repairs that never quite match.
Traditional knob and tube removal means cutting into walls, removing sections of plaster, and hoping you can find someone skilled enough to patch it back together. Horsehair plaster is notoriously unstable – small holes turn into big ones fast. And even if the repair work is done well, it rarely matches the original texture and finish.
Our camera-based approach solves that problem completely. You keep your original plaster intact. You avoid the mess, the dust, and the expense of hiring plasterers. And you still get a full electrical upgrade that brings your home up to modern safety standards. It’s why so many of our jobs are in historic homes – homeowners who care about preservation but also need their electrical systems to actually work for how they live today.
Yes, and that’s usually the main reason people call us. Most insurance companies in Rhode Island either won’t cover homes with knob and tube wiring at all, or they’ll give you 30 days to remove it before they cancel your policy. It’s a fire risk issue – the wiring wasn’t designed for modern electrical loads, and insurers don’t want the liability.
Once we remove the knob and tube wiring and install new wiring that meets code, we provide documentation showing that a licensed Master Electrician completed the work and that it passed inspection. You submit that to your insurance company, and coverage gets reinstated. Most of our clients hear back within days. Some even see their premiums go down because the home is now safer and up to code.
The key is making sure the work is done by a licensed electrician and properly inspected. Insurance companies need proof that the old wiring is actually gone and that the new system is safe.
With our camera system, little to no damage. That’s the whole point of how we work. We insert a specialized camera through your existing outlets to locate and remove the wiring from inside the walls. No cutting large sections. No demolition. If there’s any damage at all, it’s minimal – maybe a small notch here or there for access, nothing that requires major repair work.
This is completely different from how most electricians handle knob and tube removal. The traditional method involves cutting into walls to find the wiring, removing large sections of plaster or drywall, and then patching everything back together afterward. If you have horsehair plaster – which a lot of Barrington homes do – that’s a nightmare. Horsehair plaster is fragile, hard to work with, and nearly impossible to match if you’re trying to repair it.
Our approach preserves your original walls. You don’t need to hire a plasterer. You don’t deal with dust and debris for weeks. And you don’t end up with patched sections that look different from the rest of the room.
The camera shows us everything happening inside your walls. We can see exactly where the knob and tube wiring runs, how it’s connected, and whether there are any problems we need to address. That includes mouse damage – rodents love chewing through old insulation. It shows us bad wiring that’s deteriorated over time, covered junction boxes that shouldn’t be hidden, and open joints where connections are exposed.
This level of detail matters because it lets us remove the wiring safely and completely. We’re not guessing where things are or cutting into walls hoping we find what we need. We know the full layout before we start, which means the job goes faster, costs less, and doesn’t damage your home.
It also means we catch problems that might not be obvious from the outside. Old wiring doesn’t always fail in visible ways. The camera inspection gives you a complete diagnostic of what’s actually going on in your electrical system, so you know exactly what needs to be fixed.
It depends on the size of your home and how much knob and tube wiring needs to be removed, but most jobs take a few days to a week. The camera system actually speeds up the process because we’re not spending time cutting into walls, patching, and cleaning up major messes. We work through existing access points, which is faster and far less invasive.
For a typical Barrington home – let’s say a 1,500 to 2,500 square foot house built in the 1940s or 1950s – you’re usually looking at three to five days of work. That includes the initial camera inspection, removing the old wiring, installing new wiring and a new panel, and passing the final inspection. Larger homes or homes with more complex layouts might take a bit longer.
The timeline also depends on how quickly we can schedule the inspection with the city. Once that’s done and we have the signed-off paperwork, you can submit it to your insurance company right away. Most homeowners aren’t out of coverage for long – especially if you’re working against a 30-day deadline from your insurer.
It’s dangerous. Insurance companies refuse to cover it because the fire risk is real. Knob and tube wiring was installed decades ago when homes used a fraction of the electricity they do now. A few lights, maybe a radio – that’s what the system was designed for. Today’s homes run computers, microwaves, air conditioners, phone chargers, and a dozen other devices at the same time. That’s way more load than knob and tube wiring can handle safely.
The insulation on old knob and tube wiring also breaks down over time. It gets brittle, cracks, and exposes bare wire. Add in rodent damage – mice and squirrels chewing through what’s left of the insulation – and you have a system that’s one short away from starting a fire. That’s not a scare tactic. It’s why building codes don’t allow it anymore and why electricians recommend removing it as soon as possible.
Beyond the fire risk, knob and tube wiring isn’t grounded. That means your outlets can’t safely handle three-prong plugs, and you don’t have protection against electrical shocks or surges. If you’re living in a home with this wiring, you’re dealing with both a safety issue and a functionality issue. Modern electrical systems are designed to protect you and power your life – knob and tube wiring does neither.
Because it requires specialized equipment and training that most electricians don’t invest in. The camera system we use isn’t standard issue. It’s a piece of technology we brought in specifically to solve the problem of removing knob and tube wiring without destroying walls – especially in historic homes where preserving original plaster matters.
Most electricians stick with the traditional method because it’s what they know and what they’ve always done. Cut into the walls, find the wiring, remove it, patch the walls, move on to the next job. It works, but it’s invasive, messy, and expensive when you factor in the cost of repairing all that damage. For homeowners with horsehair plaster or original architectural details, it’s a dealbreaker.
We saw that gap and decided to do something different. The camera system lets us offer non-invasive knob and tube removal that protects what makes older homes special while still bringing the electrical system up to modern safety standards. It’s why homeowners with historic properties in Barrington and across Rhode Island call us – they want the wiring gone, but they don’t want their homes torn apart in the process.
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