Free tool / scope-based
Knob-and-Tube Replacement Cost Estimator
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.
Whole-home replacement, Philadelphia-area budgeting range
$9,000 to $25,000
For replacing the live knob and tube branch circuits in a Philadelphia house. Plaster restoration and painting, panel or service work and other trades are often extra. Difficult access, a large house and careful restoration can push a project above it.
Where your house may fall
- In betweenOne or two floors keep the runs to the panel short.
- Toward the low endAn open basement ceiling gives new cable a route without opening finished rooms.
- Toward the high endPlaster takes more care to open and patch than drywall.
- In betweenWorking around people living in the house adds protection and planned outages, mostly time rather than materials.
Your answers balance out, so plan around the middle of the range. The biggest unknown is how many circuits are still live, which only a circuit map shows.
City permit fee
Philadelphia L&I charges $25 for each $1,000 of estimated electrical cost, with a $63 minimum and a $18,975 maximum, plus $3 city and $4.50 state surcharges. The $100 filing fee counts toward the permit fee.
Across this range, the permit fee works out to about $225 to $625, plus $7.50 in surcharges.
Enter the electrical cost from a quote, in dollars.
Not included
Plaster and finish restoration, painting, panel or service upgrades and the third-party inspection agency's fee are priced separately. Ask every quote to say which of these it includes.
These are budgeting figures, not a quote from Philly Knob & Tube. The price for your house comes after a walk-through and circuit map.
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: $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.
Get an Exact Quote
Send the house details and a walk-through turns this range into a price for your house. Your estimator answers are added to the request.
Call (215) 484-3142Philly Knob & Tube319 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
office@phillyknobandtube.com