It all happened so innocently.
The long-time owners of a classic, two-storey Fort Rouge-area home, Linda and her husband, Gaspar, were removing some tile from their basement ceiling. What they saw running along the underside of the main floor reminded them that they were living in a 100-year-old home.
A home that had been wired with knob-and-tube wiring, that is. Back in the early 1900's it was state-of-the-art. Not so in 2010.
"Removing the tile jogged our memory," Linda recalls. "So rather than cover it up again, we thought we'd make it right. With that in mind, we contacted our electrician to come and do a quote."
Although Linda knew the quote wouldn't be cheap, she was stunned at what the cost of retrofitting the home's wiring would be.
"I thought it would be somewhere around $8,000 or $9,000. When the quote came in at $13,000, I was absolutely floored. That's because the quote was just for doing the electrical alone. If we had them do the demolition work required to create areas to feed the new wiring through, the quote would have been a lot higher."
Consequently, Linda and Gaspar decided to do the demolition work themselves. But that and the ensuing retrofit turned out to be an arduous, stress-filled process. Which isn't surprising: the plaster walls created a huge mess. The delicate task of removing the knob-and-tube lines and replacing it with new wiring, which had to be fed through a variety of entry points, was no picnic, either.
"In total, it took one month of demolition, followed by the electricians spending two solid weeks doing wiring. Then, there was another two weeks of drywalling and patching plus another two weeks putting everything back together," she says of the project, which began back in January. "It was a lot of work. Honestly, we're still getting organized."
Now that the home's ceilings, walls and baseboards are back to looking normal, with little dust and debris to clean up, Linda says she and her husband are back on a more even keel. Even though doing the labour wasn't fun, it was worth it in the end.
"By doing all the demo and garbage hauling, we figure we saved about $5,000 in labour costs," says Linda. "The bulk of the cost of most renovation projects comes from labour, which makes up maybe 50 to 60 per cent of the money you end up spending. It helps to love your house, which we do. That love is what helped us see the project through all the mess and all the work."
Linda's friend and realtor, Linda van den Broek of RE/MAX Executives Realty, says prospective home buyers need to be aware of the potential costs of buying an older home equipped with knob-and-tube wiring.
"With older homes, the wiring is the number-one question of insurance companies," she says. "So the first thing I check when I take clients into older homes is the wiring."
The reason for that is simple, says van den Broek.
"A high percentage of people just don't have the budget to make changes to a home's electrical system. It's unfortunate, but a lot of people just don't know what they're dealing with. Not knowing can cost you a lot of money," she says.
That lack of knowledge can potentially be even more costly, she adds.
"Not only that, but if you make an offer on a home and you can't get the knob-and-tube wiring insured, your mortgage won't be approved. The sale then won't go through, and you can lose your deposit as a result. So be diligent, and have the wiring checked. If you're not sure about the wiring, have a home inspector take a look. Doing that could save you a lot of money, especially young families on a tight budget."
All's well that ends well, says Linda.
"Now that the electical is done, we're focusing on the sense of accomplishment, not the mess we had to endure," she says. "Our home is now up to code and better than ever. By focusing on the end result -- and how much we loved our home -- we were able to get through the renovation. We're just glad it's over with."
lewys@mts.net
