Yes, a house rewire can be all that and more, but your electrician will always advise choosing safety over every one of your complaints.
To help reduce the disruptive nature of home rewiring projects, most homeowners often ask if there’s a way to rewire a house without removing the drywall.
Thankfully, there is, and a licensed electrician can explain the process and proceed to carry it out.
The steps to house rewiring without removing drywall
- Planning and preparation
This is a compulsory step in rewiring without removing the drywall. It’s impossible to do much or do the project correctly without this stage. Here you get a good look at the plan of the old wiring. Learn where they are, how they were run, and so on.
With this knowledge, plan your new circuitry. It’s not mandatory that the new wiring follow the exact path or plan of the old one, especially if there are new electrical needs.
Next is using all you’ve gathered from this planning stage to determine the materials you need. Calculate the amount and length of wires. Be sure to always leave room for extra.
- Preparation stage
The first step was more about planning. In the second step, your electrician would lay the groundwork for the rewiring. Typically, to rewire your home without removing the drywall, the electrician will have to find a crawlspace to feed the wire through. Hence, in this preparation stage, the electrician will make room for the new wiring. This includes removing clutter, checking for barriers on the wiring path, and so on.
Before any work begins, turn off the power to the home.
- Removal and rewiring stage
Your electrician will remove the old wiring in the walls. Note that old wiring has to be recycled and also cut or pulled out carefully.
It takes two to rewire with one person feeding the wire and another person catching the wire to install.
If the calculations were done properly in the first stage, then the process would go smoothly from room to room.
Information about rewiring a house
The entire project can take anywhere from 3 to 10 days, but your electrician will inform you of their time needed.
Simply living in an old home does not confirm you need a house rewire. It’s up to your electrician to inspect your wiring and tell you the situation.
It’s never advisable to attempt a home rewiring yourself.
Old wiring can run up your electricity bill mostly because it has different problems. So updating to a new and efficient system can save you those unexpected spikes.
House rewiring increases the value of a property and can last up to 40 years before it’s needed again.
It can cost between $3000 and $8000 to rewire a small or medium-sized home. Prices always vary based on some factors.