Hi,

Is it 1 or 2 story, open attic, crawl space or basement, insulated, etc, these are the kinds of things that need to be known to point you in the right direction.

There are many ways to skin a fish, also re-wire a house.

I've found that if you don't know what you're doing, it's wise to pay a professional to give you the advice how to do the job correctly.

I am a contractor and one married friend with children was going to have their duplex re-wired, upgraded from fuses to breakers. The unit next door was vacant and they wanted to re-wire the building quickly.

I came over on a Sunday and reviewed their contract with their electrician. It was a joke and my friends did little research. They were lazy and just thought to take the first bid. So this is what I did.

1) I asked my friends for $100 for my advice. Free advice with worth what you paid, nothing. They thought I was kidding. So they gave me two fifty dollar bills.

So I told them after only 30 minutes of inspection:

1. Their 1920's plaster walls contained "asbestos". So any work done had to be by certified asbestos contractors and no one could be living in the property during the work. They asked how I can tell that their wall had asbestos? I showed them my portable microscope with asbestos filters and turntable. I took samples and check and found low levels of asbestos everywhere -- walls, ceilings and even flooring (old composite kitchen tile).

2. Half of their existing wires were run with conduit which could be reused and a ground wire could be added with the new hot/neutral wires. The other wires were cloth covered wires that had to be disconnected and new flex conduit needed to be run.

3. Most of the new electrical boxes could be added 12 inches up from the floor and run through under the building crawl space.

4. Most of the new lines run could be done with little to no wall openings. Just small holes to go around studs, fire stops, etc.

Also their contractor did not own a proper rated HEPA vacuum that could be used with asbestos.

So after I explained the laws on down payments on a construction contract, the purchase of a "Payment and Performance Bond" with progress payments -- they learned a thing or two and then got 5 more estimates and got references.

The first bid by a joker was for $4200 and that didn't include the repair and painting of the walls opened. The best bid was for $3995 by a electrician with an asbestos license. He had the right machines and was going to patch and prime and make paint ready all of the damaged walls.

I had an 1100 sf 3/1 shiplap house where I needed a new panel, 220's and 110's rewired throughout. I tried getting a journeyman electrician-- but he explained that I needed a Master Electrician to do a new panel.

So I started checking out Master Electricians. One of them was trying to bring me up to the codes of the nearby large city-- "You need an outlet every three feet, and an outlet on every wall longer than two feet!"-- and I'm like, "That's a ridiculous number of outlets, and those aren't the rules for my area, anyways." He was talking about running everything past the inspector, and I'm like, "That's not necessary in this area, either!" and when he fell off the planet, that was okay. :)

Originally, I planned on using my central heat & air guy, who works under the supervision of a Master Electrician who no longer practices due to health, but politely reminded me he was an a/c guy, not an electrician, when I explained that I only needed him for electric, because DH had committed the cha to someone else, who ended up wanting to provide the unit and the labor, and not just the unit.

I eventually found someone who would be sensible about it.

They gave me a quote for $11+k to do the whole shebang. I was all O_O, especially because I was paying property taxes at the same time. So I asked how much to just do the panel and the 220's (oven, dryer, hwh, cha) and one 110. That ran me $3260.

I kept at my renovation. A few months later, I checked back with my journeyman electrician. He "wasn't doing that kind of work" anymore. I checked with another electrician. He was at the age where he picked and chose what he wanted to work on... and he checked it out, but didn't bother giving me a bid. So I went back to my Master Electricians. They went to check out the house's progress, and gave me a new bid of $4400, since I now had all my walls open. So there would be no fishing of wire, etc. I did have to build studs and stuff for them to attach the wiring to--- since it was a shiplap house. The $4400 was for 16 plugs, 9 switches, 3 GFI plugs, 13 lights installed, 3 smoke detectors installed, and labor, and would entail two visits-- one to do the initial rough work, and then the second visit after all the dirty, dusty work was over, things were painted, and the final lights could be installed.

With luck, I should be on their schedule for Thursday or Friday. Yay, progress!

I'm a licensed electrician and there's no need to rewire the house unless there's a need outside of "changing 2 wire outlets to 3 wire". I just finished a flip in March where the property was the same age as yours. I replaced the fuse box with a breaker box and installed GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) breakers anywhere they served a receptacle. ANY two prong receptacle can be replaced with a 3 prong as long as it's GFCI protected. That means you can have them simply replace each receptacle with a GFCI.

Here's the code reference:

NEC 406.3 permits GFCI receptacles to replace two prong ungrounded outlets:

(3) Non–Grounding-Type Receptacles. Where attachment to an equipment grounding conductor does not exist in the receptacle enclosure, the installation shall comply with (D)(3)(a), (D)(3)(b), or (D)(3)(c).

(a) A non–grounding-type receptacle(s) shall be permitted to be replaced with another non–grounding-type receptacle(s).

(b) A non–grounding-type receptacle(s) shall be permitted to be replaced with a ground-fault circuit interrupter type of receptacle(s).

These receptacles shall be marked "No Equipment Ground." An equipment grounding conductor shall not be

connected from the ground-fault circuit interrupter-type receptacle to any outlet supplied from the ground-fault circuit-interrupter receptacle.

(c) A non–grounding-type receptacle(s) shall be permitted to be replaced with a grounding-type receptacle(s) where supplied through a ground-fault circuit interrupter.

Grounding-type receptacles supplied through the ground fault circuit interrupter shall be marked "GFCI Protected" and "No Equipment Ground." An equipment grounding conductor shall not be connected between the grounding type receptacles.