Building a Solid Electrical Foundation

A whole-house rewire with Smartchoice typically runs $8 to $15 per square foot — about $15,000 to $25,000 or more for a typical 1,500–2,000 sq ft home — including the permit and inspections. The biggest cost drivers are attic and crawlspace access, the number of circuits and outlets added to meet current code, whether the panel needs upgrading at the same time, and how much drywall has to be opened. Partial rewires — one floor, the kitchen, or replacing aluminum branch circuits — cost proportionally less.

In Orange County the usual suspects are 1960s–80s homes with aluminum branch wiring (installed roughly 1965–1973), two-prong ungrounded outlets, lights that flicker when an appliance starts, outlets or switch plates that are warm or discolored, breakers that trip regularly, and Federal Pacific or Zinsco panels. Pre-1950 homes in Fullerton, Orange and Santa Ana may still have knob-and-tube wiring, which most insurers now refuse to cover.

Mostly, yes. In single-story Orange County homes with attic access, we run new cable through the attic and down the walls, and crawlspaces handle the rest. We make small openings at outlet and switch locations and the occasional access cut where a wall is blocked by fire-stops; those get patched. Two-story homes and finished ceilings need more openings. We tell you exactly where before we start.

A typical 1,500–2,000 sq ft single-story home takes about three to five working days, plus the city’s rough and final inspections. We work circuit by circuit so you keep power in most of the house throughout, and we coordinate the panel changeover with Southern California Edison if the panel is being replaced at the same time. Larger or two-story homes run a week or more.

It protects value more than it adds it. Buyers’ inspectors flag aluminum wiring, ungrounded outlets and knob-and-tube every time, and lenders and insurers increasingly require them to be corrected before closing — several California carriers no longer write policies on homes with knob-and-tube or Federal Pacific panels. A permitted rewire with inspection records removes that negotiation from the sale, and in the meantime it removes the leading cause of residential electrical fires.

Yes — new construction, additions, ADUs and remodels. We handle the rough-in, the panel or sub-panel capacity it needs, and both inspections, and because we’re also the HVAC contractor we wire the mini-split or heat pump circuits at the same time instead of having two trades in the walls. ADUs in Orange County almost always need a load calculation on the main panel first; we do that before anyone opens a wall.

Yes, in every Orange County city. A rewire gets two inspections: a rough inspection before the drywall is closed and a final after fixtures and devices are in. We pull the permit, schedule both inspections and meet the inspector. Unpermitted rewiring is a serious problem at resale and can void an insurance claim after a fire, so we don’t do it any other way.