Rewiring isn't one job. It's four — and quoting the wrong one is how flippers blow the electrical budget. The rest of this guide is how to tell which scope your house actually needs.
The catch: you don't always get to pick. Old wiring, a fuse-era panel, or renovating enough rooms can force a partial job into a full one once the inspector walks through — the cost trap most online estimates skip. Plug your house through the electrical rewire cost calculator before calling an electrician.
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How pros budget a rewire — the four scope modes
The single most important thing to get right before pulling a quote is which scope category your property falls into. Cost ranges, code implications, and inspection requirements all change. A flipper quoting “rewire” without specifying scope is going to eat the difference when the inspector tells them which scope they actually need.
| Scope mode | What's touched | Typical band (1,500-2,500 sqft) | When to pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full rewire | All branch circuits + panel + service entrance + receptacles | $7,000-$18,000 | K&T or aluminum present; 60A panel; substantial reno of 3+ rooms |
| Partial rewire | Specific rooms or wing; rest of house left in place | $2,500-$6,500 | Single-room reno; addition; basement finish — and only when K&T / aluminum are NOT in scope |
| Panel-only swap | Panel + main breaker + AFCI/GFCI breakers; existing branch wiring kept | $1,200-$3,000 | Aging panel (Federal Pacific, Zinsco, fuse box) on otherwise modern wiring |
| Service-upgrade only | Utility-side amperage upgrade (100A → 200A) + matching panel; existing branch wiring kept | $1,500-$4,500 | Adding EV charger / electric heat / addition load that exceeds existing service capacity |
Cost bands above are SiteworkMath planning ranges, not contractor bids — pricing anchors come from Fixr 2026, Inch Calculator, Homewyse, and Nassau National Cable cost-guide data captured under verbatim quote in the persistent competitor intel; SiteworkMath combines those into the per-scope band you see here. Verify against a local electrician quote before signing a contract.
The inspector reality — what forces a partial into a full
Three things reliably force-promote a smaller scope into a full rewire when the inspector walks through. The trap is that the flipper has already quoted partial-scope dollars to the buyer, and eats the difference when reality lands. The calc and the engine handle this with explicit scope-promotion logic; this section is the editorial version.
- Knob-and-tube wiring (any era, mostly pre-1950). K&T is ungrounded, runs through unfilled wall cavities, and most jurisdictions in the Chicago metro will not pass a partial rewire that leaves K&T in the rest of the house. Insurance companies also flag K&T as a non-standard policy risk — replacing the visible portion and leaving K&T behind unopened walls routinely fails the rough-in inspection. Default rule: K&T present anywhere = full rewire scope, full stop.
- Aluminum branch wiring (1965-1973). Aluminum branch oxidizes at every connection — receptacles, switches, splice boxes — and the oxidation is the actual fire risk surface, not the wire itself. The CPSC accepts COPALUM crimping and AlumiConn permanent connectors as compliant repair paths, but those depend on having a CPSC-certified specialist available, and in most Chicago-metro jurisdictions the practical path is copper replacement. SiteworkMath defaults to copper-replacement scope on aluminum-branch homes; if you have a confirmed COPALUM/AlumiConn electrician lined up, override that in the calc.
- NEC 210.12 AFCI cascade on substantial renovation. This is the trap most flippers miss. NEC 210.12 says that substantial renovation of any bedroom, living room, dining room, or kitchen triggers AFCI breakers on every circuit serving that room — not just the circuits you're touching. On a pre-1980 partial rewire, the cascade fires hard because most of the existing circuits are non-AFCI. AFCI breakers run roughly $40-100 each in materials per Fixr 2026 cost-guide data, plus install labor. A 6-AFCI cascade on a partial-scope kitchen rewire is $400-800 the cost-guide aggregators don't model. Budget for it; surface it before the bid.
How a real Chicago-metro rewire actually went
The 2020 gut rehab on a bank-owned Chicago-metro single-family was a 1,650 sqft single-story pre-1940 home with a 60-amp fuse panel and what looked like NM cable in the basement ceiling. The walkthrough budget was a partial rewire — kitchen + the two bathrooms (one master ensuite, one hall bath) + a panel-and-service-entrance upgrade to 200 amp. $5K all-in was the line on the spreadsheet. Reasonable on paper.
The rough-in inspection caught K&T running through two bedroom walls and the attic feed behind the lath. Inspector force-promoted the scope to full rewire at the door. The $5K partial budget became $14K actual — full branch-circuit replacement, AFCI on every bedroom and living-room circuit per 210.12, additional fish-and-patch labor through finished plaster. Drywall + paint touch-up downstream added another $1.8K because we couldn't walk away from the patches we'd created. The deal still penciled because the ARV had margin, but barely. If we'd quoted full rewire from day one and the K&T turned out to be limited, we'd have looked generous; quoting partial and getting promoted by the inspector looks like we didn't do our homework.
