Your insurance company gave you 30 days to fix the knob and tube wiring or they’re dropping your coverage. Every other electrician you’ve called says they’ll need to cut open your walls, patch them back up, and hope the repair blends in with your 1920s horsehair plaster. It won’t.
We use a specialized camera system that goes through your existing outlets to locate and remove old wiring from inside the walls. No cutting. No notching. No plaster dust settling into your furniture for the next six months.
Your walls stay intact. Your original plaster stays untouched. And you get the documentation your insurance company needs to reinstate your coverage, usually within days.
This matters in Cumberland, where so many homes were built before 1950 and still have the original character worth protecting. You shouldn’t have to choose between safety and preserving what makes your home special.
Lightning Electric has been working on Rhode Island homes since before most electricians knew what a camera inspection system was. We’re licensed Master Electricians who’ve rewired hundreds of historic properties across Cumberland and the surrounding area.
We know horsehair plaster. We know how hard it is to match. And we know that most homeowners would rather avoid the mess entirely if there’s a better way.
That’s why we invested in camera technology that no other electrician in the area uses. It lets us see inside your walls, map out the old wiring, and remove it without disturbing the plaster you’ve spent decades maintaining. Cumberland homeowners trust us because we understand what’s at stake when you own a piece of local history.
We start by inserting a specialized camera through your existing electrical outlets. This camera inspects the inside of your walls and shows us exactly where the old knob and tube wiring runs, where it’s deteriorating, and whether there’s any mouse damage or hidden junction boxes that could cause problems down the line.
Once we map everything out, we plan the cleanest route to remove the old wiring and install new, code-compliant electrical systems. The camera lets us work from inside the wall cavity, so we’re not cutting through your original plaster or creating repair work that never quite matches.
If any minimal access is needed, it’s small and strategic. Not the kind of wall demolition you’d see with traditional rewiring methods.
When we’re done, you get a complete electrical system upgrade, a Certificate of Insurance that satisfies your insurance company’s requirements, and walls that look exactly like they did before we started. Most clients have their coverage reinstated within days, and some even see their premiums drop once the fire risk is eliminated.
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Traditional knob and tube removal means cutting into walls, removing sections of plaster, running new wire, and then trying to patch everything back together. In a historic Cumberland home with horsehair plaster, that’s a nightmare. The texture doesn’t match. The repairs are obvious. And you’re left with a home that looks like it went through construction because it did.
Our camera-based system changes that. We’re able to locate wiring, remove it, and install modern electrical infrastructure without the invasive demolition. This is especially valuable in older homes where the plaster is original and irreplaceable.
The camera also serves as a diagnostic tool during inspections. We can identify covered junction boxes, open joints, and wiring that’s been chewed by rodents, all without opening a single wall. That means you know exactly what you’re dealing with before any work begins.
Cumberland has one of the highest homeownership rates in Rhode Island, and many of those homes are pre-1950 builds. If you’re one of those homeowners, you know how hard it is to find contractors who respect the integrity of older construction. We built our process around preserving what you already have while bringing your electrical system up to modern safety standards.
Yes. Insurance companies care about one thing: that the knob and tube wiring is completely removed and replaced with code-compliant electrical systems. They don’t care how it’s done, as long as it’s done by a licensed electrician and properly documented.
We provide a Certificate of Insurance upon completion that shows the work was performed to code. That’s the documentation your insurance company needs to reinstate coverage or remove the knob and tube exclusion from your policy.
Most of our clients get their coverage back within days of submitting the certificate. Some even see their premiums go down once the fire risk is eliminated. The method we use to remove the wiring doesn’t matter to the insurance company. What matters is that a licensed professional did the work and can prove it.
Most projects in Cumberland range between $12,000 and $36,000, depending on the size of your home and how much of the electrical system still runs on knob and tube wiring. If it’s just a portion of the house, you’re on the lower end. If the entire home needs rewiring, you’re looking at the higher end.
The cost per square foot typically falls between $10 and $20. That includes removal of the old wiring, installation of new code-compliant systems, and the documentation you need for insurance purposes.
Our camera-based method doesn’t add to the cost. In fact, it often saves money because you’re not paying a plasterer to come in after we’re done and repair walls. You’re also not dealing with the hidden costs of wall damage like repainting, furniture moving, or cleaning up plaster dust. The price you get is for the electrical work, not the construction cleanup.
Yes. That’s exactly why we use the camera system. Horsehair plaster is nearly impossible to match once it’s damaged, and most electricians don’t know how to work with it without creating a mess.
Our process preserves your original plaster completely. The camera goes through existing outlets and lets us see inside the walls without cutting them open. We locate the old wiring, map out the best removal route, and pull everything out from inside the wall cavity.
If any minimal access is needed, it’s small and carefully placed. Not the kind of large openings that require a plasterer to come in and try to blend new material with 100-year-old horsehair plaster. Cumberland has plenty of historic homes where this matters, and we’ve done this work hundreds of times without leaving behind the kind of damage you’d see with traditional methods.
Most homes take between three and seven days, depending on the size of the house and how much wiring needs to be replaced. A smaller home where only part of the system is knob and tube might be done in three days. A full rewire of a larger historic property could take a week.
The timeline also depends on what the camera inspection reveals. If we find additional issues like covered junction boxes or rodent damage, that adds time. But you’ll know upfront what we’re dealing with because the camera shows us everything before we start the removal process.
The advantage of our method is that you’re not adding days or weeks for plaster repair and repainting. When we’re done with the electrical work, we’re done. You don’t need to schedule a second contractor to come in and fix the walls. That keeps the project timeline tight and predictable.
We insert the camera system through your outlets and inspect the inside of your walls. The camera shows us where the knob and tube wiring runs, what condition it’s in, and whether there are any hidden problems like open joints, covered junction boxes, or damage from rodents.
This inspection gives you a complete picture of what’s behind your walls before any removal work starts. You’ll know exactly what needs to be replaced, where the problem areas are, and what the scope of the project looks like.
The inspection also helps us plan the cleanest route for removing the old wiring and installing the new system. Because we can see inside the walls, we’re not guessing or cutting exploratory holes to figure out where things are. We know before we start, which means less disruption to your home and a faster, cleaner process overall.
Because your insurance company won’t let you, and because it’s a fire hazard. Knob and tube wiring wasn’t designed to handle the electrical load of modern homes. It has no ground wire, the insulation deteriorates over time, and it’s often been modified incorrectly by previous homeowners or unqualified handymen.
Insurance companies know this. That’s why they either refuse to cover homes with knob and tube wiring or give you 30 days to remove it before they cancel your policy. If you ignore that deadline, you’ll be forced into a high-risk insurance plan that costs two to three times what you’re paying now.
Beyond the insurance issue, the fire risk is real. Knob and tube wiring wasn’t built for air conditioning, modern appliances, or the number of devices we plug in today. The system overheats, connections fail, and insulation breaks down. Removing it isn’t just about keeping your insurance. It’s about making sure your home is safe for your family.
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