Cost guide
What electrical work costs, and what decides it
Answer three questions. We will tell you what decides the price on your house. Then Rory looks at the job and gives you one fixed price.
Ask any electrician what a job costs and they will say they need to see it first. That is true. It is also not much help when you are trying to work out a budget.
So here is the next best thing. Answer three questions below. You will get a plain list of what decides the price on your house, before anyone turns up.
- What do you need done?
- How big is the job?
- How old is the house?
What decides the cost of a service panel upgrade
The usual version of this job on an average Halifax area home. What moves it from here is almost always something found after the work starts.
A house this age is the straightforward case. Grounded circuits, a modern panel, and few surprises once a wall is opened.
What changes the price on this job
- Whether the mast, meter base and service entrance cable are replaced with the panel, which is common on anything older than about 1990.
- Whether Nova Scotia Power has to disconnect and reconnect the service, which is scheduled, not instant.
- How far the panel is from the meter, and whether the run is accessible.
- Whether the existing circuits are in a condition to be transferred, or need work before they can be.
Rory prices every job on site and gives you one fixed number for it. This page is here to tell you what that number will depend on, before he arrives.
Get a fixed price for this job
He looks at it, then gives you one number that does not move. Your three answers come through with the message, so he already knows what he is looking at.
Why two houses that look the same cost different amounts
The price comes from what is found, not from what you can see. Two houses on the same street can be thousands apart once the panel cover comes off. One has a modern panel with room to spare. The other has a 60 amp fuse box, a rusted mast, and old knob and tube wiring in the ceiling that nobody knew about.
Age is the strongest single predictor. Anything built before 1950 in the Halifax area is likely to have ungrounded circuits and plaster and lath, which is slow to open and slower to make good afterwards. Houses from the 1960s and 1970s often have aluminum branch circuits, and your insurer will have an opinion about those before your electrician does.
The bit that catches people out
Any job that touches the wires coming into your house needs Nova Scotia Power to disconnect and reconnect the power. That has to be booked in. It does not cost more, but it is what turns a one-day panel upgrade into a two-week plan.
The wiring permit is the other one. In Nova Scotia a homeowner cannot pull their own, so it is part of the job. Rory handles it.
What a fixed price means
One price for the whole job, given after Rory has seen it. That is what you pay. No hourly rate, and no phone call at the end explaining why the bill went up.
If something genuinely unexpected turns up behind a wall, you hear about it at the time, before any more work happens.
Common questions
What does a panel upgrade cost in Nova Scotia?
It depends on far more than the panel. On most Halifax area homes the mast, meter base and service entrance cable are replaced at the same time, and that is the larger part of the work on anything built before about 1990. Nova Scotia Power also has to schedule a disconnect and reconnect. Rory looks at the service, then gives you one fixed number for the whole job.
Why will nobody give me a price over the phone?
Because the things that decide it are things you have to look at. The condition of the service entrance, whether the panel has spare capacity, what is actually behind the wall, and whether the existing circuits can be transferred as they are. An electrician who quotes a firm number sight unseen is either padding it heavily or is coming back later to ask for more.
Why does this page not show prices?
Because a number on a page becomes a number you hold us to, and no honest one exists before the job has been seen. Two identical looking houses on the same street can differ by thousands once the panel cover comes off. This page tells you what will move your price instead, so nothing in the quote arrives as a surprise.
What does a fixed price from Rory mean?
He attends, looks at the job, and gives you one number for the whole thing. That is what you pay. It is not an hourly rate with an estimate attached, and there is no call at the end explaining why it grew. If something genuinely unexpected turns up behind a wall you hear about it before any more work happens, not afterwards on the invoice.
Is the wiring permit included?
Yes. In Nova Scotia only the holder of a valid certificate in the Electrical Construction trade can obtain a wiring permit, so it is part of the job rather than something you arrange separately. A homeowner cannot pull their own, which is different from most of the country.
How long does a quote take?
Rory attends, looks at what is there, and you get the number. For most residential jobs that is one visit. For a whole-home rewire he will want to see the attic, the basement and the panel before putting a figure on it.