Start with the year
What's likely inside your walls
Most wiring is hidden, so the era a home was wired is the best first clue about what's in there — and about how it's most likely to fail.
- How it works
- Individual conductors run through ceramic knobs and tubes, with no ground conductor, relying on air space around the wires for cooling.
- How it fails
- That cooling design fails badly once insulation is blown into the walls, and it's easily damaged by later renovations. Many insurers will not cover homes that still have it.
- How it works
- Two-conductor cable with no ground wire — still found in many mid-century homes, and the reason so many houses have only two-prong outlets.
- How it fails
- Functional until there's a fault, at which point there's nowhere safe for the current to go. Replacing the receptacles alone doesn't fix it — grounding has to come from the wiring itself.
- How it works
- Used widely for a period in this era for branch circuit wiring.
- How it fails
- The conductors themselves aren't really the issue — the terminations are. Aluminum expands, contracts, and oxidizes at connection points, creating loose, high-resistance connections that heat up over time.
- How it works
- Older insulation materials wrapped around the conductors.
- How it fails
- The insulation becomes brittle with age and crumbles away from the conductor — most often at the panel and at junction boxes, where the wire has been bent and handled.
- The situation
- A 60-amp service was adequate when it was installed. It isn't now.
- What it means
- Many rewires are paired with a service and panel upgrade for exactly this reason — new branch circuits are of limited use if the supply feeding them can't keep up.
Dates are approximate and homes are rarely tidy. Additions, previous partial rewires, and decades of piecemeal work mean most older houses contain a mix. The assessment is what establishes what you actually have.
Scope
Full rewire, or partial?
Not every home needs every circuit replaced. After the assessment, we'll tell you honestly which situation you're in.
Warning signs
Signs you need house rewiring
Frequent breaker trips
An occasional trip from a genuinely overloaded circuit is normal — that's the breaker doing its job. Repeated trips on the same circuit, or across several circuits, usually mean the wiring behind them is undersized for how the space is actually being used.
Flickering or dimming throughout the house
When lights dim every time the furnace or air conditioner kicks on, or flicker in rooms unrelated to the appliance being used, the problem is typically upstream — a loose service connection, an overloaded panel, or feeder wiring that can't support the load.
Discolored outlets or switch plates
Brown or yellowed scorching around an outlet is a warning sign of overheating wiring behind the wall. Warmth you can feel through a cover plate is the same warning. Neither resolves on its own.
Burning smell with no clear source
A faint, acrid smell of hot plastic with no identifiable origin should be treated as urgent. If you can smell it, shut off the affected circuit at the panel and call us.
Two-prong, ungrounded outlets
If most of your outlets accept only two prongs, your circuits have no equipment ground. That leaves modern electronics unprotected and means no safe path for fault current.
Reliance on extension cords
Extension cords running permanently along baseboards are a symptom, not a solution. They usually mean the home has too few outlets on too few circuits — a wiring problem rather than a furniture problem.
Buzzing, sparking, or shocks
Audible buzzing from a switch or outlet, visible sparking when plugging something in, or a mild shock from an appliance all indicate a fault needing professional attention now.
Scope of work
What a house rewire includes
- New branch circuit wiring throughout the areas being rewired
- Proper grounding on every circuit and grounded receptacles throughout
- New outlets, switches, and junction boxes
- Dedicated circuits for major appliances, HVAC equipment, and other high-draw loads
- GFCI protection in kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, garages, and exterior locations
- AFCI protection where current code requires it
- Additional outlets to reduce reliance on extension cords
- Panel replacement or service upgrade when the existing equipment can't support the new system
- Permitting, inspection coordination, and final testing
Why Kittanning, PA trusts us
What you get when you call Apex Electric Pros
Experience with older homes
Plaster-and-lath walls that don't behave like drywall, balloon framing without fire blocking, additions wired by three different people across four decades, junction boxes buried behind finished surfaces. We've worked in these homes long enough to plan around those realities instead of discovering them halfway through.
Code-compliant, permitted work
Permits and inspections confirm that what's now sealed inside your walls was done correctly — and that documentation matters later, when you sell, refinance, or file an insurance claim. We handle permitting and coordinate with the inspector.
Licensed, insured electricians
Rewiring touches every circuit in your home, and the quality of the workmanship is largely invisible once the walls close up. That's exactly why the credentials of the people doing it matter.
Minimally disruptive process
Where possible we fish new cable through existing wall cavities, use existing openings, and cut access holes in the least conspicuous locations. We sequence the work so you keep power to key areas for as much of the project as we can manage.
Clear scope and pricing first
You'll know what's being replaced, what's staying, what the finished system will include, and what it costs before any work begins. Surprises on a rewire usually come from a vague scope, so we define it up front.
Clean job sites
Rewiring generates dust and debris. We contain it, protect flooring and furniture, and clean up at the end of each working day rather than letting it accumulate.
How it works
Our house rewiring process
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Full electrical assessment
Opening the panel, checking accessible wiring in the attic, basement, and crawlspaces, testing outlets for grounding and polarity, and looking for evidence of previous partial rewiring. We'll also talk through how you actually use the house — a home office, a workshop, a future EV charger, a planned kitchen renovation — because that shapes the design.
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Rewiring plan & pricing
You'll see which circuits are being replaced, where new outlets and circuits are going, whether the panel needs upgrading, and how long the project should take. Questions are welcome at this stage — it's much easier to adjust the plan now than mid-project.
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Permitting and scheduling
We pull the required permits and schedule the work around your availability, including any temporary power interruptions so you can plan for them.
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Rewiring
New cable is run, devices and boxes installed, circuits landed in the panel and labeled clearly, and everything left ready for inspection.
