You don’t have to remove the drywall or plaster to rewire your house. The job entails the same process as restringing the ties on a pair of sweatpants using a safety pin. Read on to learn what’s involved.
Where You Start
Creating a Wiring Map
First, even though the job is fairly easy without removing drywall, it’s still a job for a professional electrician and not a DIY. Your electrician will start by drawing a wiring map. Generally, if you have the original blueprints for the house, give them to the electrician. It will speed the process up greatly. Even if you don’t, your electrician will still need to make the map. Your electrician will follow the path of the wires from outlets and light fixtures back to where the wires lead to the junction box.
The chief reason that the drywall or plaster can stay in place is that the electrician will very likely leave the old wires where they are after disconnecting them. Most of the time, when you have your house rewired, you will also be having the junction box upgraded. That usually requires tougher wire than what was already in your house. After creating the map, your electrician will go over the planned route for the new wires and ask if you want to add any outlets or switches.
Can the Old Wires Really Stay in Place?
Yes, they really can. Your electrician will thread the new wires through the attic or the basement. If you don’t have a basement and have a crawlspace instead, then that might be the chosen route too. After disconnecting all of the old wires and cutting them, it’s usually possible to leave them behind because they’ll be harmless without current going through them. Removing them would also necessitate the removal of drywall and/or plaster and replacing it afterward, which is a needless expense. You should realize, however, that some wires might have to be removed for some reason. Your electrician will go over that with you.
What Comes Next?
Installing the New Wires
The home’s power must be shut off to do the work safely. Once that’s done, your electrician will start running the wires from the junction box up to the attic and/or through, or down to, the basement. The next step would be to drill holes in the floor or wall in out-of-the-way places, such as under furniture, through which the wires will come to connect to old and new outlets.
After that’s completed, it’s a good idea to have the electrician remove the old junction box and install one of at least 200 amps. The National Electrical Code requires a 100-amp junction box, but the demands of modern homes make a 200-amp box the chosen standard. Having too much capacity is better than having not enough, especially because the extra capacity costs nothing until you use it.
Final Testing and Cleanup
When everything’s connected, the electrician will test all the connections and wires to see if they work. If they do, then the electrician will turn the power on again. Then, all tests are repeated to see if the wires handle the load and that the appliances and other electrical items in the house work correctly. Part of the final steps is to replace any damaged outlets with new ones. Only after everything is in working order will the Mister Sparky electrician then clean up everything to return your home to the same condition it was in before the job began.