Introduction
Rewiring a home can seem like a daunting task, but with the right preparation and safety precautions, it's entirely possible for a homeowner to rewire their house themselves and save a significant amount on electrician fees. I've successfully rewired my entire home without hiring a professional, and I'm going to walk through the whole process step-by-step so you can do the same.
Reasons to Rewire Your Home
Here are the main reasons you may want to consider rewiring your house:
Upgrading Outdated Wiring
If your home still has knob and tube wiring, which was common in houses built before the 1950s, rewiring is absolutely essential for safety. This old wiring is ineffective, insufficient for most modern appliances, and prone to overheating and fire hazards. Replacing knob and tube wiring usually provides a full return on investment in added home value.
Expanding Circuits
Older homes often have very few circuits covering the whole house, which can easily overload and trip breakers when multiple devices run at once. Adding more circuits during a rewire allows you to run more appliances simultaneously.
Improving Safety
A rewiring ensures all connections are secure, wires are properly insulated, and grounding is sufficient throughout the home. This drastically reduces the risk of shocks, electrocution, fires, and other electrical dangers.
Increasing Efficiency
New wiring with larger gauge copper wires will provide electricity more efficiently with less voltage drop compared to outdated wiring. This can lower energy bills and make appliances perform better.
Necessary Background Knowledge
Before getting started, I made sure to thoroughly educate myself on home electrical systems. Here are the key topics you need to understand:
- How circuits, breakers, wiring, and grounding work
- Electrical safety procedures and gear
- National and local electrical codes
- Types of wires, wire gauges, outlets, junction boxes etc.
- How to read wiring diagrams
- Basic home construction for installing wires
Spend time reading guides, watching tutorials, and studying wiring diagrams until you're fully comfortable with these concepts. Electrical work without the proper know-how can result in injuries or fires.
Step 1: Create a Wiring Plan
The first crucial step is creating a detailed wiring plan that maps out:
- All new circuit routes from the electrical panel throughout the house
- Locations of outlets, switches, and fixtures on each circuit
- Wire types and sizes for each component
- Breaker size for each new circuit
- Any special circuits needed (appliances, HVAC, etc)
Careful planning at this stage prevents costly mistakes down the road. Draw rough sketches of the floor plan first to conceptualize circuit layouts before drafting an accurate diagram with measurements.
Ideally each room should have at least one 20A small appliance circuit with 12 AWG wire in addition to a 15A general purpose circuit. Critical high-draw appliances also need dedicated circuits. Leave extra space in your breaker box for expansion later.
Step 2: Purchase all Electrical Supplies
Once your wiring plan is complete, compile a master list of every supply you'll need and purchase it all before starting. This includes:
- Romex NM-B wire in various sizes
- Breakers of appropriate amperage
- GFCI outlets, switches, junction boxes
- Conduit and ENT tubing as required
- Miscellaneous staples, connectors, terminals, tape, tools
Buying everything upfront ensures no progress delays from missing items. Also have all necessary safety gear like insulated gloves, goggles, a mask, and a voltage tester.
Step 3: Turn Off Power and Remove Old Wiring
With all your supplies and a plan ready, it's time to get hands on. First, locate your main breaker box and shut off all the power.
Next, go room by room removing existing receptacles, switches, light fixtures, and wire. Be systematic - take notes and photos to remember how everything was originally wired.
Removing old wires is the dirtiest and most tedious stage, but going slow and methodical makes the actual rewiring much smoother. Dispose of the old wires responsibly.
Step 4: Install New Wiring and Components
Now the fun part begins - running the new wire through your home. Follow your wiring plan, starting with the largest gauge wire first. I recommend working one circuit at a time to avoid confusion.
Make sure to:
- Use the right NM-B wire gauge for each circuit
- Anchor wires securely every 4-6 feet using staples
- Fish wires through walls/ceilings using best practices
- Label wires clearly at termination points
- Size junction boxes correctly for number of wires
- Install accessible junction boxes throughout
- Check wires are snug and insulation intact at outlets, switches etc.
- Connect outlets/switches properly to hot and neutral wires
Take it slow and double check everything - neat and precise wiring is vital for safety. It takes full focus and attention to detail.
Step 5: Connect Wires to the Breaker Panel
With all the new wires run from boxes throughout your home, it's time to connect them to dedicated breakers in your main panel.
Follow code requirements like:
- Match breaker amp rating to wire gauge
- Connect grounds first, then neutrals, then hot wires
- Include AFCI/GFCI breakers where required
- Keep wires spaced safely in the panel
- Label all your new breakers clearly!
Ensure all connections are tight and insulated properly. Now your new circuits are ready to be powered up.
Step 6: Test Circuits and Make it Operational
The moment of truth - turn the main power back on and test each circuit one by one:
- Check correct outlets/lights are powered on the intended circuit
- Test outlets are wired correctly with a polarity tester
- Verify ground connections using a multimeter
- Ensure new circuits don't overload when multiple devices run
- Fix any loose connections and troubleshoot issues
With all circuits fully functional, you can finally install switches, outlets covers, fixtures and appliances! Enjoy your rewired home.
Final Thoughts
Rewiring a house yourself requires know-how, diligence and patience, but it can save homeowners thousands in electrician fees. The sense of accomplishment making your home safer and more modern is well worth the effort. Just be sure to always put safety first and get inspected when complete.