Aluminum Wiring Repair in Gresham, OR
- Every outlet and switch connection checked
- Repair or rewire options explained
- Licensed Oregon contractor, CCB #259813
What Our Customers Say
Is Your Gresham House From the Aluminum Wiring Years?
For houses built 1965 to 1973: every outlet, switch and light connection remade by a licensed, bonded and insured contractor.
Gresham built more homes in the 1970s than in any other decade — 24.8% of them — and the early part of that boom fell in the years when builders ran aluminum instead of copper on lighting and outlet circuits. The cable inside the wall is seldom the trouble. The trouble is where it ends. Aluminum swells and shrinks more than copper with every warm-up and cool-down, so a screw terminal gradually works loose, and the bare metal oxidizes. A loose, oxidized joint runs hot and can scorch the device or the box around it.
So the work goes box by box. At each outlet, switch, light and junction box, a short copper lead is spliced onto the aluminum with a connector listed for joining the two metals, and the copper lead goes to the device; a device left on aluminum has to be rated CO/ALR. The one box that gets skipped is the one that fails, so none are. If the house also needs grounds, more circuits or a new panel, the estimate prices a full rewire alongside.
How Aluminum Wiring Repair Runs Here
Confirm the metal
Check the panel and a few boxes
Written estimate
Repair or full rewire, side by side
One circuit off
The rest of the house keeps power
Box by box
Copper leads on listed connectors, or CO/ALR devices
Test and inspect
Every circuit tested, then the city inspection
Gresham holds 3,491 houses built in 1965–73, and 53% of its 44,005 homes date from 1960–89. A build date in that window is a reason to look, not proof: we check the panel and several boxes before anything is quoted.
Signs of Aluminum Branch Circuits
What Affects the Cost of Aluminum Wiring Repair in Gresham
We open a few boxes before quoting, and these are the things that make one house here a bigger job than the next.
How many boxes the house has
Each outlet, switch, light and junction box gets its own copper lead, so the total box count sets most of the hours.
Which circuits are aluminum
In a local house from 1965–73, later additions may be copper, and only the aluminum circuits need the connector work.
Heat marks along the way
A scorched outlet or box turns up now and then, and it is swapped out before its new lead goes on.
Reaching each connection
Painted-in cover plates, stuffed boxes and lights on tall ceilings slow the work at every location.
Devices kept on aluminum
Anywhere a device stays on the aluminum conductor itself, it has to carry the CO/ALR rating.
Repair, or a rewire instead
A house also short on grounds, circuits or panel space may be better off with a full rewire, which the city inspects.
No utility visit
The meter and service stay untouched, so there is no PGE appointment to schedule around.
Every job gets a written estimate before any work starts.
Why Homeowners Here Call PWR Pro Electric
Both routes priced in writing
Repair and full rewire compared before you decide
One of our busiest areas
Along with NE Portland and Troutdale
Licensed Oregon contractor, CCB #259813
Bonded & insured, 1-year warranty on our work
Questions Homeowners Ask
Is fixing the connections enough, or does the aluminum wiring have to come out?
One room's lights flicker and an outlet keeps quitting. Could that be aluminum?
Will PGE shut off the power for the repair?
How many days does aluminum wiring repair take for a whole house?
Book Aluminum Wiring Repair in Gresham
Written estimate before any work begins.