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Final inspection & testing
Verifying grounding, checking polarity at every device, testing GFCI and AFCI protection, and confirming loads are balanced across the panel. The municipal inspection is scheduled and completed as part of the job.
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Walkthrough and handover
What changed, how the panel is now laid out, where the new circuits are, and how to use the protective devices. You'll have your permit documentation for your records.
Living through it
What to expect while the work is underway
Rewiring is invasive by nature — the wiring is inside your walls, so we have to get inside your walls. Expect access holes cut at strategic points, some dust despite containment, and power shut off to portions of the house during working hours.
We work room by room or floor by floor so the whole house is rarely without power at once. Access holes are patched to a ready-for-paint condition unless you've arranged otherwise; final finish work and painting are typically handled separately, and we'll be clear about where our scope ends before we start.
Most projects run several days to a couple of weeks depending on the size of the home, its construction, and how much of the wiring is being replaced. You'll get a realistic timeline up front, and we'll tell you promptly if anything found inside the walls changes it.
Pricing
What affects the cost of rewiring
- Square footage and number of circuits — more area means more cable, more devices, more labor.
- Number of storeys — running cable vertically through a finished two- or three-storey home is more involved than a single-storey with accessible attic and basement space.
- Wall and ceiling construction — plaster and lath, brick, or fully finished basements make fishing cable slower than open framing or drywall.
- Whether the panel or service needs upgrading — often necessary alongside a rewire, and a meaningful part of the total.
- Full versus partial rewire — scope is the single biggest variable.
- Added circuits and outlets — EV charging, hot tubs, workshops, and added kitchen circuits all extend the work.
- Access — an open renovation costs less to rewire than a fully finished, furnished, occupied home.
We provide a clear written estimate after the assessment, so you're comparing a real scope rather than a guess.
What you get out of it
Benefits of rewiring your Kittanning home
- Fire risk reduction. Deteriorated insulation, loose connections, and overloaded circuits are among the leading electrical causes of house fires. New wiring removes those failure points.
- A system that matches how you live. Enough capacity and enough outlets that you're not managing your household around which appliances can run simultaneously.
- Proper grounding and modern protection. Grounded circuits, GFCI protection in wet areas, and AFCI protection where required — safeguards that ungrounded legacy wiring simply cannot provide.
- Insurance eligibility. Some insurers restrict coverage, raise premiums, or decline policies on homes with knob-and-tube or aluminum branch wiring. Documented replacement often resolves this.
- Smoother home sales. Old wiring is a standard inspection finding and a common point of renegotiation. Permitted rewiring documentation takes it off the table.
- Room to grow. Capacity for an EV charger, heat pump, or future renovation without starting over.
Service area
Serving Kittanning, PA and surrounding areas
Apex Electric Pros provides house rewiring services to homes and businesses throughout Kittanning, PA and the surrounding area. We work on older character homes, mid-century houses, post-war bungalows, multi-unit properties, and newer builds that have outgrown their original electrical systems. If you're near Kittanning and aren't sure whether you're in our service area, call and ask — we'll tell you straight away.
Reviews
What our Kittanning, PA customers say
Do not publish invented or sample testimonials.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my home needs rewiring?
Frequent breaker trips, flickering lights throughout the house, discolored outlets, or old wiring types like knob-and-tube are common signs. A professional assessment is the only way to know for certain, since most wiring is hidden inside walls.
Do I need to rewire the whole house?
Not always. If parts of your home were updated in a previous renovation, a partial rewire targeting the original circuits may be all that's needed. We'll tell you which applies after the assessment.
How long does house rewiring take?
It depends on the size of the home, but most projects take several days to complete. Larger or fully finished homes can run one to two weeks.
Do I need to move out during rewiring?
Most rewiring projects can be completed while you remain in the home, though some areas may be temporarily inaccessible. Power is typically off in the active work zone during working hours.
Will you have to cut into my walls?
In a finished home, some access holes are unavoidable. We keep them as small and as few as possible and place them where they're least visible, then patch them to a ready-for-paint condition.
Does rewiring require a permit?
Yes. Rewiring is permitted, inspected work. We handle the permit and coordinate the inspection as part of the project.
How much does house rewiring typically cost?
Cost depends on the size of your home and scope of work needed — we provide a clear estimate after assessment. Home size, construction type, number of circuits, and whether the panel needs upgrading are the main factors.
Will rewiring affect my insurance?
Outdated wiring types can sometimes affect insurance coverage, and updating them can help meet insurer requirements. Keep your permit and inspection documentation — insurers generally want proof the work was done and inspected.
Should I rewire before or after renovating?
Before, whenever possible. Rewiring is significantly easier and less expensive while walls are open, and it avoids tearing into brand-new finishes later.
Do I need a new electrical panel too?
Often, yes. If your existing panel is undersized, obsolete, or out of breaker spaces, it can't support the new system. We'll confirm during the assessment rather than assume.
Is knob-and-tube wiring illegal?
Existing installations aren't automatically prohibited, but they can't be extended, they're incompatible with modern insulation, and many insurers will not cover homes that still have them. Replacement is strongly recommended.
Can aluminum wiring be repaired instead of replaced?
There are approved remediation methods for aluminum branch circuits in some cases. Whether that's appropriate for your home depends on its condition and your insurer's requirements — we'll give you an honest assessment of both options.
Bring your home's wiring up to standard
Outdated wiring is a risk that only grows with time. Every year, insulation gets more brittle, connections get looser, and the demands on the system get heavier. It's one of the few home problems that quietly gets worse whether or not you're using it.
Apex Electric Pros is ready to rewire your home in Kittanning, PA safely, to code, and with a clear plan and price before we start.