What we do

House Rewiring and Aluminium Wiring in Austin

We publish what the rules actually say about electrical work across the Austin metro — sourced, dated, and specific to your permit office and your utility. The work itself is carried out by electricians licensed by the state.

Rewiring replaces the branch circuits inside the walls. Most of the time the reason is not age on its own — it is a specific defect: aluminium branch wiring, cloth-insulated conductors, ungrounded two-prong circuits, or damage found during other work.

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Why this job is different in Austin

The aluminium question is the one worth getting right, because the cheap answer is the common answer and the federal regulator has specifically rejected it.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission's guidance is unusually direct. Homes built before 1965 are unlikely to have aluminium branch circuits; cables installed between 1965 and the mid-1970s in new homes, additions and rewired circuits may. A survey conducted for CPSC found homes built before 1972 and wired with aluminium were 55 times more likely to have one or more connections at outlets reach conditions the survey defined as fire hazards.

CPSC approves three permanent repairs: complete replacement with copper cable, the COPALUM crimp method, or the AlumiConn connector as an acceptable alternative. It explicitly does not consider the two cheaper methods acceptable permanent repairs — pigtailing with ordinary twist-on connectors, where CPSC-sponsored testing saw substantial numbers overheat severely, and simply fitting CO/ALR switches and receptacles, which CPSC staff says does not solve the overheating problem.

Austin grew hard through exactly that window, so this is not a curiosity here. If a quote for an aluminium-wired house offers new outlets or twist-on pigtails, ask which of the three methods it is.

How to tell you need it

CPSC's advice on identification is to look at the cable jacket, which is marked “Al” or “Aluminum” every few feet along its length — and to read the whole marking, because “CU-clad” or “Copper-clad” alongside it means copper-coated aluminium, which its repair recommendations do not cover.

The part that should change how you think about this: CPSC notes that failing aluminium connections seldom give easily detected warning signs and have been reported to fail without any prior indication. Where there are signs — hot faceplates, flickering, dead circuits, the smell of burning plastic — CPSC's instruction is to get a qualified electrician and explicitly not to try it yourself.

What it costs

We publish no figures here. The numbers circulating for this market come from pages that cite nothing and carry no date, and repeating them while making sourcing our whole point would be self-defeating. Ask for a written scope instead of a headline price, and ask what changes it.

Permits and inspection for this work

Rewiring is permitted and inspected work. It is also the kind of job where the scope grows once walls are open, so the permit and the written scope should both describe what happens when it does.

CPSC's own guidance is that a qualified electrician should perform this remediation, and the COPALUM materials and crimping tools are available only to electricians trained by the manufacturer — so “we can do COPALUM” is a specific, checkable claim rather than a general one.

Whoever does this work should hold a TECL electrical contractor licence. State rules require that number on their advertising, their vehicles and their written proposals — ask for it and check it against the state's own licence search.

A short copper pigtail joined to the aluminium conductor through a rated connector, then landed on the device. The connector is the whole question — an ordinary twist-on one is not a permanent repair.

Worth reading before you call

Where we cover

Austinone utility
Georgetownpage in progress
Round Rockone utility
Cedar Park2 possible utilities
Pflugervillepage in progress
Leanderone utility
Lakeway2 possible utilities
Dripping Springsone utility
Kyle & Budapage in progress
San Marcos3 possible utilities

Common questions

Does aluminium wiring have to be replaced?

Not necessarily replaced — but if it has not been remediated, CPSC recommends a permanent repair of the connections, and it recognises only three methods.

Are CO/ALR outlets enough on their own?

CPSC staff says that method does not solve the overheating problem in aluminium-wired branch circuits. It is not on its list of permanent repairs.

Will an inspection find it?

Identification is often possible from the cable markings. But CPSC notes failing connections frequently give no warning signs at all, so absence of symptoms is not evidence of safety.

Talk to an electrician about this job

Tell us which city you are in and what you need done, and we will connect you with a licensed contractor who works your area.