"Is it customary to install completely new wiring in a house every thirty years?"

Definitely not! Did you ask him, based on only looking at the panel, why he came to this conclusion? It indeed may have an old FP panel that presents a potential fire hazard, and the wiring may be all aluminum. If he said those two things I might be inclined to agree.

"If the home had been wired with the aluminum wire that caused fires, wouldn't a fire already have occurred?"

Not necessarily. Aluminum wire that oxidizes at the device's steel screws is a time bomb waiting to go off. Unless properly terminated at the devices, aluminum WILL oxidize, the terminal WILL overheat, and you WILL have a fire. When? Yesterday, today, tomorrow?

I'd try to find out a lot more info. If you suspect a problem, call on the local electrical inspector to come out for a free look-see.

Thanks for the reply. If I buy the house, I'll have an electrician, not a contractor, look at the condition of the wiring. This same contractor recently handled the rewiring of a larger home of a friend of mine for $6000, so I was suspicious of his price. When I asked him why he thought I needed to have the place re-wired, he simply said, "because it's old." He couldn't give me a better reason.

Aluminum wiring is not in itself a problem. There are specific receptacles and switches to which to attach aluminum wire directly. In many homes with aluminum wiring, copper leads have been wire nutted to the aluminum so standard fixtures can be used. These special wire nuts contain an antioxident to prevent seperation of the connection. A standard receptacle might cost $1.00 while the special receptacle for attaching aluminum directly is around $5.00.

The real danger is copper leads attached to aluminum wire using standard wire nuts. Copper and aluminum expand and contract at different rates causing possible arcing. Arcing will seldom trip a standard breaker as it doesn't constitute an overload.

IMO, aluminum wire is not unsafe IF it is properly terminated. As electricians in Dallas, we do panel and service entrance upgrades all the time. We rarely rewire a home but we might rewire an individual circuit depending on the situation. We have never rewired an aluminum wired home but have upgraded the connections many times.

I doubt if the home was wired with aluminum if it was wired after 1975, aluminum wire in the small sizes was pretty much gone by 1973.

Is there a date on the breaker panel that would say how old it is?

Also, Texasredhead, could you tell me how you usually charge to add a couple of 240 outlets and add or move a few outlets if the floors and walls are open?

Pretty much everything you need to know about the potential problems and solutions for outdated aluminum wiring:

Here is a link that might be useful: aluminum wiring

If it was rewired in 1975, then there is a good change that all the wiring has grounds, and if that is the case there is no need to rewire the entire house. The panel, maybe. Upgrade the service, maybe. But there should be no reason to rewire the house *IF* it is all copper and all the circuits have grounds.

I used to live in a 100+ year old house and I heard that a lot, too - this or that has to be replaced "because it's old." Old wiring can be okay if it was done right to begin with, but too often people mess it up along the way by tapping in to put in more receptacles, etc. They figure if the light bulb comes on, they must have done it right.

What you do have to look at in a house like this is what does "rewired in 1975" actually mean. My old house had some circuits that were really old, some that were pretty new. I handled it by adding circuits on an as-needed basis, and making sure nothing that pulled a lot of power was on an older circuit.

I guess my point is just that do no need a thorough inspection of the wiring to see what you actually have. You can start yourself by using one of those little $5 testers to see whether the 3-prong outlets are really grounded and whether they're hooked up the right way. If you have half of them screwed up, that's probably a good sign that whomever rewired it was careless in other areas too.

My experience, biggest problem with an old system ain't the age itself, it's how many times things've been f'd with over the years. Older the system, more likely it's been abused, over'n over. String of homeowners and handymen, new fixture here, new bathroom there...things get pretty funny after awhile. As an electrician doing service calls, I sometimes feel like onna' them jaded TV cops who's seen too much horrible stuff.

Y'see, until about 80 years ago, electricity was exotic. At first, people never figured it'd be good for anything but lighting, and darn little of that. In a house, one ceiling light per room was about it (pull-chain, no switch). OK, so the house is built, walls up, wiring's in, then whup, what's this, ma - dern, it's a new modern device ye' need to plug in somewhere. Reckon we need work. And so on and so on.

Get the big picture? When your boy heard 1800's, I expect that's why he simply said, "Rip and replace. Twelve grand oughta' do 'er."

Perhaps your guy's unkind, perhaps not. From where I sit, it's hard to say. The variables are endless, but one thing's sure: you do reach a limit where it's no longer practical to graft onto an old system. That happens, it's like Old Yaller (God, I loved that movie); take that old system out and shoot it.

OK, reckon I've muddied the waters enough, so I'll quit now.

My guess is that you may need some work but I doubt a full rewire. A big indicator is what you caught, the outlet spacing, that exceeds current code which in simple text states that any point on a wall must be within 6' of an outlet (hmmm maybe that is why we have 6' cords on most everything). If you have grounded outlets and they test ok the odds are definitely in your favor. I would get a qualified professional and pay a few bucks to get the electrical system evaluated with recommendations for any needed upgrades. Getting two opinions would not hurt.