Data checked · source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics
How much does it cost to rewire a house?
A whole-home rewire priced from the actual wire price per foot, the actual breaker prices, and BLS wage data for the electrician. The published totals vary wildly and we show you why.
Expect roughly $10,000 to $30,000 to rewire a whole house in the United States in 2026. The labour half of that is 20–90 hours at a billed rate of about $67–$97 an hour, which is what the US median electrician wage of $30.38 works out to once a shop covers burden, overhead and profit.
Two very different jobs called "rewiring"
| Scope | Published range | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Fished through attic and basement, walls left intact | $10,000–$20,000 | No drywall to repair. Only possible if the house gives you a path. |
| Walls opened, drywall replaced | $20,000–$30,000+ | Drywall and plaster repair runs $300–$1,500 per patch, or $4–$8 per sq ft. |
Source: HomeGuide, checked August 6, 2026.
Two sources disagree and we are not going to hide it. HomeGuide publishes $5–$17 per square foot; Angi publishes $2–$4 per square foot for the same job. On a 2,000 sq ft house that is $10,000–$34,000 versus $4,000–$8,000. Neither publishes enough methodology to reconcile them. We show both and let you weight them.
Specific products, with the price we saw
Not a recommendation and not an affiliate link. These are the listings we checked on August 6, 2026, so you can see whether the equipment line on your quote is close to retail.
Retail prices move. If one of these is wrong now, tell us and we will fix it with the date.
Parts list
What this job costs in 49 US metro areas
Materials cost roughly the same everywhere. Labour does not. The wage column is US government data; the labour column is that wage run through our published multiplier; the total applies it to the job above. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro comes out 107% higher than Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford on the same work.
| Metro area | Electrician wage | Labour on this job | Estimated total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | $50.53 | $6,071 | $16,633–$49,898 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $49.21 | $5,913 | $16,198–$48,594 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $48.93 | $5,879 | $16,106–$48,318 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $44.63 | $5,362 | $14,691–$44,072 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $43.77 | $5,259 | $14,408–$43,223 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | $39.42 | $4,736 | $12,976–$38,927 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $39.37 | $4,730 | $12,959–$38,878 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $38.42 | $4,616 | $12,646–$37,939 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $37.99 | $4,564 | $12,505–$37,515 |
| Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI | $37.41 | $4,495 | $12,314–$36,942 |
| Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | $37.34 | $4,486 | $12,291–$36,873 |
| St. Louis, MO-IL | $37.10 | $4,458 | $12,212–$36,636 |
| Kansas City, MO-KS | $36.95 | $4,440 | $12,163–$36,488 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $36.62 | $4,400 | $12,054–$36,162 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $36.50 | $4,385 | $12,014–$36,043 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | $35.98 | $4,323 | $11,843–$35,530 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | $35.86 | $4,309 | $11,804–$35,411 |
| Providence-Warwick, RI-MA | $35.57 | $4,274 | $11,708–$35,125 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $35.49 | $4,264 | $11,682–$35,046 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $35.00 | $4,205 | $11,521–$34,562 |
| Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV | $34.08 | $4,095 | $11,218–$33,654 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | $33.34 | $4,006 | $10,974–$32,923 |
| Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | $31.54 | $3,790 | $10,382–$31,145 |
| Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | $31.31 | $3,762 | $10,306–$30,918 |
| Columbus, OH | $31.11 | $3,738 | $10,240–$30,721 |
| Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | $30.53 | $3,668 | $10,049–$30,148 |
| Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN | $30.45 | $3,659 | $10,023–$30,069 |
| Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | $30.36 | $3,648 | $9,993–$29,980 |
| Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | $30.11 | $3,618 | $9,911–$29,733 |
| New Orleans-Metairie, LA | $30.04 | $3,609 | $9,888–$29,664 |
| Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN | $30.02 | $3,607 | $9,882–$29,645 |
| Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | $29.98 | $3,602 | $9,868–$29,605 |
| Richmond, VA | $29.50 | $3,544 | $9,710–$29,131 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | $29.43 | $3,536 | $9,687–$29,062 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | $29.33 | $3,524 | $9,654–$28,963 |
| Memphis, TN-MS-AR | $29.27 | $3,517 | $9,635–$28,904 |
| Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX | $29.03 | $3,488 | $9,556–$28,667 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $28.45 | $3,418 | $9,365–$28,094 |
| Albuquerque, NM | $28.43 | $3,416 | $9,358–$28,074 |
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | $28.41 | $3,413 | $9,352–$28,055 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $28.37 | $3,409 | $9,338–$28,015 |
| Charleston-North Charleston, SC | $28.37 | $3,409 | $9,338–$28,015 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | $28.20 | $3,388 | $9,282–$27,847 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | $28.19 | $3,387 | $9,279–$27,837 |
| Jacksonville, FL | $28.02 | $3,367 | $9,223–$27,670 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | $27.62 | $3,319 | $9,092–$27,275 |
| San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | $27.41 | $3,293 | $9,022–$27,067 |
| Raleigh-Cary, NC | $27.31 | $3,281 | $8,989–$26,968 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | $24.43 | $2,935 | $8,041–$24,124 |
Wages: BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 47-2111 — public domain. Metros where BLS suppressed the figure are left out rather than estimated. Totals are FieldPricing calculations from the parts and hours on this page — they are not quotes and no contractor has agreed to them.
What did you actually pay?
Everything above this line is arithmetic on public data. It is honest, and it is not the same thing as a real invoice. If you have had this work done, the number on your invoice is worth more to the next reader than anything we can calculate.
No reports on this job yet. This site went up in August 2026 and nobody has sent one in. We would rather show you an empty table than invent entries to look established.
When reports come in, they get published here with the amount, the city and the month — never a name, never an email.
No account, no login, no newsletter. A person reads every submission before it appears, so it will not show up instantly. If we cannot make sense of one, we leave it out rather than guess — and if you would rather just email it, that works too.
What actually moves the price
Fishing vs opening walls
The single biggest driver. Running new cable through an accessible attic and basement runs $10,000-$20,000. Opening walls and putting the drywall back runs $20,000-$30,000 or more.
Drywall and plaster repair
$300-$1,500 or more per patch, or $4-$8 per square foot. On a plaster-and-lath house this can approach the cost of the electrical work itself.
Panel upgrade
Usually bundled in, and adds $850-$2,500 installed.
AFCI/GFCI breakers
Modern code requires dual-function breakers on most circuits. At $79.44 each, twenty of them is about $1,590 in parts that a 1970s house never had.
Knob-and-tube
An old knob-and-tube house is why you are rewiring, and it is also what makes it slow: no ground path to reuse, brittle insulation, and often asbestos or vermiculite in the way.
What we could not verify
We publish this list because a cost page that never admits a gap is not telling you the truth.
- The total linear feet of NM-B cable a typical whole-home rewire consumes — we found no source we trust, so we do not calculate a materials total from footage.
- The gap between HomeGuide ($5-$17/sq ft) and Angi ($2-$4/sq ft) is not reconcilable from the published methodology of either. We show both rather than pick one.
How we got these numbers
- Wages — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 47-2111 (Electricians), pulled through the BLS public API. US federal data, public domain.
- Billed rate — wage × 1.3 labour burden × 1.70–2.45 overhead and profit, so 2.21×–3.19× the wage. Our assumption, published in full on the methodology page so you can disagree with it.
- Equipment and parts — retailer and supply-house listings, each linked above, checked 2026-08-06.
- Labour hours — HomeGuide — cost to rewire a house · Angi — how much does it cost to rewire a house.
- Permit fees — PermitCalculator electrical panel permit dataset v2026.Q1.
We do not use RSMeans or Craftsman cost data. Their licences forbid building a database from them, so every number here traces to a public source or a public listing you can open yourself.
This page is not a quote. It is arithmetic on public data. Get it in writing from a licensed contractor before you spend anything. If a number here is wrong, tell us — we log every correction with the date.