We did it. We updated our electrical. What had been years of anxiety and a vortex of unknown is done. And it was way less painful that my imagination said it was going to be. Our house is from around 1850 and we were scared, mainly because we had people telling us so many horror stories! We’ll take you through what we learned and hopefully it helps you on your journey. If you’re an old home owner, and have had your electrical updated, please share your experience in the comments.

First I’ll say, I’m no expert in electrical nor an electrician. I’m a first time home owner who bought an old home without fully understanding how electrical in old homes work. Let me paraphrase my understanding of how electrical came to be!

In the late 1800s electricity was being installed in luxury homes, but was powered by a generator. The light bulb had been invented, but the biggest challenge was how to deliver the power into the homes and buildings. I read a book called The Last Days of Night, and it describes the race to network electrical distribution. Once available, you can imagine how electricity changed society.

Knob and Tube

No, our house doesn’t currently have knob and tube, which was the first wiring style used in homes. Everytime we tell someone we have an old home, people ask us this. It drives me nuts. I think knob and tube got a bad wrap. It’s a well designed system and when used properly and undisturbed, it works well. Key word there: undisturbed. Every historic chat group and board mentions how each generation of homeowner has work done, changes made. So if your house has knob and tube, there’s a possibility it’s been modified and that’s where the trouble sets in. If a mouse chews a wire, the wires are just open in the wall, or if something is loose, moved, whatever, the wires are just loose. Here’s a video showing how knob and tube works and what it looks like. If you have an old home or are thinking of buying one, you’ll know what to look for after watching the video. Our home does have evidence of old knob and tube. We even have ceramic wire nuts in some of the rooms!

The best fix for knob and tube is to rewire the house. Meaning your electrician will have to knock holes in the walls to install new wire. It can be messy and costly to have repaired. Best to know before you move in, or begin major renovations so you can deal with it first. Some people would debate having to rewire the whole house but if you ever want to sell the house, it might not pass inspection, or with modern appliances being energy hogs, do you really have enough power in the house?

Our house was updated to BX sometime in the 40s – 50s, which is really great. Just the panels and some distribution was outdated. Here’s what we fixed:

We have four panels in our house: two in the basement, second floor and third floor. The second and third floor were glass fuses and those were what we really wanted updated. In NY state, some home owners insurance companies will not insure you if you have glass fuses. Not that was a huge deal for us, but good to know if you are considering purchasing an older home. Funny to me, when we had our house inspected, the inspector mentioned our newer fuse box in the basement had been recalled – and we should replace it eventually. That was a bigger deal than older panels. Another factor that was making us crazy anxious to upgrade the electrical was the fact we only had 100 amps coming into a 7,400 sq ft of usable space. Most residences have 200 amps. Here we are with this huge house and very little electrical coming in. We were always blowing the power left and right. Another factor was if we ever wanted to add safety measures like GFCIs to the bathroom or kitchens, we’d need to update those fuse boxes. Our bathrooms and kitchen are in sore needs of updates, and things like a simple plug was a total fantasy unless we addressed the whole system. We’d also like to update the third floor, which has very little electrical. And the electrical that is there looks like it was installed rather sloppy? Yes, I’m judging.

We started with the foundation work

We had all our panels updated and the downstairs bathroom rewired/updated, and the upstairs master bath rewired/updated. This is what we’re calling Phase 1! Whooot! Completed. It was not as traumatic as I thought. And: I can safely plug in a blow dryer. I know, the excitement. Calm down now Susan! We also upgraded to 300 amps, so as we make additions and changes throughout the years, we’ll have plenty of amps to work with.

Here’s my advice if you need to have electrical work on your old home done:

• Find a really good electrician. Like really good. Make sure they have experience working on old homes and are licensed.
• Make sure your electrician has experience working with plaster walls. When we interviewed electricians, one said they were going to cut horizontal channels in our plaster walls. Ummm, no. Uhhhh, the plaster walls will FALL DOWN if you cut horizontal. Moving on. I am AMAZED that we had not one hole in our walls from running new wire. That takes talent. NOT ONE HOLE.
• Beware of alarmists. These are the people who make it seem like end of days if your house wasn’t built in the last 3 years. I’m so over these people and have found they have no idea what they are talking about 98% of the time. If someone says something to you that sounds off, research it. Ask a professional. That said, I’ve talked to professionals that are alarmists too. Beware. There should be a practical solution for most problems.
• Ask your electrician how they will approach the project. This was super helpful during the interview process and helped us understand the work ethic and personality of the electrician, and helped the electrician ballpark how much time it would take to complete the job.
• Ask a lot of questions, even if they are dumb. It’s your house, your money and your responsibility. I have no shame. I will ask away, etc. Ask how destructive the process will be to the house. Keep in mind the electrician might not be able to give you a complete answer until they get in there, but ask for a ballpark. That allows you to understand if you need to hire a second person to come in and do the walls, or other repairs.
• Ask what the process and timeline is like. We had one day where a team of electricians installed all the new panels, and we were only out of power for a few hours. Then we had a second day when they did the ‘hot cut’ and rewired the power coming from the street (from 100 amps to 300 amps). We addressed the bathrooms at a later date.

Now we have the foundation to make continued improvements to our home – we upgraded to 300 amps. We can update as we go, making for smaller projects which is way friendlier to our pocket book. We’re also primed for a kitchen renovation, which will require completely rewiring that room. Yikes! This projects checks one big items off our renovation list.

If you’ve rewired an old home, please share your experience in the comments. Old homes are so unique, I find everyone has a different experience.