What Is Whole-House Rewiring?
Whole-house rewiring means replacing the old electrical wires in your home with new, modern wiring. An electrician runs new wires from your electrical panel to every outlet, switch, and light in the house. The old wires come out. The new wires go in. Your home ends up with an electrical system that is safe, up to code, and ready for modern life.
Most homes need this once. After a full rewire, the new wiring should last for decades.
Why Alexandria Homes Need It
Alexandria has some of the oldest homes in Northern Virginia. Old Town has houses from the 1700s and 1800s. Del Ray, Rosemont, and Beverley Hills are full of homes built in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Many of these houses still have their original wiring.
That original wiring was not built for today's world. It was made for a few light bulbs and a radio. Now the same wires feed air conditioners, computers, microwaves, phone chargers, and electric car chargers. Old wiring carrying modern loads is how electrical fires start.
Two old wiring types show up again and again in Alexandria homes:
- Knob-and-tube wiring — used from the 1880s through the 1940s. The wires have no ground, and the cloth covering crumbles with age.
- Aluminum wiring — common in homes built or remodeled in the late 1960s and 1970s. The connections loosen over time, which causes overheating.
Old Wiring Is a Safety Problem
This is not about convenience. It is about safety. The U.S. Fire Administration lists old and faulty wiring as one of the top causes of home electrical fires. Warning signs include breakers that trip often, outlets that feel warm, a burning smell near switches, and lights that flicker when an appliance runs.
If your home still has knob-and-tube or aluminum wiring, an inspection is worth your time — even if nothing seems wrong yet. Problems with old wiring often hide inside walls until something fails.
Our Plaster-Wall Promise
Here is the fear we hear most: "Will you destroy my plaster walls?" It is a fair question. Many Alexandria homes have original plaster, and no one wants it torn apart.
Our answer: we cut small, careful openings to run new wires — usually in closets, behind baseboards, and through attics and basements — and we patch every opening we make. We plan the wire paths to keep the cutting to a minimum. When we leave, your walls look like we were never there. Rewiring does not mean gutting your home.
Your Insurance May Require It
Many home insurance companies now ask about wiring type. Some will not write a new policy for a home with knob-and-tube wiring. Others charge more or require it to be replaced within a set time. If you are buying a historic Alexandria home, your lender's insurance requirement can turn old wiring into a closing problem. A rewire solves it.
What the Job Looks Like
A typical whole-house rewire takes several days to about two weeks, depending on the size of the home and how easy it is to reach the walls. We pull permits with the city, protect your floors and furniture, run the new wiring, install new outlets and switches where you want them, and arrange the final inspection. You get a written price before we start — not a guess, not a range that doubles later.
Get a Written Price Before We Start
If your Alexandria home is more than 40 years old and has never been rewired, it is worth a look. Call (301) 679-9193 or send the form. We will inspect your wiring, tell you honestly what we find, and give you a written price. If your wiring is fine, we will tell you that too.