A full home rewire replaces every electrical wire in your house — from the panel to every outlet, switch, and light fixture. It’s a big project, but for homes in River Heights and Wolseley still running on original 1920s or 1930s wiring, or homes in St. James with aluminum branch circuits from the 1960s, a rewire is the only way to bring the entire electrical system up to modern safety and capacity standards.
A rewire isn’t just about replacing old wire with new wire. It’s about rethinking the entire circuit layout — adding circuits where the home needs them, installing proper grounding, and pairing the new wiring with a modern panel that can handle current and future loads.
A rewire makes sense when the existing wiring is beyond repair or remediation. Knob-and-tube removal is the most common trigger — once the K&T is coming out, you’re effectively rewiring the house anyway. Aluminum wiring in some cases warrants a full rewire rather than device-by-device remediation, especially if the home is being renovated at the same time.
Major renovations — gutting a house, adding a storey, or converting a basement — are also natural rewire opportunities. When the walls are already open, rewiring costs a fraction of what it would with finished walls. We recommend it to clients whenever a renovation exposes enough of the framing to make it practical.
We start by mapping every existing circuit and identifying what stays and what goes. Then we design the new circuit layout based on the home’s actual needs — kitchen circuits, bathroom circuits, bedroom circuits, laundry, home office, HVAC, and any dedicated loads like EV chargers or workshops.
New NMD90 cable goes in, grounding is run throughout, and every circuit lands on a new breaker in a properly sized panel. Arc-fault circuit interrupters (AFCIs) are installed on bedroom circuits as required by current code. We pull the City of Winnipeg permit and schedule the inspection once everything is connected and tested.
Rewiring a home requires planning the entire system from scratch — not just pulling new wire through old routes. Elton has rewired homes across every era of Winnipeg housing stock and understands the structural quirks of each.
A typical Winnipeg bungalow or 1.5-storey home takes 4 to 7 days for a full rewire, depending on size, accessibility, and whether the walls are open. Two-storey homes or homes with finished basements may take longer. We’ll give you a firm timeline after the initial assessment.
Not necessarily, but it depends on the scope. Some rooms will be without power for portions of the project. We work room by room to keep disruption manageable, and we can prioritize circuits for essentials like the kitchen and bathroom so you can stay in the home if you prefer.
Yes. We route cable through attics, basements, and strategic wall openings — we don’t strip the house to the studs unless it’s already being renovated. Some wall patching will be needed, but we keep it to a minimum by planning our routes carefully.
Usually, yes. A full rewire paired with the original panel defeats the purpose — the old panel can’t accommodate modern breakers, AFCI protection, or the additional circuits a rewire typically adds. We include a panel upgrade in the scope unless the existing panel is already modern and adequately sized.
If your home’s wiring is past its useful life, get in touch for an assessment. We’ll tell you exactly what’s involved and what it costs.
Monday – Sunday: 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM