Novice question: ballpark cost of rewiring mobile home

8 years ago

Hi all! :-). I usually hang out in the manufactured homes, smaller homes, and kitchen forums, but I'd like some very general advice:

Long story short-I recently bought a 1979 single wide, 3/1.5, 14x64 manufactured home. It is a fixer-upper that I hope to rehab over the next few years. I picked it up for almost nothing.

I'm fairly certain I'll need to completely rewire the whole house, for several reasons: 1) three lights don't work at all, 2) there will be a gut renovation of the kitchen where I'll need more outlets and in different places, 3) I want to put in some ceiling fans rather than central air, 4) the 1/2 bath will become a 3/4 bath (addition of a shower), and 5) I will want more outlets in other rooms.

I know nothing about electrical wiring, but it is my understanding that these older mobile homes used cheap aluminum wiring that isn't even legal anymore. That is a safety concern as well. The current wiring (no pun intended) is the original wiring.

I don't know if this makes a big difference, but I live in the greater Spokane area of eastern Washington state.

Obviously, I realize you can't give me a detailed, super accurate quote. I'm just looking for a very general ballpark figure, big ballpark. Are we talking hundreds (I wish!), thousands, tens of thousands?

I'm working on a tight budget, but I want the structural integrity of the house to be ship shape before I start the "fun stuff," like new appliances, etc. So if you tell me it shouldn't cost more than $5,000, I'll do it next fall, but if you tell me it will cost at least $50,000, I'll junk the whole project.

Thanks in advance! Have a lovely evening! :-)

Sincerely,

Debbie

Featured Answer

Vith

8 years ago

Might as well gut the exterior walls and do proper insulation, new wiring and plumbing. They can run the wire underneath to the interior walls. Or you can gut the interior walls too if layout changes are needed.

Comments (6)

randy427
8 years ago
I'd say it depends on too many factors to get into here. In any case, you should get bids from three or more electricians. You might need to have surface mounted conduit since ripping open the walls for concealed wiring would really drive up the cost.

