“They showed me the knob-and-tube in my attic before they quoted. The estimate listed each room and said plainly that paint was not in it.”
Ardian H.Two-family owner, Elmhurst
Old-house rewiring in Providence
Rewiring old houses
without losing the walls
Knob-and-tube, cloth cable and fuse boxes come out of Providence houses built before 1950. The plaster, the trim and the old switch plates stay.
Knob-and-tube, explained
Carmine on knob-and-tube: what it is, what it costs, what to ask
The owner stands at an open wall in a Providence house and shows what the old wiring looks like and why it is still there.
Knob-and-tube at an open wall
Carmine Palumbo, owner and master electrician
What we replace
Four kinds of old wiring we take out
Each one hides in a different place in the house, so each gets its own plan.
Knob-and-tube
Single wires held on porcelain knobs inside walls and ceilings, common in houses from before about 1940.
How we replace itCloth-covered cable
Fabric-wrapped cable from the decades after, now stiff and cracked where it bends.
Fuse boxes
Screw-in fuses and a small service for the whole house, replaced with a breaker panel sized to the rooms you use.
About fuse boxesPlaster and lath walls
Walls that don't take a saw. New cable goes in from the attic and basement, and the patches stay small.
About plaster walls
Our work
Work by the year the house was built
Houses from different decades hide different wiring. Pick an age to see what we found and what we did.
Showing 9 of 9
Sample photos.
How a rewire goes
From first call to patched wall
Six steps, in this order, on every house.
You call or send photos
Tell us the year the house was built and what you have seen. A photo of the fuse box or an open outlet helps.
The survey
A lead walks every floor, looks in the attic and basement, opens a few outlets and maps which wire is old and which is not.
A written estimate
Room by room, with what is included and what is left out. Plaster repair and paint are named.
Permit and utility
We pull the electrical permit and book the inspection. If the service changes, we set up the disconnect and reconnect with the utility.
The rewire
Floor by floor, so most houses stay lived in. We lay down floor protection, hang plastic and vacuum as we go.
Inspection and patch
The inspector looks at the work. Then we patch the holes we made. Painting is yours, or your painter's.
A family firm
Third generation, one house at a time
Palumbo Electric works on Providence houses and nothing else: no new construction, no commercial buildings.
Carmine Palumbo's family has wired houses in the city for three generations. Carmine still walks the first survey on most large jobs. Thirty electricians, apprentices and office staff do the rest, and every crew works from the same written estimate.
Carmine Palumbo
Owner and master electrician
Knob-and-tube questions
What people ask before the survey
The short answers. The knob-and-tube page has more.
Is knob-and-tube dangerous?
It was safe when it was installed, in open air with room around each wire. The trouble comes from age, from insulation packed around it, and from later changes. The survey says which runs are a risk and which are only old.
What does a rewire cost?
It depends on the walls, not the square footage, so a survey comes first. What decides the price is on the pricing page, and the estimate names everything it leaves out.
Will my insurer care?
Some insurers ask about wiring age before they write or renew a policy. Ask yours what it wants to see. We can describe the work, its date and the permit in writing.
Are there rebates?
Programs change and we don't promise one. Some utility programs want knob-and-tube dealt with before insulation goes in, so ask Rhode Island Energy what is open now.
Do we have to move out?
Most of the time no. We work floor by floor and shut the power off for stretches, which we plan with you.
Customers
What they say about the survey and the walls
“Our inspector flagged cloth cable. Palumbo gave us a room-by-room list we could hand to the sellers, with the work in the order they would do it.”
Zion M.Home buyer, Wayland Square
“I was afraid of plaster dust. They hung plastic and vacuumed every day, and the hallway ended up with a few small patches.”
Talin K.Homeowner, College Hill
Sample reviews.
Service area
Providence and the towns around it
Houses built before 1950, in the city and the towns that grew beside it.
Providence County
- Providence
- Cranston
- Pawtucket
- Central Falls
- East Providence
- North Providence
- Cumberland
- Smithfield
Kent County
- Warwick
Bristol County
- Barrington
- Warren
- Bristol
We don't take jobs in Newport County or south of Warwick, and we don't work on commercial buildings or new construction.
Book a survey
Tell us about the house
The year it was built and what you have seen are enough to start. We call you to set a time for the survey.
Phone(401) 555-0100
Hours
- Monday – FridayToday
- 7:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
- Saturday – SundayToday
- Closed