Aluminum Wire Pigtailing in Edmonton
Every connection point in the house where aluminum meets another metal gets opened, treated, and closed back up properly.
Every plug, every switch, every splice, every breaker.
Your entire home, completed in one single day service.
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Electrical & Carpentry
Single Day Service
Most Edmonton Homes
Older Homes
Every device, every circuit
What is Pigtailing and What Does it Do?
Aluminum is a dissimilar metal. Where it meets another metal, the two react, because one is more acidic and one is more basic. That reaction slowly erodes the aluminum.
What it leaves behind are pits, little craters in the wire at the connection. Once those form, the contact is no longer as good as it was. Poor contact means small arcs. Arcs create more pitting. The arcs get bigger over time, and eventually that becomes a fire hazard.
Pigtailing stops that chain. We open every connection point in the house where aluminum is present and treat it with a compound that keeps the aluminum from oxidizing, then re-splice it to copper wire and re-terminate your device.
How the damage progresses
None of this happens overnight. It builds at the connection point over years, and every stage makes the next one happen faster.
Clean Connection
Aluminum meets another metal. Full contact, no resistance, everything working as intended.
Pits form
The two metals react and erode the aluminum, leaving small craters in the wire at the connection.
Small arcs begin
Contact is no longer solid, so current starts jumping the gap. Each arc pits the wire further.
Heat and fire risk
Arcs get bigger, the connection runs hot, and that is where this stops being an electrical issue and becomes a fire one.
Pigtailing interrupts this at stage one or two, which is where
almost every home we work on actually is. Waiting until you can see a problem means waiting until stage three or four.
How to tell if your home has aluminum wire
You can check this yourself in about five minutes, without putting yourself in any danger. Go to the room that houses your panel and read the printing on the sides of the cables.
Copper - nothing to do
Conductors look orange-brown (copper)
CU is the elemental symbol for copper. This is a 14 gauge, two-wire copper cable. If this is what is printed on your cables, aluminum pigtailing is not something your home needs.
Aluminum - Worth a call
Conductors look dull silver-grey
AL or ALUM means aluminum. It is usually 12 gauge on regular circuits, because aluminum carries less current than copper for the same size, so it has to be a bigger wire to do the same job.
Shortcut:
if you have fiber jacketed cables, read those ones first. They are more frequently aluminum, though some fiber jacketed copper exists too. And if you are not comfortable being near the panel at all, leave it. We can confirm it for you during a walkthrough.
Which Edmonton homes have aluminum wire?
It is less about the style of house and more about when it was wired. Aluminum was used widely in Canadian homes from roughly 1965 through the late 1970s, because it was considerably cheaper than copper at the time.
It was largely phased out by the early 1980s, but that is not the end of the story. We have found aluminum in homes much older than that, because renovations done during those years used whatever was cheapest at the time.
So a 1950s house is not automatically clear. If any part of it was rewired during that window, it’s possible that aluminum wire was used.
When Edmonton homeowners book this service
These are the three common situations homeowners usually need aluminum pigtailing.
Buying a home
Insurance companies frequently will not insure you when you first move in unless the aluminum has been pigtailed. Some will not insure a home with aluminum at all. This is the most common reason people call us.
Selling a home
The buyer's inspector is going to find it. Handling it before the listing goes up keeps it from becoming a negotiation, a conditional offer, or a number an inspector guesses at.
Older Home
You found out you have aluminum and you would rather deal with it now. Insurers charge more for it, and the work only gets more involved the longer connections sit and degrade.
What happens when an inspector finds it first
Pigtailing does not particularly increase the value of your home. What it does is keep aluminum wire from becoming a problem in the middle of a sale.
When an offer comes in subject to inspection, the inspector is going to see the aluminum and tell the buyer it should be pigtailed. What happens next depends entirely on whether that inspector knows what the work costs.
If they do, they will say roughly $3,000, and the buyer comes back and negotiates that amount off your price anyway.