The discipline I'd wire into any pre-1980 budget now: assume full rewire on any house older than 1950, assume partial-with-AFCI- cascade on 1950-1975 stock, and only quote panel-only-swap on homes where you've already pulled a wall switch plate and confirmed the wiring is post-1980 NM cable end-to-end. The cost of being wrong on the partial scope is much higher than the cost of being wrong on the full scope.
What drives the cost — line by line
The headline rewire number is the sum of six lines. Each line moves on different inputs, which is why the “$3-4 per square foot” cost-guide approximation runs aground on real properties. The calc engine sums these explicitly; here's the editorial walkthrough.
- Service entrance and meter base.$400-1,500 materials + labor on amperage upgrades. Driven by the utility coordination, weatherhead height, and whether the meter base needs to be moved or upgraded for the new amperage. Most utilities charge a separate disconnect/reconnect fee on top of the electrician's number.
- Panel + breakers. $300-2,500 materials per Fixr 2026 brand-pricing tables (Square D, Eaton, GE, Siemens, Leviton). 200A indoor panels typically $300-400 materials; outdoor panels run $500+. Breaker count depends on circuit count + AFCI/GFCI requirements per NEC 210.12 and 210.8. The brand-spec sheets are the primary source — Fixr is the cross-check.
- Branch circuit wiring. The biggest single line on full rewires. Driven by linear footage of new wire (THHN/THWN-2 inside conduit, NM cable through framing) + circuit count + access difficulty. Open framing or unfinished basement: easy. Lath-and-plaster pre-1950: every fish-through is a labor event. Field heuristic: $2-4 per square foot on open framing, $4-8 per square foot on lath-and-plaster.
- AFCI/GFCI cascade. $40-100 per AFCI breaker (Fixr 2026 materials). $5-100 per GFCI breaker (Fixr 2026 materials). On a full rewire, AFCI breakers cover bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, family rooms; GFCI covers bathrooms, kitchens, laundry, garages, outdoor receptacles. On a partial rewire with the 210.12 cascade applied, the AFCI count ramps up unexpectedly.
- Permits + inspection. $50-350 in clean jurisdictions per Inch Calculator, $50-1,000+ in strict jurisdictions per Nassau National Cable. Chicago-metro permit fee schedules typically land $250-500 for a residential rewire permit; strict jurisdictions with structural-reviewer requirements push that to $500-1,500 plus a longer inspection window. Inspection itself is $125-250 per visit per Fixr.
- Fixture allowance. Receptacles, switches, light fixtures, smoke + CO detectors. Often quoted as a flat allowance ($500-1,500 depending on fixture-spec choices). This is where scope creep lands — when the homeowner picks higher-spec fixtures mid-project, the allowance line is what blows.
Where this number breaks down
The traps that put the budget on the wrong side of reality:
- Wall repair lives outside the rewire line. When an electrician fishes through finished drywall, the resulting patch + paint work is its own scope and runs roughly $1.50-3 per square foot of affected wall area. On a fish-through-heavy rewire in finished plaster, the wall-repair line can be 30-50% of the electrical line itself. Cost-guide aggregators reliably exclude this.
- HVAC re-balancing on soffit removal. Removing a soffit to fish wires through a ceiling can disturb the HVAC balance — return-air paths get changed, supply-duct runs get shortened. If the rewire path crosses the HVAC system, budget for an HVAC rebalance or short-run retrofit on top.
- Two-prong outlets aren't a separate line. Two-prong outlets mean ungrounded wiring, which means GFCI cascade on any kitchen / bath / laundry / garage circuit per NEC 210.8. The cost is folded into AFCI/GFCI cascade above; it's not a separate “outlet replacement” line in any honest budget.
- The fixture-allowance line is where scope creeps. Owners who pick “modern” receptacles, USB-charging outlets, smart switches, dimmer-compatible LED fixtures will land $1,500-3,500 on the allowance line vs the $500-800 base assumption. Lock the fixture spec before the rough-in budget if this matters for the deal.
- Strict-jurisdiction permits double the calendar window. A rewire in a clean jurisdiction is 2-3 weeks of permit-and-inspection calendar time on top of the labor days. A rewire in a strict jurisdiction with a structural-reviewer requirement is 5-10 weeks. Calendar time is a real holding-cost line on a flip; budget the strict-permit-jurisdiction leak flag on properties in stricter Chicago-metro suburbs.
Frequently asked
How much does it cost to rewire a house in 2026?
A full residential rewire runs roughly $2,000-$20,000 with most flips landing in the $7,000-$15,000 band, depending on square footage, wiring era, and whether the panel + service entrance are touched in the same scope. Per-square-foot crosses-checks at $2-4 dominant in the cost-guide aggregator data (Fixr 2026, Inch Calculator, Nassau National Cable, Homewyse), with $6-10 showing up on lath-and-plaster pre-1960 homes where the labor to fish wires through finished walls eats half the budget. The number that actually moves the band is scope mode — full vs partial vs panel-only vs service-upgrade-only — not square footage.
