Rewiring
Whole-home rewiring for older Spokane houses.
Knob-and-tube replacement, ungrounded circuit upgrades, and full rewires for Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake and the surrounding area.
What we do
- Whole-home rewires
- Knob-and-tube replacement
- Ungrounded circuit upgrades
- Aluminum branch circuit corrections
- Grounding and bonding
- Partial and room-by-room rewires
- Service and panel upgrades where needed
- Permit and inspection coordination
Common jobs we handle
- Replace remaining live knob-and-tube
- Rewire a plaster-and-lath bungalow
- Ground the receptacles in a pre-1962 home
- Rewire a kitchen or bath during a remodel
- Correct decades of added splices
- Address an insurance letter about wiring
When to call an electrician
- Two-prong outlets throughout
- Fuses instead of breakers
- Cloth or crumbling insulation
- Frequent tripping or warm outlets
- Your insurer flagged the wiring
- You're planning a major remodel
Signs a house needs rewiring
- Two-prong ungrounded outlets throughout the house
- Fuses instead of breakers
- Cloth or crumbling insulation visible at the panel or in the attic
- Breakers or fuses that trip frequently
- Outlets or switch plates that feel warm
- No ground path at the receptacles
- Your insurer has flagged the wiring
- Aluminum branch circuits
Why so many Spokane houses need it
Spokane County Assessor data published by the City of Spokane in 2020 puts 19% of city housing units as built before 1940 and roughly 42% before 1970, with the average single-family detached home about 70 years old. That housing stock is a big part of the city's character, and it also means a great deal of original and early wiring is still in service.
It's also worth knowing that grounded three-slot receptacles weren't required throughout a home until the 1962 code. Laundry receptacles were required to be grounded in 1947, and outdoor, garage, and basement receptacles were added in the 1956 code. So a pre-1962 Spokane house having ungrounded circuits isn't a defect someone introduced; it's how it was built.
Knob-and-tube, 1880s–1940s
Prevalent for decades and still present in a lot of Spokane's oldest housing. It can also turn up inside later remodels, so no one should tell you a house is definitively free of it without an inspection.
Cloth-jacketed NM, from about 1926
An early sheathed cable. The conductors can be sound while the jacket has gone brittle, which is why what we look at is the actual condition at the panel, at the devices, and wherever it's accessible.
Modern NM, roughly 1950–1970
Plastic-jacketed NM took over gradually across those two decades, so mid-century Spokane homes are frequently a mix of eras rather than one consistent system.
Aluminum branch circuits, roughly 1965–1973
Used in branch wiring during that window. It needs the right terminations and devices, and it's a common item on inspection reports and insurance letters.
Knob-and-tube: what actually matters
Finding knob-and-tube is not automatically an emergency, and anyone who quotes a whole-house teardown before looking is selling, not assessing. Four questions decide how urgent it is: is it still energized, has it been buried in insulation, how badly has it been spliced into over the decades, and what will your insurance carrier accept?
We trace what's actually live, look at the splices and the junctions, and tell you what we found. Sometimes the answer is that a few remaining circuits need to come out. Sometimes it's more than that. Either way you get the real picture before you get a number.
Whole rewire vs. targeted work
- A full rewire replaces branch circuits throughout the house: the right call when most of the wiring is original, ungrounded, and still carrying load.
- A service upgrade plus a few new circuits is often enough when the bones are sound and the real problem is capacity, grounding, or a handful of overloaded rooms.
- A kitchen or bath remodel can be the natural moment to rewire that zone properly without touching the rest of the house.
- We'll tell you which of these you're actually looking at, in writing, before any work starts.
How we work in a finished house
Rewiring a finished house is as much about routing as it is about wire. We walk the house first and plan paths through the attic, basement, crawlspace, closets, and existing chases so that most of the new work never touches a finished surface. Plaster and lath is slower and less forgiving than drywall, and we treat it that way.
We work room by room so the house stays livable, keep the dust contained, and are straightforward about where patching is genuinely unavoidable: you'll know before the cut, not after.
Permits and inspection
Rewiring requires an electrical permit and an inspection. Everywhere in the Spokane region except the City of Spokane, that permit and inspection come from Washington State Labor & Industries. Inside city limits, the City of Spokane runs its own electrical program. Any building permit that goes along with the work comes from the city or the county.
Washington is currently on the 2023 NEC, effective April 1, 2024. We pull the permit and schedule the inspection as part of the job.
What drives the cost
Rewiring scope varies enormously house to house. These are the things that actually move the number:
- Square footage and number of circuits
- Access: basement, attic, and crawlspace versus slab
- Plaster and lath versus drywall
- Whether the service and panel need upgrading too
- How much knob-and-tube is still energized
- Fixture and device count
- Whether the home is occupied during the work
- Permit and inspection fees
A whole-home rewire on a 2,000 to 3,000 square foot house runs around $30,000. That number moves more than any other job we price, and it moves on the things listed above: access, wall construction, and how much of the old wiring is still live. Most of the cost is not the wire, it is avoiding drywall repair. Nobody should take that figure as a quote. It is the shape of the answer, and the real one takes a walkthrough.
Wondering about cost? See what electrical work actually costs in Spokane.
Not sure whether you need a rewire?
We'll assess what's live, what's grounded, and what your service can carry. Related work: panel upgrades, home inspection electrical repairs, and all our residential electrical services.
Rewiring across the South Hill, Browne's Addition, downtown Spokane, and Spokane Valley.
Service Areas
Local electrician across Spokane County & North Idaho
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to rewire the whole house?+
Often, no. Plenty of older Spokane homes need a service upgrade and a handful of new circuits rather than a full rewire. What we do first is find out what's actually energized, what condition it's in, and what your load looks like, then tell you which of the two you're really looking at.
Is knob-and-tube dangerous?+
Not automatically. Knob-and-tube was prevalent from the 1880s into the 1940s, and some of it is still intact and de-energized behind the walls. What matters is whether it's still live, whether it's been buried in insulation, whether decades of splices have been added to it, and what your insurer will accept. We assess what's actually there rather than quoting a teardown on sight.
Will my insurance require it?+
Some carriers raise it at renewal or after a policy inspection, particularly where knob-and-tube or aluminum branch circuits are involved. If you've received a letter, bring it to us: we'll look at what's installed and tell you what would realistically satisfy them.
Can you rewire without tearing up walls?+
We fish circuits through plaster and lath, existing chases, attics, basements, and crawlspaces, and plan the routing before we cut anything. That keeps patching to a minimum. It does not eliminate it: some access holes are unavoidable, and we'd rather tell you where they'll be up front than surprise you.
Can we live in the house during a rewire?+
Usually yes. We work room by room or circuit group by circuit group so the house stays livable, and we coordinate which areas lose power on which days. Homes that are empty during the work go faster, but occupancy is not a dealbreaker.
How long does a rewire take?+
It depends on square footage, access, and how much of the old wiring is still live. A targeted partial rewire can be a few days; a full rewire in a finished plaster house is a multi-week project. We'll give you a schedule for your house rather than a generic number.
Do I need a permit?+
Yes. Rewiring requires an electrical permit and inspection. Almost everywhere in the Spokane region (Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Cheney, Airway Heights, Millwood, and unincorporated Spokane County) that permit comes from Washington State Labor & Industries. Inside the City of Spokane, the city runs its own electrical permit and inspection program. Any associated building permit comes from the city or the county.
Does a rewire include a new panel?+
Frequently, yes: a house with original knob-and-tube or cloth-jacketed wiring often has an undersized service and an old panel to match. But it isn't automatic. If your service and panel are sound and sized for the load, we'll leave them alone.
Ready to get electrical work handled the right way?
Book online in under a minute or call our team now.