Full replacement of 1960s-70s aluminum branch circuits with new copper.
Aluminum wiring remediation replaces the solid aluminum branch circuits in your house with new copper ones. New conductors, new home runs back to the panel, new boxes and devices on every circuit in scope. It is a rewire of the circuits that carry aluminum, not a repair of the old connections.
Solid aluminum was used for ordinary lighting and receptacle circuits in houses built roughly from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. The cable jacket is usually printed with ALUMINUM or AL, and the conductor itself is silver rather than copper-colored. In Santa Cruz County that lands mostly in the tract housing built during that window — Live Oak, parts of Capitola and Soquel, Scotts Valley, the Aptos flats — rather than the pre-war Westside stock where knob-and-tube turns up. Most houses from that era are mixed: some circuits aluminum, some copper, depending on what a previous owner touched. The build year tells you to look. Only opening devices tells you what is actually there.
Aluminum is not a bad conductor. The trouble is at the terminations. Aluminum expands and contracts more than copper as a circuit heats and cools, it is softer under a screw, and it forms a surface oxide that resists current instead of carrying it. Over decades that combination works connections loose at outlets, switches, and splices, and a loose connection under load is a heat source. Because the failure happens at the ends of the wire rather than in the middle of a run, the warning signs are local: a cover plate that is warm to the touch, a switch discolored around the screws, a hot-plastic smell at one outlet, lights that flicker on one circuit and nowhere else.
Two things this work is not. First, it is not about the large aluminum conductors used for service entrances and feeders — those are a different material specification, they are still installed under current code, and a report that mentions aluminum at your service or a subpanel feed is not making the same finding as one that says aluminum branch wiring. Second, this is the replacement path, not a connector-based repair. There are repair methods in the trade that terminate the existing aluminum and splice a copper tail onto it at each device. What this page describes is taking the aluminum branch circuits out and running copper in their place. Doing that in a finished, occupied house — fishing walls instead of opening them, phasing rooms so the power stays on, leaving the place livable each evening — is the awkward kind of work we are built for.
A tech pulls a sample of devices, confirms whether the conductor is genuinely solid aluminum, and maps which circuits carry it. Mixed houses are the norm, so the map is what the quote gets built on. Written report and a real quote, no pressure to commit.
We write down which circuits get replaced, which rooms get opened, where new copper meets existing copper, and in what order the work runs so you keep power. The permit goes in with the County for unincorporated addresses, or with the city in Santa Cruz, Capitola, Scotts Valley, or Watsonville.
New copper home runs go in and the aluminum circuits come out of service area by area, per the plan. New boxes and devices throughout the scope. Progress inspections happen at the milestones the building department requires, scheduled so they never stall the crew.
Final inspection, every new circuit labeled at the panel, the circuit map finalized, and the documentation package handed over — permit number, inspection sign-off, and a plain record of what was replaced. That last document is what a carrier or a buyer's inspector will ask for.
Quotes are free, and a real number needs a tech in the house — the build year tells us to look for aluminum, but only opening devices tells us how many circuits actually carry it, and that count is the single biggest thing separating a modest project from a large one. Two houses on the same street from the same year routinely come back with very different scopes. So we survey first, write the boundary down, and price what is really there. The factors below are what move the number.
“Sunrise Electrical rewired our house, replacing the old knob-and-tube wiring with seamless, safe, and up-to-code wiring at a very reasonable price. They were incredibly efficient, worked cleanly, and addressed all our questions and concerns with care. We can't recommend them highly enough!”
Pulled from what we actually hear on quotes and on-site. If yours isn't here, ask us — we'll answer in plain English.
We'd rather you get the right outcome than the Sunrise outcome. Some of this points away from us on purpose.
Look for a CSLB-licensed C-10 contractor and verify the license at cslb.ca.gov. Ask for references from aluminum branch-circuit work specifically, ask whether they replace or repair and why, and make sure the work includes a permit and a building-department inspection.
Browse our field guidesCloth-insulated cable, early Romex, and solid aluminum all show up in county houses and they are different problems with different answers. The field guide shows you what each one looks like and what it means.
Read the old-wiring guideA free whole-home inspection confirms whether the wiring is actually aluminum, how many circuits carry it, and what else is going on. You keep the written report either way, and there is no obligation to schedule anything.
Schedule a free inspectionFrom Davenport to Pajaro Dunes, San Lorenzo Valley to Pleasure Point. Same crew, same warranty, same pricing.
Free inspection, a circuit-by-circuit map before any number gets quoted, and a 20-year guarantee on the work we do.