Service guide
Whole House Rewiring
Rewiring is the largest electrical project a house will ever have, and it is almost always driven by one of three things: knob-and-tube wiring an insurer will no longer cover, aluminium branch circuits from the late 1960s and early 1970s, or cloth-insulated conductors that have gone brittle enough to crumble when touched. Older housing stock often has all three, sometimes in the same building.
- $8,000 – $30,000+ typical
- Permit and inspection required
- One to three weeks depending on size, access, and occupancy
- Licensed, insured contractors only
KilowattBros is a free matching service. All electrical work is performed by independent, licensed contractors.
Whole House Rewiring in the Chicago suburbs: the short answer
- Typical cost
- $8,000 – $30,000+
- Whole House Rewiring in the Chicago suburbs typically costs $8,000 – $30,000+. The figure depends on your home's existing wiring and access.
- How long it takes
- One to three weeks depending on size, access, and occupancy
- One to three weeks depending on size, access, and occupancy. Permit review and inspection scheduling usually set the calendar timeline rather than the electrician's availability.
- Permit required
- Yes
- Whole House Rewiring requires a permit and inspection in every municipality we cover. Your electrician normally pulls it.
Figures are typical ranges for planning, not a quote. Only a licensed electrician who has seen the job can price it.
Do you actually need this?
Signs it is time for whole house rewiring
None of these on their own proves you need work done. Several together usually does. If you recognise two or more, it is worth having a licensed electrician look before it becomes an emergency call.
- Ceramic knob-and-tube insulators visible in the attic or basement
- Two-prong ungrounded outlets throughout the house
- Cloth-covered wiring that flakes or crumbles when moved
- Aluminium branch wiring — the house was built 1965 to 1974
- An insurer has declined coverage or demanded remediation
- Warm switch or outlet cover plates
- Repeated flickering across multiple unrelated circuits
- Extension cords doing permanent duty because there are no outlets
What a proper job includes
What to expect from a whole house rewiring
Use this as a checklist when you compare quotes. A quote that is noticeably cheaper than the others is usually missing something on this list — most often the permit, the inspection, or the grounding.
- Timeline
- One to three weeks depending on size, access, and occupancy
- Permit
- Required
- 01Full assessment and circuit-by-circuit mapping before quoting
- 02Staged permit with rough-in and final inspections
- 03New branch circuits in NM-B cable, properly grounded throughout
- 04Current-code outlet spacing, AFCI and GFCI protection, tamper-resistant devices
- 05Dedicated circuits for kitchen, laundry, bathroom, and HVAC loads
- 06Panel replacement and full circuit labelling
- 07Old conductors removed rather than abandoned in place where accessible
- 08Documented inspection sign-off for insurance and resale
Permits & code
What the rules actually require
A rewire is permitted and inspected in stages — rough-in before anything is closed up, then final. Homes in a designated historic district, which includes a substantial part of Elgin, may also need design review before exterior-visible work proceeds. Build that review time into the schedule rather than discovering it mid-project.
Knob-and-tube was designed to shed heat into open air. Burying it in blown-in attic insulation — which happened to a great many suburban Chicago houses during 1970s and 2000s efficiency retrofits — traps that heat against conductors with no ground path. That combination, not the age of the wiring alone, is what most concerns insurers.
Aluminium branch wiring from roughly 1965 to 1974 is not inherently unsafe, but aluminium expands and contracts more than copper and oxidises at terminations, so connections loosen over time. Full replacement is rarely necessary — CPSC-recognised repairs such as COPALUM crimps or AlumiConn connectors at every device are the accepted remediation and cost a fraction of a rewire.
Rewiring an occupied house is done in sections so the family keeps power. Expect access to walls, closets, and ceilings in rotation, and settle who is responsible for plaster and drywall repair in writing before work starts — this is the most common source of dispute on rewire projects.
Where we cover this
Whole House Rewiring in your area
Cost, permit authority and code requirements all vary locally. Pick your area for figures that actually apply to your address rather than a national average.
Whole House Rewiring in the Chicago Metro
Sixteen towns across the northwest suburbs and Fox Valley, each with its own permit authority, electric utility, and housing history.
Go deeper
Whole House Rewiring — costs and comparisons
The numbers, the trade-offs, and the decisions worth making before anyone quotes you.
FAQ
Whole House Rewiring — questions
How much does it cost to rewire a house near me?
In the Chicago suburbs, budget $8,000 to $16,000 for a 1,000 to 1,500 sq ft single-storey home and $15,000 to $28,000 for a larger two-storey. Access drives the number more than square footage — a house with a full basement and a walkable attic is far cheaper to rewire than a two-storey with finished plaster on both levels.
Do I have to rewire if I have knob-and-tube?
Not automatically. Knob-and-tube that is intact, not buried in insulation, and not extended with modern splices can still be serviceable. What usually forces the issue is insurance: several carriers writing in Illinois will not bind or renew a policy with active K&T. If your insurer is fine with it and an electrician has assessed it, a phased approach is legitimate.
Is aluminium wiring dangerous?
Aluminium branch wiring from the late 1960s and early 1970s needs attention but rarely needs full replacement. The failure point is the terminations, where expansion and oxidation loosen connections and generate heat. CPSC-recognised remediation — COPALUM crimps or AlumiConn connectors at every device — costs $2,500 to $8,000 rather than the price of a rewire and satisfies most insurers.
Can I stay in the house during a rewire?
Usually yes. Electricians work in sections and restore power to finished areas at the end of each day. It is dusty and disruptive, walls and closets get opened, and you will lose access to parts of the house in rotation, but most families stay put. A whole-house rewire on a tight timeline is the exception.
Will I need to repair drywall and plaster afterwards?
Yes, and you should establish in writing who is doing it. Some electrical contractors patch to a paint-ready finish, some leave neat openings for your own contractor, and some quote repair separately. In older plaster homes this can add $2,000 to $8,000 and it is the single most common source of surprise on a rewire.
How long does rewiring a house take?
One to three weeks of on-site work for a typical suburban home, plus inspection scheduling between the rough-in and final stages. Older homes with plaster walls, balloon framing, or historic district requirements sit at the longer end.
Does rewiring include a new electrical panel?
Almost always, and it should. New branch circuits landing in a 1960s fuse box or an obsolete panel wastes much of the benefit, and no inspector wants to see modern AFCI-required circuits terminating in equipment that cannot accept AFCI breakers. Check that the panel is in the quote rather than assumed.
Go deeper
Related work
Need whole house rewiring?
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KilowattBros is a free matching service. All electrical work is performed by independent, licensed contractors.