"...two electricians told the seller that the whole house will have to be rewired or the GFCI devices won't work."

Sounds like someone trying to sell you a rewire job.
If the house does not have grounds run, the GFCI receptacles will work just fine.
They DO NOT require a ground to operate and are allowed on two wire (ungrounded) circuits as a safety upgrade.

First, I am NOT an electrician.

However, we purchased a home four years ago that also did not have GFCI devices. The original structure was built mid-1940s & an addition was done mid-1980s. There was no problem in adding the CFCI. So, I'd also be suspicious of being told the entire house needed rewiring. Contractors are a tad slow these days in many parts of the country...maybe a couple in your area are trying to drum-up some business?

/T

I would get some information as to the specific nature of the problem, asap. If the problem is that the circuit is trying to feed 20 amps on 15 amp wiring and a 15 amp cfgi trips, the gfci is *supposed* to trip in that circumstance, for instance. At least the circuits that supply electricity to wet locations should be upgraded, if not the whole house (assuming that kind of thing is the problem in the first place).

If the problem is an open ground, I'd be a bit on the leery side of buying the house altogether. On the one hand, pretty much every house built before 1950 had ungrounded wiring and people generally got along just fine without ground lines, but on the other hand, a ground line is one of the best defenses you can have against losing the house (and your lives) to an electrical fire.

Its like a smoke detector - you might live your whole life without ever needing it, but you'll be pretty glad you had it if you do.

Talk to your local building officials and see what the code requires. Sometimes, you insurance could get cancelled if there is a fire without the proper wiring, etc, if you knew ahead of time. Also, it could affect your loan approval.

I vote on the side of a scam. Have a different (or two) electrician come in. We've been able to put GFIs in every house/condo/building/apartment we've owned and they have all been built before 1972. I really can't image why a house that new would need rewiring.

Gloria

Having just gone through this same thing with my 1958 home that I bought as is...
My home has older wiring (not grounded) and GFCIs were added with no problem (DIY job). However, with the extra load of modern home electronics, it is probably not wise to have ungrounded wiring. I just had three different electricians out for estimates. I was thinking rewiring too and what a headache that could be but was told by all three electricians that I should leave the older wiring alone and just add new, grounded circuits for the electronics. The estimates for adding 6 new circuits, two light fixture box changes, new upgraded panel (moved outside to meet code), new weatherarm (to meet code), and central surge protector ran from $3100 to $3450.
Rewiring would have been hideous and might have resulted in extra costs for sheetrock etc.

Some homes built 35 years ago have aluminum wiring, and that is a problem. You need to find out what you have.

No one re-wires an entire house around here. You can add GFCIs anywhere and just run a new line to THAT outlet, no big deal at all (as long as the electrical box has already been upgraded to 200 amp service). The whole house certainly doesn't need to be re-wired.
Since these old houses are daisy-chained together on a few circuits, many electricians just run new wiring and a GFCI to the first outlet on each run. That way, if anything down the line shorts, it'll still trip the GFCI further up the line.
Of course, you need to be careful about overloading. Like another person said, if you have a much of electronic, computer equipment, and what-not, best to run a new line for it. We added an outdoor line especially for christmas lights last year with a timer (yes, we put up THAT many!)! LOL

Timely thread.

I just moved into my 1955 home and am experiencing the same issues- I have old two prong outlets everywhere except the bathroom and not enough of them anywhere. I do already have a new breaker box and 200 amp service so am having several new circuits installed tomorrow- they'll be using the spaces from the never used ceiling radiant heat if they need to. These circuits will be in areas I desperately need more power.

Then I will have each of the other rooms outlets redone with new wire/grounded as I can afford it- depends on how much it all adds up to. One room a month or whatever.

So the house will not be rewired, but will be upgraded to everything being grounded as I understand it. Same old light switches/overhead lighting but new wired receptacles with plenty of power for all the computers and electronics.

cearbhaill, better check with your electrician again. Everything will not be grounded without new wiring (unless they're gonna change out the first receptical in the chain as I mentioned). Make sure you understand what's going on so you don't get ripped off or a false sense of security. You could probably check if there's an electricty forum on here.

Everything will not be grounded without new wiring (unless they're gonna change out the first receptical in the chain as I mentioned).

Sorry to write confusingly after having tried so hard not to. When I wrote "Then I will have each of the other rooms outlets redone with new wire/grounded" I was trying to make it clear that yes new wire is being run, because I knew someone would misunderstand.

Two prong outlets does not necessarily mean that the circuit wiring is not grounded! Open the outlet or panel box to see if there is a bare or green ground conductor/wire. A lot of older wiring does indeed have a grounded conductor in the circuit.

"If the problem is that the circuit is trying to feed 20 amps on 15 amp wiring and a 15 amp cfgi trips, the gfci is *supposed* to trip in that circumstance, for instance."

Benson, that is not what a GFCI device is for...

You might want to ask your question on the Electrical Wiring forum.

The problem is that all the variables aren't known. Everyone is speculating as to what the issue is. Just ask the seller for name of one of the electricians who checked out the job and give them a call. That should answer all your questions.

Thank you for all the advice. Its turns out that the electricians were unable to tell which wire went to what. The alternative to rewiring would be upgrading the electrical box and adding new circuits, which we were told would run around $3500-5000.
We left a message with the seller (buying it FSBO)asking for the numbers for the electricians they had consulted with. This was more for our information that to try to get anything else from the seller. We had requested the improvements in writing, and we made the mistake of accepting a verbal confirmation that the seller would take care of everything, but they never put it in writing. So, we had really just accepted that we were stuck with any electrical improvements ourselves. Then the seller's son, who is a lawyer, called us and would not give us the name of the electricians, told us that we were already getting a good deal (they came down $5000 on the price after having listed for 8 months) and that we had some nerve asking for anything else. I think he is the one behind waiting until right before closing, on a holiday week, to tell us they weren't fixing it. We still love the house and accepted that we were probably overpaying a little, but it is the only home we found that had everything we wanted and in the neighborhood and school district we like. But it's too bad that this last interaction with the seller before closing had to go this way, it's kind of left a bad feeling over the whole deal. I guess it's another lesson learned.

I'm sorry it went that way and you live and you learn. I would still ask for the electricians names as part of closing so you can find out info more from there.

At least it doesn't seem like the seller's are too crummy since even though it was verbal they attempted to fix it only to find out it was more work than thought and even disclosed that to you. They didn't have to do any of that.

OK I meant they didn't have to do that on the part of attempt to fix it since it was only verbal. However they had to disclose the problem.