What's the difference between a full rewire and a partial rewire?
A full rewire replaces all branch circuits, the panel, the service entrance, and brings receptacle + breaker spec to current code. Partial rewires touch specific rooms — typically a kitchen, a basement reno, or one wing of an addition — and leave the rest of the existing wiring in place. The cost gap is roughly 3-5× ($3,000-$6,000 partial vs $10,000-$18,000 full on a typical 1,800 sqft home), but the trap is that NEC 210.12 cascades AFCI breakers across every circuit serving any room you substantially renovate — so even a kitchen-only rewire can pull AFCI breakers onto bedroom + dining + living circuits you weren't planning to touch. Budget the cascade.
When does a house actually need rewiring?
Three triggers, roughly in order of inspection-grade urgency: knob-and-tube wiring (pre-1950 homes, ungrounded, deteriorating cloth insulation, generally not insurable on standard policies), aluminum branch wiring (1965-1973 single-family stock, oxidation at the connection points is the fire-risk surface), and 60-amp service panels with insufficient circuit count for modern loads. Two-prong outlets are a symptom, not a cause — they mean ungrounded wiring, which forces GFCI cascade on any kitchen / bath / laundry / garage circuit per NEC 210.8. Frequent breaker trips, scorch marks at receptacles, or burning-plastic smell at any point in the system are immediate-call territory regardless of age.
How long does it take to rewire a house?
Rough rule of thumb: 5-10 working days for a full rewire on a 1,500-2,500 sqft home with normal access (open framing or finished but accessible attic + basement). That stretches to 2-3 weeks when the home is finished lath-and-plaster (every wire is a fish-and-patch operation) or when the inspector requires multiple rough-in passes before drywall closes. Permit + inspection windows add 1-3 weeks on top in clean Chicago-metro jurisdictions; strict jurisdictions with structural-reviewer requirements push that to 5-10 weeks. The labor day count and the calendar day count are different numbers; budget the calendar one.
Can I rewire my house myself?
In most jurisdictions, owner-occupants can pull their own residential electrical permit for work on a primary residence. The permit is the easy part. Passing the rough-in inspection — wire gauge, box fill per NEC 314, working space per NEC 110.26, AFCI/GFCI cascade per 210.12/210.8, grounding per 250 — is where DIY rewires get rejected. Insurance companies also vary on whether they'll keep a homeowner's policy active on owner-installed electrical work; check your policy before pulling the permit. For investor-flips and rental properties, almost no jurisdiction allows owner-installed electrical work — licensed electrician required. The realistic owner-installed path is for a small partial rewire (one room, one circuit) on a primary residence with a pre-arranged inspector check-in.
100 amp vs 200 amp service — which one do I need?
200 amp is the default for new residential construction and for any home with electric heat, an EV charger, a hot tub, or a finished basement carrying its own circuits. 100 amp is fine for older homes running gas heat, gas range, gas water heater, no EV — typical pre-1990 single-family stock that hasn't picked up high-amperage loads. Upgrading from 100 to 200 amp typically runs $1,500-$3,000 (Fixr 2026 mid-band) for the panel + service entrance work, plus the utility coordination fee on the meter side. The specific question is whether your largest combined load — heat + cooking + water heat + EV — fits inside 100A with NEC's load-calc safety factor; if it doesn't, you're upgrading regardless of comfort.
What I'd do next
- Run your own scope-mode budget
Four scope modes + five property leak flags. Returns a feasibility band + Inspection Reality output that surfaces force-promotion before you bid.
- Wire the electrical line into a full gut-rehab budget
The gut-rehab calc treats electrical as one of fourteen lines; use this when the rewire is part of a larger scope decision.
- Add the calendar weeks for permit + inspection
The cost number is half the answer; the calendar window is the other half. Strict permits + reroofing-if-touched can stretch a project 3-6 weeks past the labor day count.
Also in this cluster
Once the rewire scope is locked, the next decision is whether the electrical line fits inside the larger rehab budget — and whether the timeline works with your construction loan. Run the gut-rehab and timeline calcs alongside this one for the full picture.
By James Wu. Per-scope cost bands are SiteworkMath planning ranges informed by published cost-guide data captured under verbatim quote in the site's persistent competitor intel — Fixr 2026, Inch Calculator 2026, Homewyse 2026, and Nassau National Cable 2024 — combined with manufacturer panel + breaker spec sheets (Square D, Eaton, GE, Siemens, Leviton). Code references are NEC / NFPA 70 §210.12 (AFCI cascade), §210.8 (GFCI), §230 (service entrance), §250 (grounding), §408 (panels), §314 (box fill), and §110.26 (working space). Real-flip operator note from a Chicago-metro 2020 gut rehab; cited by region only per the site's privacy convention. Engine logic in lib/sitework/projectcost/line-items.ts. Not contractor-bid pricing — the budget I'd use to decide walk, bid, or kill before calling licensed electricians. Full methodology.