JM$.02W
Related Discussions
Furnace quit working during home inspection
Q
Comments (32)
"If you know what the exact issue your HI found is then post it here. Many of us have libraries of NEC editions going back many revisions, and other just remember when the changes occurred. Someone can tell you when the NEC changed, and if the actual 'finding' is anything to be concerned about." Brickeyee, this is what the HI put on the inspection report: ELECTRICAL: Get second opinion from electrician or check internet sites for older STAB-LOK Federal Pacific breaker panels. PANEL OR PANELS double lugging / melted insulation / missing plugs / sloppy wiring / rusted or rusting / did not open due to obstruction panel painted or sealed shut / should label all circuits /over fused or should decrees fuse or breaker size FORMCHECKBOX neutral and ground bonded in sub panel GROUNDING consider adding ground rod for additional safety and for double grounding or improving the grounding system FORMCHECKBOX ground missing at water meter or pressure reducer / loose ground wire / ground wire to small Today's standards suggest double ground to the main panel. The first ground wire should be connected to the metallic cold water pipe with a ground jumper or bond cable at the water meter The second ground wire should go to a ground rod imbedded in soil. Have electrician verify and certify all grounding conductors. Electrical not determined or evaluated in: walls, drop ceilings, closed panels, concrete, soil, behind outlet or switch plates. OUTLETS AND SWITCHES consider installing GFCI'S / open grounds / reverse polarity's / loose / painted / missing cover OTHER VISUAL CONDITIONS improper splicing / wire not in conduit or through joists / some sloppy installation dangerous or exposed wire / some lights out or not working light bulbs or damaged / some abandoned or unknown / some not energized / extension cords used / loose conduit / dangling or exposed wires / sloppy above drop ceiling Triple or double lugging exists in panels Undersized wire used for double/triple lugging" I googled "STAB-LOK Federal Pacific breaker panels" and was NOT glad to read the following: FIRES WAITING TO HAPPEN - Federal Pacific Electric Panels: Fires Waiting to Happen, Debate Waiting to Be Ended What is the FPE Stab-Lok Failure Rate and How Much Worse Is It Than Other Equipment? FPE Stab-Lok or Federal Pacific Electric Stab-lok circuit breakers can fail to trip at an alarming rate. In the original testing, at a modest overload (135% of rating) switches that had never been touched (never mechanically switched) were energized on both poles. These failed 25% of the time, followed by a lockup that meant the switch would never trip in the future at any overload. Once these switches had been flipped on and off (mechanically energized), failures increased to 36%! Worse, when individual poles on these switches were energized under the same conditions, 51% of the "virgin" switches failed, and for switches that had been mechanically energized, a whopping 65% of them failed!" A link that might be useful: inspectapedia.com/fpe/fpe.htm
...See More
Rotating a house onto a new foundation?
Q
Comments (13)
thanks all for the quick replies. homebound: 40 I may be okay with. at 100, I start to question the feasibility. At that price, I might as well frame new, right? kudzu: Reality is much appreciated. You're right, the house does otherwise also need a ton of work. If it were otherwise perfect, the reorienting would be the only issue. I just respect the character and craftsmanship of old homes too much to consider it a tear-down. handymac: Yeah, a number of professional inspections would have to come before the offer (or contingent), I'm just trying to guesstimate if it's worth going that far first. Since the house would need to be gutted to the studs, I guess the more appropriate comparison is (gut + relocate + renovate) vs. build new on site. (Recycling period details from the old house for the new) The math is still pretty good either way. Given the price they sell the soulless carbon-copy McMansions that went into the subdivisions, this property is such a nightmare that it's being offered at half their price. And it's got twice the land. Actually, the listing price is just about the value of the land, so it's like buying a lot and getting a 2.5k sq ft house and 6k sq ft barns for free. Heck, the 150yo wood the barns are made of is probably worth more than the listing price.
...See More
(Long)Question: approx cost for this project?
Q
Comments (30)
When a general contractor prices a project he/she is using a combination of actual bid prices from sub-contractors, actual cost records from previous jobs, and some guessing if some part of the work is highly unusual. This price will also include all of the different contractors mark-ups for their overhead & profit. It can never represent the true cost of the job but the contractor hopes it will be greater rather than less than that amount. When an architect estimates the cost of a project he/she must use published industry cost data sources like RS Means with ballpark modification for the region, and some phone calls to material suppliers for price verification, and a wild guess for what the overhead costs and mark-ups of subcontractors and the general contractor will be even before they are selected. To do more than this would be cost prohibitive for the owner even if it were not beyond the expertise of the architect, which, of course, it is. When an architect attempts to design to a preliminary construction cost budget there is no simple cost estimation procedure that can be used for guidance and intuition would be useless. The only effective cost control procedure would be to stop at several design stages and perform a cost analysis based on a decreasing number of assumptions with the last analysis occurring at the time of bidding when the architect would have as much design information as the bidders and would have a chance to come as close as possible to predicting their prices. Such a procedure is usually considered to be cost prohibitive by an owner for a residence and the final analysis would be pointless since the actual bids would soon be available. So, to express disdain for discrepancies between actual bid prices from real contractors and the preliminary budget based on preliminary assumptions is disingenuous at best and, at worst terribly naive and disrespectful of the professional difficulty of such a task. No architect can design to a budget without the owner paying for a cost control procedure that parallels the design process and even that could not be expected to be completely accurate unless the overhead costs and markups of the contractors was known, or if it were performed by a professional cost estimator familiar with residential construction, if such people even exist. Your attitude is not unusual and I am sympathetic to it. Most of my residential clients express the same ideas and concerns and think they need to know the cost of a project before consulting an architect. This happened just last week and I had to explain that the design and contractor cost efforts should proceed on parallel tracks with some milestones for assessment and reevaluation along the way and that there was no point in walking contractors through the house before a preliminary drawing had been produced. Similarly, I have tried to tell you of a better, more cost effective way to proceed and why amateur advice will cause you to spin your wheels at a time you need some good traction to get the project started. My advice, simply put, is that if you are willing to hire a professional designer you should let them do their job rather than trying to do it for them. If that is offensive to you, then letÂs agree to both be offended and I will promise to restrict my advice to my clients who, in addition to not being offended, actually pay me for my time.
...See More
cost per sq ft of building a small home
Q
Comments (21)
Sophie -- While I agree with you on site prep costs not generally being included, your other points really depend upon the jurisdiction. We built our 783 square foot house on 4 acres just half an hour outside of Portland, Oregon. We were incredibly fortunate to find a beautiful, semi-secluded property in the forested hills with a seasonal view of the Cascade Mountains that already had septic (sorry–no outhouse), well, electric and long gravel driveway (I wouldn't have asphalt if you paid me) in place and in great shape. We do suffer the scorn of hipsters by living in a decidedly unfashionable area – in urban Portlandia, our area is considered a hick backwater, but we're loners so this doesn't matter to us. We do keep our progressive political views and artistic proclivities to ourselves, lol. We paid more per square foot than we would have for a larger home, but we built simply in a style and size that suited us and our sensibilities, and the overall cost of building, site prep (property was already paid off – also at a great price), and upgrades to please my graphic designer tastes totaled right around $106/square foot. (I just double-checked my spreadsheet on that.) Many of the very true statements on this thread are wrapped in thinly veiled judgment and disapproval. This may not be the way for all to build, but like many, we did not want to be forced into the de rigueur giant house. It's worthwhile for us to pay more per foot for what we really want.
...See More
D G
8 years ago
As a base line I use 10k a floor. In small homes that is overpriced and in large homes it is underpriced but it gives me a base line to start with when I do a walk through of homes. I am not an electrician and this is ND prices so it may vary in your area but in my area it is close enough to get a handle on it. A little more background on my number. I have worked for handyman over the years as a side job, day job is an engineer, and I have been trying to get into renovating homes so I have been doing a lot of research on pricing. But it is also based on personal experience. I have done a lot of wiring for myself and have helped family out over the years and scaling those jobs up I get to that 10k mark.

