Hamilton Has Beautiful Old Houses. A Lot of Them Still Have Old Wiring.

Walk through Durand, Strathcona, Crown Point or the North End and you are looking at homes built long before anyone imagined what we would plug into a wall. Behind a good number of those plaster walls is knob and tube wiring: ceramic knobs, cloth insulation and no ground conductor.

It is not automatically dangerous the day you find it. What it is, reliably, is a problem with your insurance company, and a problem the moment anyone has run a staple through it, buried it in blown-in insulation, or spliced into it in an attic forty years ago.

How to Tell If You Have Knob and Tube

Look at your outlets, in the basement joists, or into the attic. Signs to watch for:

• Two-prong outlets throughout the house with no ground pin
• White ceramic knobs and tubes on joists and studs
• Cloth-covered or rubber-covered conductors instead of plastic sheathing
• Separate black and white wires running some distance apart rather than in one cable
• An insurer, a home inspector or a buyer asking you about it directly

If you are not sure, we will come out and tell you honestly how much of it is left. Many homes were partly rewired decades ago and only have knob and tube feeding a few circuits. That is a much smaller job than a full rewire, and we will say so.

Knob and Tube Removal, Repair, or Leave It?

How Our Knob and Tube Removal Works

We remove and replace the old circuits with modern grounded wiring, working around your plaster and trim as carefully as we can. On most jobs that means fishing new cable through existing cavities rather than opening up walls, running new home runs back to the panel, installing proper grounded receptacles, and bringing the whole job under an ESA notification with an inspection at the end.

A full home rewire on an older house usually takes three to five days and is staged room by room, so you keep power where you sleep. Read more in our guide to home rewiring.

Because the old service usually cannot carry a modern load anyway, knob and tube removal often pairs with an electrical panel upgrade. Doing both together is cheaper and less disruptive than doing them a year apart.

The Certificate Is the Point of Knob and Tube Removal

Whatever your reason for booking knob and tube removal, whether it is an insurance renewal, a condition on a purchase, or you just want to stop worrying about it, what you need at the end is documentation. Every job we do is inspected by the Electrical Safety Authority and you keep the certificate. That is the piece of paper your insurer and your lawyer are actually asking for.

We Will Not Oversell You

Some homes need a full rewire. Many only need partial knob and tube removal. We have been doing this in Hamilton for over 30 years, and we would rather quote you the job you need and keep you as a customer than quote you the biggest job we can think of.

What Our Customers Say

Frequently Asked Questions

Is knob and tube wiring illegal in Ontario?

No. The Ontario Electrical Safety Code is not retroactive, and ESA considers knob and tube safe when it is properly maintained. Insurance is what usually forces removal.

Does knob and tube removal mean rewiring the whole house?

Not always. Many homes only have a few knob and tube circuits left. We will tell you how much remains before quoting.

Does knob and tube removal mean opening my plaster walls?

On most jobs we fish new cable through existing cavities. Some small openings may be needed, and we tell you where before we start.

How long does knob and tube removal take?

It depends on how much is left. A full rewire on an older house usually takes three to five days, staged room by room.

What paperwork comes with knob and tube removal?

An ESA certificate of inspection. Keep it for your insurer, your buyer and your lawyer.

Knob and Tube Removal in Hamilton Neighbourhoods

Hamilton's housing stock is unusually mixed. Durand and Corktown carry pre-1950 homes with knob and tube still buried behind later renovations. Strathcona, Crown Point and the North End have plenty of the same. In many of these houses, an earlier owner updated the kitchen or the basement but left the original circuits feeding the bedrooms, the attic or a single wall of outlets. That is why we always find out what is still live before quoting knob and tube removal. The answer is often smaller than the homeowner expects.

Why Insurers Ask About Knob and Tube

Knob and tube was installed long before modern loads, and most of it is now close to a century old. It has no ground conductor. Its cloth and rubber insulation becomes brittle with age and heat. Over the decades, many runs have been spliced into, extended, or buried under blown-in insulation, which keeps the conductors from shedding heat the way the system was designed to. None of that shows up from inside a finished room, which is why insurers ask about the wiring rather than wait to find out. A documented knob and tube removal with an ESA certificate answers the question for good.

What Knob and Tube Removal Usually Includes

• A survey of every active knob and tube circuit, so the quote covers what is really there
• New grounded circuits run back to the panel, fished through existing cavities wherever possible
• Grounded receptacles in place of two-prong outlets on the rewired circuits
• A load calculation, and a panel upgrade where the old service cannot carry a modern load
• Room-by-room staging, so you keep power where you sleep while the work runs
• The ESA notification before work starts, and the ESA certificate when it is done

Buying a House With Knob and Tube?

If knob and tube turns up during a home inspection, your insurer may set conditions or a deadline before it will cover the house. Book a knob and tube removal assessment before closing if you can. We will tell you how much knob and tube removal the house really needs and put the quote in writing, so you, your insurer and your lawyer are all working from the same document. If the house also has aluminum wiring from a later renovation, we will cover both at the same visit.

Areas We Serve

Apollo Electric serves Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster, Waterdown, Stoney Creek, Grimsby, Burlington, Oakville and Milton, plus Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo and the Greater Toronto Area. If you are just outside that list, call anyway. It is often still workable, and we will tell you honestly if it is not.

Working on a house in Cambridge? Read our guide to knob and tube wiring in Cambridge, or see all of our residential electrical services.