How Much Does It Cost to Rewire a House in California?

Rewiring is the electrical job with the widest price range — because it's priced by home size, access, and how much has to open up. Two similar-looking houses can be thousands apart. Here's what actually sets the number in our area.

Typical ranges

• $8,000–$18,000 — a partial rewire or targeted knob-and-tube removal.
• $14,000–$25,000 — a whole-house rewire, roughly 1,000–1,500 sq ft.
• $22,000–$40,000+ — a whole-house rewire, roughly 2,000–3,000 sq ft.
• +$3,500–$8,000 — a panel upgrade, which nearly always goes with a rewire.

See the full breakdown and what drives it in the rewiring cost guide.

Why the range is so wide

Access is everything. Pulling new wire through open framing is fast; fishing it through finished, insulated two-story walls is slow, careful work. Add in whether there's knob-and-tube or aluminum branch wiring to remove, how many circuits and devices, and how much drywall has to be opened and patched — and you can see why a firm number only comes from seeing your actual conditions.

It almost always includes a panel upgrade

A home old enough to need rewiring usually has an undersized or obsolete panel too, so we coordinate the panel upgrade into the same project — one permit, one crew, one inspection. And because a rewire is a big job, we can phase it room-by-room or floor-by-floor, with the safety-critical circuits first; your Electrical Score and portal show you the plan and each phase. The assessment is free.