Aluminum wiring remediation

Aluminum wiring remediation is the job that most often starts with an insurance letter. A renewal asks a question nobody asked for forty years, and suddenly there is a deadline attached to what is in the walls.

The good news is that the fix is smaller than people fear, because the risk is smaller and more specific than the letters imply.

What aluminum wiring remediation actually is

Aluminum branch wiring, standard in Canadian houses from roughly 1965 to 1978, carries current perfectly well. What fails is the connections: aluminum moves with temperature more than copper and creeps under screw pressure, so a terminal tightened in 1972 can be loose today, and a loose connection makes heat where heat starts fires.

Aluminum wiring remediation goes connection by connection. Every accessible outlet, switch, splice and fixture on the aluminum circuits is opened, ended with an approved connector or replaced with a device rated for aluminum, and closed. The walls stay closed, and the wire stays where it is, because the wire was never the problem.

The insurer decides the paperwork

Before we quote, we ask what your insurer has asked for in writing. Most accept a remediation letter from a licensed electrician; some want the permit number; a few insist on full replacement, which is a different and much larger job. Doing the work to their letter the first time is far cheaper than arguing afterwards.

Where this comes up in the HRM

The 1965 to 1978 window is exactly when Lower Sackville, Cole Harbour and much of postwar Dartmouth were built, so this is one of the most common jobs we see in those communities. It often runs alongside a panel upgrade, because a house of that age is frequently due for one anyway.