# Knob-and-Tube Replacement Cost Estimator

> Free knob-and-tube replacement cost estimator for Philadelphia homes: a budgeting range for your scope, what pushes it up or down, and the City permit fee.

URL: https://phillyknobandtube.com/tools/knob-and-tube-cost-estimator/

Free tool / scope-based

Answer a few questions about the house and the scope for a budgeting range, where your house is likely to sit in it, and the City permit fee. No contact details needed, and the result updates as you go.

## Estimate your house

The scope and the building type choose the range. The other answers tell you where in that range your house is likely to sit; they never change the range itself.

## How the estimate works

For most or all of a single-family house, the tool shows $9,000 to $25,000, a Philadelphia-area budgeting range for a substantial whole-home knob-and-tube replacement. For a few circuits or one area, it shows $2,000 to $8,000, a national budgeting range for limited partial work; no verified Philadelphia figure exists for that scope.

Floors, basement access, walls, finishes, occupancy and the panel each add a note saying whether they push a house toward the high end or the low end. There is no honest way to turn them into a percentage, so the tool does not try, and it does not use square footage.

The permit fee uses the [Philadelphia L&I electrical permit schedule](https://www.phila.gov/services/permits-violations-licenses/apply-for-a-permit/building-and-repair-permits/get-an-electrical-permit/): $25 for each $1,000 of estimated electrical cost, $63 minimum, $18,975 maximum. A $15,000 electrical scope, for example, carries a $375 permit fee.

## What the range leaves out

- Plaster and finish restoration and painting after the openings are closed
- A panel or service upgrade, and any PECO service and meter work
- The licensed third-party inspection agency's fee
- Testing or abatement for lead paint or asbestos, where a house needs it
- Two-to-four-unit buildings, which have no published range and are priced after a walk-through
- Insulation, which follows the electrical work

## What moves a house within the range

The single biggest factor is how many circuits are still live knob and tube. A house with a few live runs left from earlier partial work sits very differently from one that still runs on the original wiring, and only a circuit map shows which one you have.

### Live circuits

Every live run is replaced. Dead runs left in the walls need no new wire.

### Access

An open basement ceiling gives new cable a route under the first floor; upper floors need routes through closets, chases or planned openings.

### Walls and ceilings

Plaster and lath is opened in small, planned cuts and closed with more care than drywall.

### New circuits

Kitchens, bathrooms and laundry areas often need dedicated circuits the old system never had.

[Read the Philadelphia cost guide](https://phillyknobandtube.com/guide/knob-and-tube-replacement-cost-philadelphia/) · [Take the assessment](https://phillyknobandtube.com/tools/knob-and-tube-assessment/)