[luken8r]

What does it take to upgrade a house's wiring from fuses to cirucit breakers? Is it just a matter of changing the box or does the house need to be rewired?
Im looking to buy a house that was built in 1941 with fuses still in it. If we buy it, I would want to upgrade that to breakers, what would something like that run me?

 

[pixelninja]

I'm not an electrician, but my house has fuses and we looked into changing over to breakers.

If I remember correctly, the quotes we got ranged from $2500 to $4000. I live in Denver.

You would not need to rewire the entire house, but you would be required to hire a professional electrician to do it, since the city will need to cut the power to your house from outside and you'll need permits and all that crap.

 

[luken8r]

I'm not an electrician, but my house has fuses and we looked into changing over to breakers.

If I remember correctly, the quotes we got ranged from $2500 to $4000. I live in Denver.

You would not need to rewire the entire house, but you would be required to hire a professional electrician to do it, since the city will need to cut the power to your house from outside and you'll need permits and all that crap.

well if we do buy this joint, it will be for a rehab and resell. its in a really nice town with houses averaging 500k+ but this one is in need of some upgrading. we are going to check it out tonight to see what it looks like. i was thinking to get it, fix up the kitchen, repaint, landscape, etc and turn a nice profit. so with all that, the 2-3k isnt *too* bad. the wiriring is only 60 yrs old so its not *too* old. hell, the wiring in my parents house is over 100 years old and it hasnt burnt down yet!

 

[Mike B.]

the place to ask this is on the forums at handymanwire.com (try searching first) but figure as a minimum that it will be $1500. Chances are the fuse box was set up with 100 amp service and if you are changing to breakers you will want to go to 200 amp service.

 

[pixelninja]

well if we do buy this joint, it will be for a rehab and resell. its in a really nice town with houses averaging 500k+ but this one is in need of some upgrading. we are going to check it out tonight to see what it looks like. i was thinking to get it, fix up the kitchen, repaint, landscape, etc and turn a nice profit. so with all that, the 2-3k isnt *too* bad. the wiriring is only 60 yrs old so its not *too* old. hell, the wiring in my parents house is over 100 years old and it hasnt burnt down yet!

**DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT AN ELECTRICIAN**

From what I understand, if the casing on the wiring isn't cracked and exposing bare wires, then leave it alone and just replace as needed (i.e. if you remodel a room, go ahead and replace the wiring to that room). Unless its aluminum wiring. That sh*t needs to be removed asap.

Of course, if you ask a professional electrician, they'll tell you that every piece of wiring needs to be replaced as they hand you an estimate for $15,000

 

[lux]

I'm a licensed electrical contractor. As far as I know, one cannot find better protection for faults to ground or neutral than fuses. A study I read a number of years ago showed that fuses give better protection than home-grade circuit breakers. They blew much faster than the tested breakers tripped.

But you didn't ask that. Just a FYI. I know a modern breaker panel appears more tidy to most folks.

I've done panel changeouts down here in the Dirty South from $400 to $1800. There are way too many variables to give a firm price without actually seeing the old panel.

Don't know if that helped at all. Hope it did.

 

[lux]

**DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT AN ELECTRICIAN**

That's really all you needed to say. neaky:

I'd never quote a $15,000 rewire if someone asked for a panel changeout. I'm too friggen' busy.

'Course I know you were kidding.

 

[N8 v2.0]

What does it take to upgrade a house's wiring from fuses to cirucit breakers? Is it just a matter of changing the box or does the house need to be rewired?
Im looking to buy a house that was built in 1941 with fuses still in it. If we buy it, I would want to upgrade that to breakers, what would something like that run me?

Do you want to upgrade the elderly 60-100A service to handle a modern household demand of 150-200A?

Do you want to install arc-fault breakers to cover all the outlets in the bedrooms as per the National Electric Code?

Does the 1940's home has its neutrals all mixed together making the arc-fault breaker install more complicated?

 

[pixelninja]

That's really all you needed to say. neaky:

I'd never quote a $15,000 rewire if someone asked for a panel changeout. I'm too friggen' busy.

'Course I know you were kidding.

Yes I was kidding!

 

[lux]

What does it take to upgrade a house's wiring from fuses to cirucit breakers?

It all depends on the application. Typically the panel can be changed without any other modifications.

Is it just a matter of changing the box or does the house need to be rewired?

The entire house does not need to be rewired.

Im looking to buy a house that was built in 1941 with fuses still in it. If we buy it, I would want to upgrade that to breakers, what would something like that run me?

See my previous post and PM me if you have any specific questions.

 

[lux]

Yes I was kidding!

Yeah, I knew that.

There are some reasonably effective ways of dealing with ALU wire without replacement, but that sure was an unfortunate era in residential wiring!

With copper having almost doubled over this time last year, I wish ALU was practical.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

Meh...just stick a fork in a socket while standing in water holding onto a large gauge metal wire attached to a grounding post....that'll tell you if anything needs to be changed or re-done.

Pretty sure your next post would look something like this:

"Aksadfj asd;klfj ieurwip mnxcvznkdf zibiu."

That would be: "I can eat solid foods now."

 

[pnj]

we bought our house nearly 1.75 years ago. it was built in 1954. we needed to run new wires into the kitchen so we opted to simply swap out the old screw in fuse's for an updated box that would allow us the power we wanted/needed.

I called in an electrician and he quoted me $6,000.00. no sh1t, six grand. I had already priced the parts at Lowes hardware and they didn't even add up to $800.00 bucks. I laughed when he said he'd be using a flush mounted box and blah blah blah. I said, "I'm pretty sure they are ALL flush mounted boxes these days..." :nuts:

instead we had a friend of a friend who's an electrican do it for us. I called the city, got the permits, he did the work and I paid him instead. my father, who did the kitchen remodel, could have done the work but we were kind of pressed for time so we hired a guy. I think we ended up payinig just under $3,000.00 including parts, etc...

 

[spookydave]

You have good ol' nob and tube wiring. So does mine.
I changed mine out myself and bumped it up to a 200 amp main. It had a big 60 amp. That jump required a new drop from the pole. No charge for them to come out and do that. At least not for me anyways.

I spent around 200 bucks on just the panel and breakers. I had to buy a weather head and the riser too. I kept the original panel there as a junction box so I didn't have to re-wire right away. I am in the process of doing the re-wire as I remodel each room. When complete the original panel will go away.

 

[luken8r]

Do you want to upgrade the elderly 60-100A service to handle a modern household demand of 150-200A?

Do you want to install arc-fault breakers to cover all the outlets in the bedrooms as per the National Electric Code?

Does the 1940's home has its neutrals all mixed together making the arc-fault breaker install more complicated?

Im going to check it out tonight and im going to get the dish on the specifics then. All I know is its a fuse box setup rather than a circuit breaker, dont know the amperage, wire type, # of circuits or anything. we will see if this joint is going to be too much of a hastle or not