FlyingTexan

I've been looking to purchase my first home in Houston, Tx. I'm nervous as any first time home buyer would be. I had the inspection report done and an item he mentioned was the wiring in the home is old. It is aluminum "tube" wiring on a 1930s, 2800sq ft, duplex.

I'm buying it primarily for the location but like the idea of being able to have a renter and someone there all the time, I'm a pilot and gone a lot.

Can anyone give me an idea of what to expect cost wise to have this replaced with modern wiring? The property has all kinds of initial issues, pier and beam foundation needs work, electrical wiring, and roof could have a leak but like I said the value is in the land. I'm not sure how much the current seller is willing to budge on the repair costs so I'm thinking of pushing him to have the foundation repaired then I'd tackle the cost of the electrical rewiring. I use to do roofing in the past so I'm not too worried about I can do all of that on my own with the help of a few laborers.

Thanks for any help!

EDIT** It should be known there are two breaker boxes on the outside. One for each unit.

speedy petey

My question is why do you expect him to budge at all over these issues??
If they are that obvious I would assume that was taken into account with the price.
Is the price high? Average? Low?

All we know is this is 2800 sq/ft duplex in Tx. With just that it is nearly impossible to even guess. Maybe $6-7000. Maybe $12-15K. maybe more.
You have to remember, you have two smaller homes in one.

JoeD

Only someone on site could give you that info.
I question the statement 'aluminum tube wiring'. As far as I know they did not use aluminum wire in the 1930s. It could be knob and tube wiring.

drewdin

I purchased a home from 1927, it had real old BX cable, I opened most of the walls and had the electrician replace it if he could see it. So i replaced about 95% of the wires in my house and it cost me around $10k. The house is about 2000sqft

I guess that is a rough estimate for you

Wuzzat?

Based on a net search and the numbers given above, half come in at $8 to $15 per sq. ft., with a low of $2 and a high of $17, average = 11, median = 10, 14 samples.

speedy petey

Based on a net search of what?

Wuzzat?

My search terms



My samples

rewiring a house
sq ft kilobucks $/sq ft
1800 4 2
2000 10 5
1000 6.5 7
1000 7.5 8
1000 7.6 8
1800 15 8
1000 10 10
1000 10.3 10
1000 12 12
1000 13 13
1000 16 16
1000 16.6 17
1000 16.6 17
1000 16.6 17

11 =avg.
10 =median
17 =mode
8 =1st quartile
10 =2nd quartile
15 =3rd quartile
14 =number of samples

If you have questions I recommend the Talkstats forum.

speedy petey

Holy sh*t. I WISH I could get $10-12 sq/ft to re-wire a basic smaller home. Those numbers are insane.

Wuzzat?

My bad. Fixed your 6 & 7 and 12 & 15 numbers to show 2800.

sq ft kilobucks $/sq ft
2800 6 2
1800 4 2
2800 7 3
2800 12 4
2000 10 5
2800 15 5
1000 7.5 8
1000 7.6 8
1800 15 8
1000 10 10
1000 10.3 10
1000 12 12
1000 16 16
1000 16.6 17
1000 16.6 17
1000 16.6 17

9 =avg.
8 =median
17 =mode
5 =1st quartile
8 =2nd quartile
13 =3rd quartile
16 =number of samples


Based on corrected values, half come in at $5 to $13 per sq. ft., with a low of $2 and a high of $17, average = 9, median = 8, 16 samples.

Your bids come in in the lower 1/4th. The OP should hire you!

FlyingTexan

The report says the following;

Service Entrance & Panels cont

SERVICE WIRING: Observed service type of wiring is aluminum

FEEDER WIRING: Observed feeder type of wiring is copper

Was I mistaken in thinking the service wiring was wiring that ran throughout the house?