Your insurance company stops sending threatening letters. Most carriers in Rhode Island either won’t cover homes with active knob and tube wiring or give you 30 days to remove it—and if your mortgage company finds out you lost coverage, they’ll force-place insurance at triple what you were paying.
You stop thinking about fire risk every time you turn on a light. Knob and tube wiring wasn’t designed for modern electrical loads, and you can finally plug in your coffee maker, laptop, and phone charger at the same time without wondering if something’s going to spark.
Your home inspector signs off without hesitation. You’re not explaining to buyers why half the house still runs on 1920s technology, and your home’s value stays protected because the electrical system is finally up to code.
We’ve spent over 30 years working in Rhode Island’s older homes, and we understand what you’re dealing with in Richmond’s historic districts like Carolina Village and Shannock Village. These homes have horsehair plaster that adds strength and character—but it’s extremely hard to match if damaged.
That’s why we developed a different approach. We use a specialized camera system that no other electrician in the area has, and it lets us locate and remove knob and tube wiring without cutting open your walls.
You get a licensed Master Electrician who knows exactly how to work with historic homes, complete documentation for your insurance company, and a home that’s finally safe without looking like a construction zone afterward.
We start by inserting a specialized camera through your existing outlets to see what’s actually behind your walls. The camera shows us where the knob and tube wiring runs, whether there’s mouse damage, bad connections, or covered junction boxes that need attention.
Once we map everything out, we plan the cleanest route for new wiring. We’re not guessing or cutting exploratory holes—we know exactly where everything is before we start.
Then we remove the old wiring and install the new system with minimal to no wall damage. If there’s any damage at all, it’s small notches at most—not the kind of destruction that requires a plasterer to come in and try to match 100-year-old horsehair plaster. Your original walls stay intact, and we provide complete documentation that shows a licensed electrician did the work and it passed inspection—exactly what insurance companies in Rhode Island want to see.
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You get a full camera inspection of your electrical system so we know exactly what we’re working with. We document everything—the condition of existing wiring, potential fire hazards, and what needs to be replaced to bring your home up to current code.
Richmond has a median household income of $124,653 and a high homeownership rate, which means most people here are invested in maintaining their properties long-term. If you own one of the historic homes in Carolina Village or Hillsdale, you already know that preserving original features matters—and our camera-based removal process protects your horsehair plaster completely.
We remove all knob and tube wiring and install a modern electrical system that can handle today’s power demands. You get updated outlets, proper grounding, and the capacity to run multiple appliances without overloading circuits. Most importantly, you get proof of completion and inspection certification, which restores your insurance coverage—often within days—and some clients even see their premiums drop because the fire risk is gone.
Yes. We use a specialized camera system that other electricians in the area don’t have, and it changes the entire process.
We insert the camera through your existing outlets to inspect inside the walls. It shows us exactly where the knob and tube wiring runs, where connections are, and whether there’s any damage we need to address. Once we map everything out, we remove the old wiring and install new wiring with minimal to no wall damage—usually no damage at all, and if there is any, it’s small notches at most.
This matters especially in Richmond’s historic homes where you have horsehair plaster that’s extremely difficult to match if damaged. Traditional removal methods require cutting open sections of walls and ceilings, then hiring a plasterer to patch everything afterward. Our camera system eliminates that entire problem, so your original plaster stays intact and you’re not dealing with unsightly repairs that never quite match the rest of the wall.
Most jobs take between three to five days depending on the size of your home and how much wiring needs to be replaced. A smaller home might be done in three days, while a larger historic property could take a full week.
The timeline also depends on what we find during the camera inspection. If there’s mouse damage, open joints, or covered junction boxes that create additional fire hazards, we address those issues as part of the upgrade—which can add time but ensures your home is actually safe when we’re done.
What won’t happen is weeks of construction with your walls torn open and dust everywhere. Because we’re not cutting exploratory holes or doing major demolition, the process is much faster and far less disruptive than traditional rewiring. You can usually stay in your home during the work, and we clean up completely when we’re finished so you’re not left with a mess to deal with.
Yes. We provide complete documentation that proves a licensed Master Electrician did the work and that it passed inspection—which is exactly what insurance companies in Rhode Island require.
Most of our clients have their coverage reinstated within days of completion. Some even see their premiums drop because the fire risk is gone and the home is no longer flagged as a liability.
If your insurer found knob and tube wiring during an inspection, you typically have 30 days to fix it or they’ll cancel your policy. That’s not a negotiation—they will drop you. And if your mortgage company finds out you lost coverage, they’ll force-place insurance on your home at a much higher rate, sometimes triple what you were paying. We’ve handled this situation dozens of times, and we know how to move quickly to meet your deadline while still doing the job right so your coverage gets restored without any gaps.
Most homeowners pay between $12,000 and $36,000 to replace knob and tube wiring throughout their entire home, with costs typically breaking down to around $10 to $20 per square foot. The final price depends on your home’s size, how much wiring needs replacement, and whether there are additional issues like damaged connections or code violations that need to be fixed.
Our camera-based process can actually reduce your overall costs because you’re not paying a plasterer to repair walls afterward. Traditional removal requires opening portions of walls and ceilings, which means you’re paying for demolition, electrical work, and then restoration—and matching horsehair plaster in historic homes is expensive and often doesn’t look right even when done by a skilled tradesperson.
We’ll give you an accurate estimate after the camera inspection so you know exactly what you’re paying for. There’s no guessing, no surprise costs halfway through the job, and no additional bills for wall repairs that weren’t part of the original quote.
Because it’s a fire hazard and your insurance company knows it. Knob and tube wiring wasn’t designed for modern electrical loads—it can’t safely handle the power demands of today’s appliances, electronics, and lighting.
When you overload the system, wires overheat. The insulation deteriorates over time, especially if it’s been in your walls for 70 or 100 years. Connections loosen, and any modifications done over the decades were often done incorrectly by people who didn’t understand the system. All of this creates serious fire risk, which is why most insurance companies in Rhode Island either won’t cover homes with active knob and tube wiring or require removal within 30 days of purchasing a policy.
Even if your wiring seems fine right now, it won’t pass inspection when you go to sell your home. Buyers will either walk away or demand that you replace it before closing—and you’ll be doing the work on their timeline, not yours. It’s better to handle it now while you control the process, and you get the benefit of a safer home and restored insurance coverage immediately.
Other electricians cut open your walls to find the wiring. They make exploratory holes, trace the routes manually, and then open up more sections to remove the old wiring and run new lines. It’s invasive, messy, and destructive—especially in historic homes with horsehair plaster that’s nearly impossible to match once it’s damaged.
Our camera system eliminates all of that. We insert the camera through existing outlets and see exactly what’s inside your walls before we touch anything. We can diagnose issues like mouse damage, locate covered junction boxes, identify open joints, and map out the entire wiring system without cutting a single exploratory hole.
This means we plan the cleanest route for new wiring based on what’s actually there—not guesswork. The result is minimal to no wall damage, faster completion, and your home’s original plaster stays completely intact. No other electrician in the area uses this system, which is why homeowners with historic properties in Richmond’s Carolina Village and Shannock Village districts keep calling us when they need knob and tube wiring removed without destroying their walls.
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