Free tool
Knob and tube replacement cost calculator for Boston
Answer a few questions about the house for a typical Boston-area range, where your house is likely to sit in it, the permit fee and the programs that may help. No contact details needed, and the result updates as you go.
The scope and the building pick the range. Everything else says where in it your house sits.
Estimate your house
Replacing the knob and tube in a house: typical Boston-area range
$8,000 to $25,000 or more
A typical Boston-area budgeting range for replacing the active knob and tube circuits in a house. Larger, plaster-heavy or service-upgrade jobs can run well past it. Plaster restoration and panel or service work are usually extra.
Where your house may fall
- In betweenOne or two floors keep the runs back to the panel fairly short.
- Toward the low endAn open basement ceiling gives new cable for the first floor a route up into the walls without opening finished rooms.
- Toward the low endA walkable attic lets cable for the top floor drop straight down into the walls.
- Toward the high endPlaster and lath takes more care to open and more skill to close. In a house built before 1978, opening more than six square feet of painted surface in a room brings in the state's lead-safe renovation rules.
Taken together, your answers point toward the low end of the range. The biggest unknown is how many old circuits are still live, which only tracing shows.
Separate line: plaster and paint
Priced from the access plan. Closing the openings is usually priced as its own line, or by another trade. It depends on how many openings the routes need, plaster or drywall, and the finish you expect. Ask every quote who patches, to what finish, and whether lead-safe practices are included.
Boston permit (Inspectional Services)
Boston Inspectional Services charges a $20 application fee. With no change in service, it adds $1 per fixture, plug or outlet and $5 per approved meter; for a new or upgraded service it charges $0.25 per amp up to 240 volts. Fees are due upfront, and a licensed contractor files the permit. Pick a rough fixture and outlet count above to see the device line.
See the published fee schedule
Utility: Eversource
Service work goes through an Eversource work request, and Eversource asks for the municipal wiring inspection to be done and the approval called in to it by the inspector.
Programs that may apply
- Mass Save enhanced barrier incentive: up to $7,000 of eligible knob and tube removal cost for moderate-income households in one- to four-unit homes, after a Home Energy Assessment recommends insulation that the wiring blocks. Income verification is required.
- Mass Save HEAT Loan: 0% financing for pre-weatherization barriers, knob and tube included, within a $25,000 lifetime cap. The Home Energy Assessment is mandatory, and the recommended insulation has to be completed.
- Boston Home Center Home Repair and Improvement Loan: deferred 0% loans up to $50,000 for owner-occupants with household income up to 135% of area median, and the covered work names knob and tube removal. Work done before approval is not reimbursed.
Not included
Vermiculite or other hazard testing, insulation, and the utility's own charges are priced separately. Ask every quote to say which of these it covers.
These are typical Boston-area and Massachusetts budgeting figures, not a quote from Decker Boston Knob and Tube. The price for your house comes after a walk-through and circuit tracing.
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: $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: 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: the enhanced barrier incentive of up to $7,000 for moderate-income households and the 0% HEAT Loan. The Boston Home Center 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, see how Boston permits work, check the grants and loans, or take the assessment.
Get an exact quote
Send the house details and a walk-through turns this range into a price. Your estimator answers are added to the request.
Call (617) 405-3599Decker Boston Knob and Tube361 Newbury Street, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02115
office@deckerbostonknobandtube.com
Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 6 PM; Saturday and Sunday, 9 AM to 2 PM
Outside these hours, emergency calls only
Photos of the attic, the basement ceiling and the panel help most.