West Seattle Knob and Tube Rewire

This particular rewire stemmed from another Angies List Customer calling in to get his 1920's Knob and Tube wiring looked at. The home is located in West Seattle. The process for the home inspection begins with taking off all of the wall plates. Most Electrical contractors will only use a plug checker to determine the extent of the knob and tube, not Seatown Electric. Our process is very thorough and accurate, leaving all of our customers with a detailed report of how much of the home is knob and tube, and what condition it is in. We have a 24hr turnaround process for all of our estimates, so the bid process does not drag out.

After a few back and forth e-mails confirming scope of work and misc. additional items, the homeowner let us know that we where the middle bid. Our price for the rewire was not too high and not too low. We scheduled the work for 5 total working days.

The house was vacant during the rewire (this is not required) but does help. There are many different Wiring Methods, but after many rewires, we believe we have found the best most efficient way to do them. On day one, we focus on pulling out all of the old switches and outlets. We aren't concerned with keeping the old outlets since they aren't Tamper Resistant which is required in the 2014 NEC Code. Not every single outlet is required to be Tamper Resistant, but enough for Seatown Electric to make it a company policy that all outlets will be Tamper Resistant.


Once the outlets and switches are removed, the next step is to remove all of the old metal boxes. This home had lath and plaster, so we had to be very careful not to knock out pieces of the wall. Using a flat head screw driver we disassemble and pry out the old boxes. Then cut out the opening for the new Plastic Cut In Box. After all the new boxes are cut out, we vacuum up all of the lath and plaster pieces and shake off the drop clothes in the trash, to get ready for the next steps.

Getting all of the boxes out and removing the knob and tube will take up most of day one. On day two, home run wires are pulled. Home runs are the start of the new circuit. Basically, they come from
the electrical panel to the start of the circuit. Once they are all pulled in, we start fishing wires in to all of the new electrical box locations. NMB Wiring is used for all of the new electrical installed. The next few days we are fishing in the new circuits.

 Seattle Electrical Code only requires you to rewire the dwelling "as is" meaning you only need to rewire to the existing locations. Labor and Industries will sometimes make you rewire "up to NEC Code" meaning you have to add outlets and switches. This adds a minimum of 3-5 days. Since the home was in Seattle territory, we only added outlets that the homeowner requested.

On the last day of the rewire the circuits are all attached to the Electrical panel. This homeowner chose to purchase the best Electrical Panel we offer. It comes with a copper bussing, whole home surge protection, updated grounding and bonding, panel labeling, and limited lifetime warranty on all parts.

A thorough testing of all the circuits is done after power is restored to the home. Everything worked perfect the first time. Inspection was scheduled the next day, and passed off the first time. This whole home rewire went about as smooth as it could have. Another satisfied Angies List customer.