How Much Does Rewiring a House Cost?

Rewiring a house costs $8,000–$15,000 for a typical 1,500–2,000 sq ft home at national-average prices in 2026, or roughly $6–$10 per square foot installed. Smaller homes (around 1,000 sq ft) usually run $4,000–$8,000, while larger homes of 2,500 sq ft or more can exceed $15,000–$30,000. Every figure below is an installed range — labor, new wiring and devices, panel work, permits, inspections, and patching — at national-average prices, not a quote.

This guide is for homeowners with an older house on cloth, aluminum, or knob-and-tube wiring, or anyone whose lights flicker, breakers trip constantly, or panel can't keep up with modern loads. It covers what rewiring includes, what moves the price, the extras quotes often skip, permits, and how long you'll live with holes in the drywall. Because this is licensed-electrician work with big quote-to-quote variation, collect itemized bids and compare them with the quote analyzer before you sign.

Cost at a glance

The panel line matters: many full rewires also need a service upgrade, and bundling it with the rewire is cheaper than doing it separately. See the electrical panel upgrade cost guide for what that adds on its own ($1,100–$4,000). Hourly electrician rates and minimum charges for the smaller jobs are covered in the electrician cost guide.

Your metro's labor rates can shift these ranges 10–40% either way — see how we calculate costs.

What's included in the price

A full-house rewire quote should cover all of these, not just "new wire":

• New branch circuits and wiring. All accessible runs replaced with modern NM-B (Romex) cable, correctly sized per circuit. The two wires you'll hear about are 14-gauge for lighting and 15-amp circuits and 12-gauge for 20-amp kitchen, bath, and laundry circuits.
• Receptacles, switches, and boxes. New tamper-resistant outlets (now required by code in most rooms), switches, and proper boxes everywhere the wire is opened up. Expect roughly 20–50 new devices in a typical home.
• GFCI and AFCI protection. Kitchens, baths, garages, and outdoor outlets need GFCI protection; most living areas now need AFCI breakers. The breakers themselves cost more than standard ones, and your panel may need new ones to match.
• Panel work. At minimum, new breakers and re-terminating every circuit in the panel. Often a full panel replacement or service upgrade.
• Drywall repair after fishing wires. Electricians cut access holes to run wire through finished walls. Ask whether the quote includes patching and texturing the holes, or just the wiring — it is frequently a separate line item or left to you.
• Permits and inspections. A permit is required for a rewire in most jurisdictions, and the job needs at least one inspection. Permit fees typically run a few hundred dollars.
• Cleanup and disposal. Old wire, cut boxes, and drywall debris hauled out.

If a quote is dramatically lower than the others, check which of these lines are missing. The cheapest bids often skip patching, leave old breakers in a marginal panel, or undercount the devices.

What drives the cost up or down

House size and stories. Cost scales with wire runs and device count, but not perfectly — small houses pay more per square foot because the electrician still makes the same trips, pulls the same permits, and sets up the same panel work. Multi-story homes cost more than ranch-style ones because fishing wire between floors takes more time and holes.

Finished vs. unfinished space. Wire is cheap to run through an open basement ceiling or an unfinished attic. In a fully finished house, the electrician has to cut, fish, and patch through walls and ceilings — labor is roughly double compared with open construction. If you're already remodeling with walls open, do the wiring then; it can cut the rewire bill nearly in half.

Accessibility of the wiring. Crawl spaces and attics with room to move are cheap to work in. Slab foundations with no crawl space, low-pitch roofs with no attic access, and plaster-and-lath walls all slow the job and push labor hours up.

The existing wiring type. Knob-and-tube replacement often means removing insulation contact issues and upsizing every circuit; homes with aluminum wiring sometimes only need the connections remediated (aluminum pigtailing, roughly $300–$1,000 for common areas) rather than a full rewire. What the walls contain changes the scope a lot.

Panel and service. If the panel is full, obsolete (some old brands have documented breaker failures), or still at 60 or 100 amps, the rewire usually forces an upgrade. Adding 200-amp service, a new meter socket, and grounding typically adds $1,500–$4,000.

Code upgrades triggered by the work. Touching the electrical in many jurisdictions means bringing the affected circuits up to current code: more outlets per wall, dedicated circuits for bathrooms and laundry, GFCI/AFCI everywhere required. These add real devices and breakers, not just paperwork.

Geography and timing. Big-metro labor rates and busy seasons (everyone calls in spring) push prices up. Remote or small-town electricians can be cheaper, but you may have fewer bidders.

What quotes often leave out

• Drywall and paint repair. Many electricians patch holes roughly or not at all. If the quote says "patching included," ask whether that means tape-and-mud to a paint-ready finish or just filled holes. Painting is almost always extra.
• The panel upgrade. A rewire quote priced to "reuse your existing panel" can blow up when the electrician opens it and finds a corroded or overfilled box. Ask what happens — and what it costs — if the panel needs replacement mid-job.
• Service entrance and grounding. The weatherhead, meter socket, and ground rods belong to the service, not the house wiring. They age too, and inspectors often flag them during a rewire permit.
• Smoke and CO detectors. Current code requires interconnected detectors on every level and in every bedroom area. A full rewire is the natural time to add them, but many quotes don't.
• Asbestos and lead testing. Homes built before the 1980s may have asbestos in old wire insulation, joint compound, or insulation that gets disturbed when walls are opened; homes built before 1978 may have lead paint. Testing and abatement are separate specialized costs — and licensed pros are required for the electrical work itself.
• Permit and inspection fees. Some quotes include them, some list them as pass-through. Either way, verify the permit will actually be pulled — unpermitted electrical work can void insurance coverage for a fire and cause problems at resale.
• Temporary power interruptions. You can usually live in the house during a rewire, but expect sections to lose power for hours or days at a time. If you work from home or have medical equipment, plan around it.

Paste every quote into the quote analyzer and compare line by line — the differences are almost always in scope, not in honesty.

DIY vs hiring a pro

Wiring is not a DIY project. Almost every jurisdiction requires a licensed electrician for anything beyond swapping a fixture or outlet, and most won't let a homeowner pull the permit for a rewire at all. The stakes are also different from other trades: bad drywall is ugly, bad wiring is a fire.

What you can do to keep costs down: clear attics, basements, and closets so the crew can work fast; schedule the rewire alongside other wall-open work like insulation or a remodel; and get three bids, all itemized the same way, so you're comparing labor hours, device counts, and patching — not just totals.

Permits and timeline

A full rewire almost always needs an electrical permit, and the work is inspected — usually a rough-in inspection before walls are closed and a final inspection after devices are set. Permit fees vary by city but typically run $200–$500. Never let a contractor skip the permit to shave a few hundred dollars: unpermitted electrical is a resale and insurance liability that follows the house, not the contractor.

Timeline: a straightforward rewire of a 1,500 sq ft home takes 5–10 working days for a two-person crew; larger or plaster-walled homes can take 2–4 weeks. Drywall patching and paint add another few days on top, depending on who does it.

When you're holding a quote: the number that matters is the per-scope total — circuits rewired, devices replaced, panel work included, patching included, permit pulled. Run your numbers against your house size with a renovation budget first, then check the quote against it before you sign.