If they do not, they might tell the buyer it is a $10,000 job. That number is not remotely close to what pigtailing costs, but the buyer does not know that, and some of them walk away entirely.
Handling it before you list takes that out of someone else's hands.
How the day runs
Any point where aluminum connects to anything else in the house is a point of potential trouble, so we open all of them. This is a whole-home job. Doing part of it leaves the untouched connections doing exactly what they were doing before.
Open it up
Cover plates off every plug, cover off the panel, and any exposed junction boxes we can see opened.
Pull the connections
All splices opened, all plugs removed, all lights removed, and the circuits taken out of every breaker.
Treat every point
Each connection coated with the proper compound so the aluminum stops oxidizing at the point where it meets other metal.
Close it back up
Everything re-spliced to copper and closed up properly. Every device ends up attached to copper, which is a code and insurance requirement.
Usually one day
A whole home is normally done in a single day with our three-person crew. A large custom home with a lot of devices, other issues to fix while we are there, and a lighting change can stretch into two.
Why the crew size matters
One electrician working alone would take two days on most homes. We send two or three, which is why the same job takes one.
What we find while we are in there
Because every connection point gets opened, we see the condition of the wiring throughout the house. There is a real difference between what a homeowner can spot and what is actually happening inside the boxes.
What you might notice yourself
- A plug that is toasted on one side
- Big burn marks in the panel
- A junction box in the ceiling that has arced, with soot around it in the joist space
What we typically find first
- Small arcs just starting to happen
- Little craters forming in the aluminum wire itself
- Connections that have degraded but have not shown any outside sign yet
"If you have already noticed the signs of what aluminum can do, you are pretty late to the game."
This is the cheapest time to update your devices
By the end of this job every plug, every switch, and every light fixture in the house has already been removed and handled.
Because of that, most people take the opportunity to have new plugs and switches put in while we are there. Some go further and change out lighting at the same time.
It costs less to do that now than to have electricians come back out later to do only that work. If you have been meaning to update devices or fixtures, this is the moment it is cheapest to do it.
Tell us at the time of quoting and we will price it in alongside the pigtailing.
What does aluminum pigtailing cost?
Ballpark figures based on jobs we have actually done, priced flat for the whole home.
$2,200
Row house condo
$3,000
Typical Edmonton home
$3,800
Larger home
Most homes land around the $3,000 mark. Your exact price depends on the size of the house and how many devices are in it, and we confirm it at the walkthrough before anything starts. Device updates or a lighting change at the same time are quoted separately and added on.
"We had Geoff come out for a quick electrical job and I now know why there are so many 5-star reviews. It wasn't the cost, it was the way they handled themselves through the process."
-Steve W. · Google Review
Questions homeowners ask us
How do I know if my house has aluminum wire?
Read the printing on the cables in your panel room. Copper reads CU, aluminum reads AL or ALUM. Homes wired between roughly 1965 and the late 1970s are the most likely, though renovations done in those years put aluminum into older homes too. We confirm it at the walkthrough before quoting anything.
Do I need to rewire the whole house instead?
Rewiring means opening walls and it costs many times what pigtailing does. Aluminum wire is not the problem in itself. The problem develops at the connection points, and that is exactly what pigtailing addresses.
Can you do just part of the house?
No. Every point where aluminum meets another metal is a potential trouble spot, so we do all of them. Treating half the house leaves the other half doing exactly what it was doing before.
Do we need to leave the house for the day?
No. Homeowners can stay home; however, the power may be shut off intermittently throughout the day.
Can I get my switches and lighting updated at the same time?
Yes, and it is the cheapest time to do it. Every device and fixture is already coming out as part of the job. Mention it at the walkthrough and we will price it in.
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Service area
Alpha-Omega Developments installs aluminum wire pigtailing in Edmonton, Sherwood Park, St. Albert, Leduc, Fort Saskatchewan, and surrounding communities.
Ready to get your aluminum pigtailed?
Once we confirm the wire is aluminum, and count the devices, we can give you a flat price for the whole home on the spot.
