More than a third of the detached houses for sale in Vancouver were built before 1951, when knob and tube wiring was standard. Here is how to spot it and deal with it before you buy.
Written by Hamidreza Etebarian on
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Knob and tube wiring is the original electrical system in many BC houses built before about 1950, and Vancouver still has a lot of them on the market. As of October 6, 2026, 485 of the 1,348 detached houses listed for sale in the City of Vancouver were built in 1950 or earlier, about 36% of the supply, at a median asking price of $2,699,895 across all detached listings. Plenty of those houses were rewired years ago. Some still have live knob and tube circuits behind the plaster. This guide covers how to spot it, where the older stock sits, why insurers care, and who is allowed to remove it in BC.
Knob and tube was the standard way to wire a Canadian house before 1950 (Canadian Underwriter, 2024). Single copper conductors run separately through the framing, held off the wood by porcelain knobs and passed through joists inside porcelain tubes. The insulation on those wires is cloth and rubber, and there is no ground conductor.
You can often see it in an unfinished basement or attic: pairs of separate wires about a hand's width apart, white ceramic knobs nailed to the joists, and short ceramic sleeves where the wires pass through wood. Two-prong outlets throughout the house and an old fuse panel are hints, but they prove nothing on their own. A house can have a modern breaker panel and still feed a few old knob and tube circuits from it.
The word to watch for in a listing is "partially rewired." It usually means some circuits were replaced and others were not. A home inspector can flag visible knob and tube, but only a licensed electrician can tell you how much of it is still live and in what condition.
Pre-1951 houses are spread across both halves of the city. Of the 485 detached listings built in 1950 or earlier, 251 are on the Vancouver Westside and 230 are on the Vancouver Eastside. Kitsilano alone has 31 of them, and Grandview Woodland has 27. Asking prices for these older houses run from $939,000 for a house in South Vancouver to $18,990,000 in Point Grey, so the wiring question comes up at every budget.
Outside the city, New Westminster has 87 detached houses for sale that were built in 1950 or earlier, 8 of them in Queens Park. You can filter any area by building age on the Zealty map and see the full list of old houses for sale before you book a showing.
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A house built in 1940 is not automatically a knob and tube house. Many were rewired during renovations decades ago. Age tells you where to look harder, and the electrician tells you what is actually there.
Insurers in Canada generally treat homes with knob and tube wiring, aluminum wiring, or 60-amp service as high risk, which makes them harder to insure (Canadian Underwriter, 2024). The wiring itself can last a long time when nobody has touched it. The trouble comes from age and from what owners have done to it since.
In practice, an insurer may decline the house, ask for a letter from a licensed electrician, add a surcharge, or require the old circuits to be removed within a set time. Policies differ by company, so ask for a quote on the specific address before you commit to the purchase.
Insurance matters for financing too. Mortgage lenders require property insurance on the home before they release funds, so a house you cannot insure is a house you may not be able to close on with a mortgage.
Replacing knob and tube wiring is regulated electrical work in BC and needs a permit and an inspection. Under section 17 of BC's Electrical Safety Regulation (B.C. Reg. 100/2004, made under the Safety Standards Act, current to its March 4, 2025 amendment), a homeowner may do electrical work only in a fully detached dwelling they live in or intend to live in as a permanent residence, under an installation permit, on single-phase service of no more than 200 amps and 150 volts to ground. The regulation defines a fully detached dwelling as a detached building with only one dwelling unit, so a house with a secondary suite does not qualify. The work has to be inspected before any rough wiring is covered. Otherwise, the work goes to a licensed electrical contractor.
In Vancouver, electrical permits come from the City rather than Technical Safety BC. The City's homeowner permit spells out the same limits: it is not available for a house that contains a secondary suite, a rental unit, or a laneway house (City of Vancouver, Electrical permit, 2026). If the house you are buying has a basement suite or a laneway house, a licensed contractor is the only route.
The price of a rewire depends on the size of the house, whether the walls are original plaster and lath, and how easy the attic and crawlspace are to reach. Many owners upgrade the electrical panel and service at the same time. Get a written quote from a licensed electrician for the specific house, ideally during your subject period, rather than relying on a general estimate.
Treat the wiring the same way you would treat a possible buried oil tank on an older BC home: confirm it before your offer goes firm, and settle the cost in writing.
All of this has to fit inside your conditions. Our guide to subject removal in BC explains how the subject period works and how much time you have to investigate. If the house needs more than wiring, the numbers in our fixer-upper guide will help you price the whole job.
Knob and tube wiring is a known, fixable problem, and it is common in Vancouver's pre-1951 houses. The risk to a buyer is finding out after the subjects are removed that the house is hard to insure or needs a full rewire. Check the permit history, get an electrician's opinion and an insurance quote during the subject period, and price the work into your offer.
Search older houses across Metro Vancouver on Zealty to compare building age, price history and sold prices before you make an offer.
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