Knob-and-Tube Wiring: What It Is, and Why Insurers Ask
Tacoma's North End, Proctor, and Stadium District are full of houses built when knob-and-tube was simply how wiring was done. It was competent work for its time. What has changed is the insulation around it — brittle after a century — the absence of a ground, and the load a modern household puts through it. This is a safety and insurability question rather than an upsell, and it is worth knowing where you stand before it becomes a claim issue.
Knob-and-tube wiring is early-1900s wiring with no ground conductor and cloth or rubber insulation that becomes brittle with age. Many insurers now require it to be replaced. Charlie's rewires older homes across Tacoma, Fircrest, and Pierce & Kitsap Counties. Call (253) 226-4565.
What does Charlie's Knob-and-Tube & Older-Home Rewiring include?
Tacoma's North End, Proctor, and Stadium District are full of houses built when knob-and-tube was simply how wiring was done. It was competent work for its time. What has changed is the insulation around it — brittle after a century — the absence of a ground, and the load a modern household puts through it. This is a safety and insurability question rather than an upsell, and it is worth knowing where you stand before it becomes a claim issue.
- Knob-and-tube identification and assessment
- Whole-home and partial rewiring
- Aluminium branch-circuit remediation
- Grounded circuits and GFCI/AFCI protection
- Documentation for insurers
- Old-home work that respects plaster and trim
- Permits and inspection handled
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Quick, often same-day service. One firm price, no negotiation.
Where do we provide knob & tube rewiring service?
- Fircrest
- Tacoma
- Lakewood
- Puyallup
- Bonney Lake
- University Place
- Bremerton
- Silverdale
- Port Orchard
- Belfair
- Gig Harbor
- Key Peninsula
- Bainbridge Island
- Poulsbo
- Kingston
- Manchester
- Pierce County
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Knob & Tube Rewiring — Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my house has knob-and-tube wiring?
Look in the attic or basement for ceramic knobs and tubes holding individual cloth-covered conductors that run separately rather than bundled in a cable. If your house was built before about 1950 and has not been rewired, some of it may still be live. Not all of it necessarily is — partial rewires over the decades are common.
Why do insurance companies care about knob-and-tube?
Because the failure mode is fire. The insulation embrittles with age, the system has no ground, and it was never designed for the load a modern house puts on it — and burying it under blown-in attic insulation, which many homes have had done, traps heat around conductors designed to shed it into open air. A number of insurers now decline to write or renew a policy on a house with active knob-and-tube.
Does the whole house have to be rewired at once?
Not always. Where knob-and-tube is confined to part of the house, a partial rewire can be enough — and insurers generally want the active circuits gone rather than every last piece of old cable removed from the walls. We will tell you what is actually live and what your options are, including doing it in stages.
Is aluminium wiring the same kind of problem?
A different one with a similar answer. Aluminium branch circuits from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s expand and contract at connections, which loosens them and creates heat at outlets and switches. It is a known, verifiable risk that many insurers ask about, and it is remediable — often without a full rewire.
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Call us or request a quote online. Fast, friendly, same-day service is available across Pierce and Kitsap Counties.