Partial rewire of a house or a few rooms

What counts as partial

There is no line between a repair and a rewire, but the work usually falls into one of these:

• One or two rooms, such as a kitchen and bath remodel
• A single floor of a two-story house
• A set of circuits with a known fault, like overheating outlets
• Part of the house with knob-and-tube or aluminum, while the rest is copper
• An addition where old and new wiring were spliced

If your problem is one dead outlet or a breaker that trips, that is a repair, not a rewire. See outlet not working and breaker keeps tripping.

Cost, as of October 2026

Published cost guides put a whole-house rewire at roughly $7,200 to $20,000 (Fixr and Bob Vila nationally), and the SoCal range on this site is $8,000 to $20,000. Partials are not. The estimate on this site is $3,000 to $8,000, and it is a planning figure only. A few things move it:

Factor	Effect
Number of circuits	Each needs a new run from the panel
Attic or crawl access	Open access cuts labor
Plaster, stucco or block walls	Slower, higher patching cost
Kitchen and bath	More circuits and GFCI devices
Panel capacity	A full panel may need work first

Drywall patching and paint are usually separate. See the whole-house cost page for the larger job.

How to choose which circuits

Ask the electrician to test and label. A good order of work looks like this:

1. Circuits with signs of heat. Hot plates, burn marks, buzzing, a burning smell. See hot or burning-smell outlets.
2. Aluminum or knob-and-tube runs. These have known problems. The aluminum wiring page and the knob-and-tube page cover each.
3. High-load rooms. Kitchens, laundry, bathrooms and garage.
4. Bedrooms and living areas. The remaining low-load circuits.

A “map and label” visit is a good first step. The electrician draws which circuits feed which rooms and marks what is old. You can then decide how much to do now.

What to ask about protection

New circuits come under the current code. That usually brings GFCI at kitchens, baths, garages and outdoors, and arc-fault protection in most living areas. This is one reason partial rewires still cost real money. Read GFCI and AFCI protection to see what the devices do.

Mixed wiring and inspections

A partial rewire leaves old and new side by side. The new work must be inspected, and the inspector may look at connected old wiring. The electrical code (394.12) does not allow concealed knob-and-tube where insulation envelops the wires, so an insulated attic can raise questions about old runs. Ask your building department how it handles this.

When to go whole-house

Choose a whole-house job if:

• The bad wiring is in most rooms
• A panel upgrade is planned anyway
• The walls will be open for a remodel
• Your insurer wants all of it gone

Splitting a job into stages is fine, as long as each stage is permitted and the electrician labels what is done. Keep the paperwork for a future sale.

Keep the records

Ask the electrician for a short written note listing the circuits that were replaced, the cable type and the permit number. Mark the panel directory to match. If you sell the house or file an insurance claim, that note shows what was done and what was left, which avoids repeat inspections.

A practical example

Say a 1960s house has aluminum in the bedrooms, copper in the kitchen from a remodel, and a garage circuit with no ground. A partial rewire could replace the bedroom runs with copper, add a grounded circuit for the garage and leave the kitchen alone. The electrician labels each part. The house then has one clear record of what was done, and the next buyer’s inspector sees a plan instead of a mystery.

Permits for small jobs

Even a small rewire usually needs a permit. Skipping it can cause trouble at resale or after a fire claim. The electrician applies, and the inspector checks the new circuits before walls close. Ask for the final inspection card when the job ends.