Another to make note of is that the 10k is for the electrical work. You are looking at another couple thousand to repair all the holes that the electrician punches in the walls unless you are doing the drywall repair. A single wide should be less then that and the wiring should be less as well but it depends on your area of the world. In ND a good electrician is 50 bucks an hour in New York your looking at a 100 or more an hour so start with that number and get quotes. Check their hourly rates and see where you end up. Honestly in a home that size if you tell them to have at it and punch as many holes as needed instead of having them baby step around and try to minimize destruction you should be looking at 40 to 60 hours of labor roughly or less then a week for two electricians to do the job. If you looking for savings find an electrician with an apprentice. You will pay a lot less then and the master electrician accompanying the apprentice is liable for his work so you will still get a good job.
D G
8 years ago
I should mention to check your codes. In ND I just have to submit a schematic of the wiring to the electrical inspector and pay him an inspection fee and I can do 100% of my internal wiring in my home and then have him come inspect it. If you have time there are a lot of great books to read and watch some you tube videos and you should be able to handle wiring the entire thing yourself. As a novice your probably looking at 150 to 200 hours to do it but there is a great deal of satisfaction involved in it.
gretchen29505
3 years ago
Hi!

I see this post is several years old. I bought a 1994 single-wide last year and want to rewire it for the same reasons you stated. Half the outlets don't work, lights flicker and I swear, some wires look like they are wrapped in old masking tape/paper. I only paid $1500 for it and it's in a small mobile home park my brother and I will inherit in South Carolina. I will likely end up replacing the drywall/sheetrock since it soaked up cigarette smoke for years and had a horrible roach infestation at one point. (I've painted but the smells are still there). I'm trying to do all the work myself but I draw the line at electrical stuff (BAD experience with an electric cattle fence at 5 yrs old, lol).

My place is a 14x66 so I'm curious how much you ended up

spending if you went ahead with it.

Thanks!
Ron Natalie
3 years ago
You could have quite a mess. A lot of mobile homes are manufactured as vehicles, and don't even pretend to be code compliant. Once you've got it fixed to the land and start doing renovations in some jurisdictions, you are going to have to remedy that.

You need to have a competent electrician, preferably one with experience in such rehabs, to come in and make a read on it.

As with any personal service like this:

1. Get multiple estimates.

2. Get references, preferably from someone you trust.

Novice question: ballpark cost of rewiring mobile home

Vith

Comments (6)

randy427

Related Discussions

D G

D G

gretchen29505

Ron Natalie

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US