# Knob and tube replacement cost calculator for Boston

> Knob and tube replacement cost calculator for Boston-area homes: a typical range for your scope, what moves it, the Boston ISD permit fee and Mass Save help.

URL: https://deckerbostonknobandtube.com/tools/knob-and-tube-cost-estimator/

## Estimate your house

## How the estimate works

The tool gives a dollar range only where a published budgeting range exists. For most or all of a single- or two-family house it shows $8,000 to $25,000 or more, a typical Boston-area budgeting range for replacing the active knob and tube circuits. Larger, plaster-heavy or service-upgrade jobs can run well past it, which is why the top stays open.

### Where it gives no figure

Partial work, clearing only the spaces Mass Save wants to insulate, an inspection, a triple-decker priced unit by unit, and one condo unit all show "priced from the assessment". The circuits left in those jobs vary too much for one figure to mean anything, so the tool lists what will move the price instead.

### The notes beside the range

Floors, basement, attic, walls and panel each add a note saying whether they push the house toward the high end or the low end. There is no defensible way to turn those into a percentage, so the tool doesn't, and it doesn't use square footage. A fuse box or full panel adds a separate line of $3,000 to $6,500, a typical Massachusetts range for a 200 amp panel plus service work; a panel-only swap costs less.

## Where the permit and program figures come from

Every figure outside the two budgeting ranges is published by a public agency.

- [Boston Inspectional Services](https://www.boston.gov/permitting/permits/electrical-permit): $20 application fee, then $1 per fixture, plug or outlet and $5 per meter with no change in service, so 40 devices on one meter come to $65; a 200 amp service upgrade at 240 volts is $70. The fixture count you pick is used only for this line.
- [Cambridge Inspectional Services](https://www.cambridgema.gov/inspection/buildingelectricplumbingpermits/electricalwiringfees): the receptacle, service and meter lines from its fee page. Other cities and towns set their own fees through the local wire inspector, confirmed per address.
- Utility by city from the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities franchise list: Eversource across Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline and Newton, National Grid in Medford, Malden and Quincy, and Belmont Light in Belmont.
- [Mass Save](https://www.masssave.com/residential/rebates-offers-services/financing): the enhanced barrier incentive of up to $7,000 for moderate-income households and the 0% HEAT Loan. The [Boston Home Center](https://www.boston.gov/departments/housing/boston-home-center/quick-guide-home-repair-programs) publishes the city's repair loan terms.

## What the range leaves out

- Plaster and paint restoration after the openings, unless a quote includes it, and lead-safe practices for larger openings in a house built before 1978
- The utility's own work during a service upgrade
- Vermiculite or other hazard testing and removal where a house needs it
- Insulation, which follows the electrical work

[Read the Boston cost guide](https://deckerbostonknobandtube.com/guide/knob-and-tube-replacement-cost-boston/), [see how Boston permits work](https://deckerbostonknobandtube.com/guide/boston-electrical-permit-for-rewiring/), [check the grants and loans](https://deckerbostonknobandtube.com/guide/knob-and-tube-removal-grants-massachusetts/), or [take the assessment](https://deckerbostonknobandtube.com/tools/knob-and-tube-assessment/).