Upgrading wiring in older Shaker Home (Lakewood, Westlake: house, water heater, contractors)

[LewLew]

Hi All,

Just bought a house in Shaker, and one of the things we are going to need to do is upgrade the house from 60amp to more. They say a minimum of 100amps, but I hear best to go to 200. The panel is in the garage, and the box is newer which I hear is good.

Can anyone give me some info on this, anyone know good local contractors, and what $$$$ might we be looking at to accomplish this.

Also, do you think we can live there a while before we start this overhaul, or is it a major fire hazard? Our inspector didn't say it was alarming.

Thanks for any input.

[AndyF667]

Hi Lew Lew.
We upgraded from 60A to 100A after we moved to our SH home. 200A is probably not necessary (and odds are you'll need to upgrade the wires from the pole (by CEI) and the housepipe if you go to 200A). 200A would only be necessary if you have electric oven, electric dryer, electric water heater and AC (all are 220V, everything else in the house is 110V). I would assume you only have 3 of the 4.
We used Moon Beam (Westlake) and he was top notch (found him on Angie's List). He also added outlets to the front and back exterior, plus buried the wire to the garage.
I would bet the panel in the house is by Federal Pacific and is considered faulty. Do it now.
Good luck!

[1watertiger]

i would bring the panel in the house for convienence and i went 200A only because i pulled to another subpanel off that for air/furnace and a new hot tub. besides we have a 2nd kitchen in the basement. andyf667 is correct, if its federal pacific replace asap. make sure you use a certified electrician not some "trunk slammer" !

[LewLew]

Originally Posted by AndyF667

Hi Lew Lew.
We upgraded from 60A to 100A after we moved to our SH home. 200A is probably not necessary (and odds are you'll need to upgrade the wires from the pole (by CEI) and the housepipe if you go to 200A). 200A would only be necessary if you have electric oven, electric dryer, electric water heater and AC (all are 220V, everything else in the house is 110V). I would assume you only have 3 of the 4.
We used Moon Beam (Westlake) and he was top notch (found him on Angie's List). He also added outlets to the front and back exterior, plus buried the wire to the garage.
I would bet the panel in the house is by Federal Pacific and is considered faulty. Do it now.
Good luck!

Thanks AndyF667! We do have Electric Oven, and can have either elec or gas dryer. Not sure about our water heater...would have to refer back to the inspection...but we are putting in central a/c in the future.
Was it very expensive? Did you have to rip down the walls, and rewire, or just change out at the outlets and box in basement?
Thanks again for the info!!!!

[LewLew]

Originally Posted by 1watertiger

i would bring the panel in the house for convienence and i went 200A only because i pulled to another subpanel off that for air/furnace and a new hot tub. besides we have a 2nd kitchen in the basement. andyf667 is correct, if its federal pacific replace asap. make sure you use a certified electrician not some "trunk slammer" !

Thanks 1watertiger: We have newer boxes, so not Federal Pacific. However not sure if we have knob wiring or regular. I'm just nervous we'll have to go down to studs, and rewire the whole house. I'm fine with the breakers, the box and the outlets/switches...but don't want to be ripping up the house.
Was is very expensive, or relatively affordable? My idea of very expensive is over 5K...since there are other things we are going to have to do in the house.

Thanks again!

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by LewLew

Can anyone give me some info on this, anyone know good local contractors, and what $$$$ might we be looking at to accomplish this.

Also, do you think we can live there a while before we start this overhaul, or is it a major fire hazard? Our inspector didn't say it was alarming.

A few years back , my wife hired an unlicensed electrician to do some wiring on our place in Lakewood. After two hours, I could tell the guy did not know what fe was doing (ii.e. - running wires under the carpeting) and fired him. His company filed suit against us. The building inspector cited the company for performing work without a license and forced the company to have a licensed contractor perform the work.

This is the advice I received from the building inspector. First, find out what electrical contractors pull a lot of permits in your town. They may not be the best but the cities are approving their work and are familiar with it. Second, ask for references. In communities with a lot of older homes, people will generally be more than helpful to give their opinions on who is good and who is bad. Also, they generally will tell you how expensive they are. Most of the people are VERY fair in their assessments. Third, use Angie's list. It is WELL WORTH the membership fee.

You can skimp on a whole lot of repairs. Plumbing, electrical and roofing are not areas that you want to go cheap.

[jam40jeff]

Originally Posted by LewLew

Was is very expensive, or relatively affordable? My idea of very expensive is over 5K...since there are other things we are going to have to do in the house.

You should be able to do everything you need to for a couple thousand. 5K would be a ripoff. If you do have knob and tube, keep it. The dangers of it are much overstated, in many ways it's safer because if something does happen, the wires cannot cross as they are 16 inches apart, instead of wrapped up in one Romex sheath.

[LewLew]

Originally Posted by jam40jeff

You should be able to do everything you need to for a couple thousand. 5K would be a ripoff. If you do have knob and tube, keep it. The dangers of it are much overstated, in many ways it's safer because if something does happen, the wires cannot cross as they are 16 inches apart, instead of wrapped up in one Romex sheath.

Fantastic; thanks for the info. Since neither of us are electrically savvy....we only had postings out there to go off of. Glad to hear knob and tube is not as bad as they say. We'll find out what we have soon enough. A couple grand is what we hoped for.

Thanks again!