# Cost to Rewire a House in New Orleans 2026 | New Orleans Electrical Services

> Rewiring a New Orleans house costs $5-$14 per square foot in 2026. What drives the spread, and why access matters more than size. Call 24/7.

URL: https://neworleanselectricalservices.com/guide/rewiring-cost/

Rewiring a house in New Orleans costs $5 to $14 per square foot in 2026. That puts a 1,400 square foot shotgun at roughly $7,000 to $19,600 and a 2,000 square foot raised cottage at $10,000 to $28,000. Access, not square footage, drives where you land.

## Access is the price, not size

Two 1,500 square foot houses in this city can be $8,000 apart on the same
scope. The difference is almost never the square footage. It is whether the
electrician can get to the walls.

**The cheap case** is a raised cottage or shotgun with a walkable under-house
and a full-height attic. Runs drop from above or rise from below inside the
wall cavity, and the only openings are at device boxes that were being replaced
anyway. Plaster medallions, picture rails and original millwork generally
survive untouched.

**The expensive case** is slab-on-grade with a low-clearance attic, plaster
walls, and fire blocking in balloon-framed cavities. Every run has to be fished
or surface-routed, and every opening has to be cut and patched. This is why
postwar Metairie and Harvey rewires quote higher per square foot than a
comparable Uptown or Gretna frame house.

## What is actually in your walls

Most pre-war New Orleans houses have been wired three times and none of the old
work was removed.

**Knob-and-tube**, standard from roughly the 1880s to the 1940s, is the layer
insurers care about. The ceramic hardware is durable; the rubber-and-cloth
conductor insulation is not. It embrittles with age, faster in heat and
humidity, and fails at mechanical stress points where a wire passes a joist or
enters a box. It also has no equipment grounding conductor, which is why every
outlet on it is two-prong.

**Aluminum branch circuits**, common in construction from roughly 1965 to
1975, fail at the terminations rather than in the conductor. Aluminum expands
and contracts more than copper, so each thermal cycle works the screw
connection slightly looser until it goes resistive and heats.

**Cloth-insulated copper** from the 1940s to early 1960s sits in between. Often
serviceable, often not, and it needs looking at rather than assuming.

Full rewiring is not always the answer for aluminum. Approved remediation at
the terminations, using listed connectors, is frequently correct and far
cheaper.

## The line items that get left out of cheap quotes

- **A new panel**, at $1,200 to $2,400, or $2,000 to $4,500 if the service is
  being raised. A rewire feeding an obsolete panel is half a job.
- **Patching and paint.** Ask explicitly whether the quote makes good the
  openings or leaves you holes.
- **The permit**, $50 to $300, filed by the contractor.
- **Removal of the old system.** De-energizing knob-and-tube is not the same as
  removing it, and if your insurer wants it gone, "abandoned in place" may not
  satisfy them.
- **Dedicated circuits** for kitchen, laundry and fixed appliances, which a
  rewire is the natural moment to add.

## Partial rewiring: when it makes sense

Partial rewiring works when one identifiable system is the problem and it is
geographically contained, for example knob-and-tube confined to two original
bedrooms while the rest is sound 1980s copper. It works badly when the wiring
eras are interleaved throughout, because you end up paying twice to open the
same walls.

Get your insurer's position in writing first if insurance is the reason you are
doing this. Carriers differ substantially: some accept certification that all
knob-and-tube has been de-energized and removed from accessible areas, others
require complete removal including inaccessible cavities.

## Bottom line

$5 to $14 per square foot, with access rather than size deciding where in that
band you land, and a panel at $1,200 to $4,500 on top if the existing one
cannot carry the rewired load. Get the survey before the quote: any contractor
pricing a rewire off square footage without having been in your attic and under
your house is guessing. Call 504-336-6748 to book the survey.

## FAQ

### Can I live in the house during a rewire?
Almost always. Working in zones of two or three rooms keeps the rest of the house energized. A whole-house rewire on a typical 1,400 square foot shotgun runs one to two weeks of working days with the family in place.

### Does rewiring increase my home's value?
It removes a deduction more than it adds a premium. Knob-and-tube or aluminum branch wiring shows up in the buyer's inspection and becomes a negotiation; documented modern wiring with a permit record removes that conversation entirely.

### Is aluminum wiring always a full rewire?
No. Approved remediation at the terminations using listed connectors is frequently the correct fix and costs a fraction of a rewire. Full replacement is warranted when the conductor itself is damaged or when the circuit count is inadequate anyway.