What is involved in rewiring a house?

Answer 1

If you want to rewire your whole house, be ready for some work. You cannot do the main panel and service yourself, but you can do all the branch circuits from the main (possibly. Check your local code.) Follow these easy steps:

• Get an estimate from an electrician. He will tell you what needs to be done and how much he will charge to do it.
• Ask him how much to just upgrade the main panel and service, leaving the branch circuits alone. You'll need this number if you decide to do it yourself. This is also a good time to talk to him about if it is legal for you to handle your branch circuits.
• Go to your home improvement store and buy a book. This is a big job. A big job. Read up on how to do it. If you do do it yourself, you will need this book when you have no power and can't ask us questions over your computer.
• Think. Are you qualified and comfortable to do this? What all do you have to do? How long will it take? How long will I be without power? Go to the home center and price out parts, get an idea of how much you will have to spend. Are you saving a significant amount by doing it yourself? Remember, electricity can be fatal, and it may be fatal to you! Do you trust yourself? If not, call the electrician back and have him do it.

Since you are still reading I'll assume you're going for it, well

• Buy that book if you haven't already. Trust me, you'll want it.
• Buy some source of alternative power. Generators are good, I usually go with a 400W power inverter for my vehicle to run drop/flood lights and small power tools when the main is off. Handy for road trips, too.
• Call the electrician back and schedule him to upgrade your service and main panel. This must be inspected and done by a licenced electrician, so you cannot do this yourself. (Nor should you. You don't want to make a mistake with 200A lines.)
• You may want to start on some branch circuits now, so the new wire is ready to go when the new panel is in. It is a good idea to do some before the power is shut off, especially if you are moving the main panel and cannot temporarily wire the old lines into the new box.

That's about the scope of this. As for wiring branch circuits, please use the right gauge wire. Check your book, which you are going to buy. Right?

Answer for USA, Canada and countries running a 60 Hz supply service.As the first person already said, you're going to want to buy BOOK(S) on the topic and read them. However, if you're like me, who doesn't like to read, then you won't even buy the books. Here's a little info that I hope will help. Most of the time, residential wiring is is 12/2......12 referring to the size and 2 to the number of conductors. They'll come in a yellow sheathing, you want to look for the one that reads "12/2 w/gnd. Get the ones that come in 250 ft. Now, the black wire is the "HOT", white is your "NEUTRAL", and the bare copper wire is your "GROUND". All outlets are now "POLARIZED", your plug will only fit one way. Your GROUND and NEUTRAL wires will ALWAYS wire to the same side of the outlet, and your HOT on the other. If this is not the case, then go by color of screws, gold=black/hot silver=white/neutral green=ALWAYS your ground/bare copper wire. If your adding completely new circuits in your home, just put the new one next to the existing. Cut out your boxes, fish the fish tape from attic down to the cut-out and pull the romex up, this is usually done to the "home run", the cable that will bring power from your panel to that specific room (make sure you leave slack in the attic to go to your indoor panel, loop the romex in the panel 1 time, this will give you plenty to work with). Next cut a strip of drywall across about 10" wide about 1' above ground all around your room. Then, use 3/4 spade bit, drill center of studs. Run your romex from "home run" to the rest. To make it easier on yourself, you can leave the switch for the end, from the last plug go up, hit the switch box and then your light. And that's it, you've installed one new circuit and you didn't even have mess with the old one. Go do that 100 more times to the other rooms. Once done, all the "homeruns" that you'll have in your attic, drop those down to the panel in your garage, or where ever you have it, always tie in your ground wires first, then your neutrals and finally your black wires to the breakers, you can leave the rest to a pro. That's it!!!

(P.S. maybe you SHOULD buy the book, that way you'll know how to wire a plug and switch 3&4 way.)

<><><>

As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed. Before you do any work yourself,

on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,

always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.