Rewiring an older home isn't a fault list to be worked through methodically — it's a sympathetic upgrade. The cable that needs to go is mixed in with original detail worth keeping, the switchboard belongs somewhere it won't ruin the room, and the heritage overlay (if there is one) cares about what the front of the house looks like, not what's inside the walls. We've worked in Edwardian, Federation, Victorian and inter-war homes across Hawthorn, Camberwell, Kew, Balwyn and Surrey Hills, and the approach is the same: identify what's genuinely dangerous, keep what's sound, and replace the rest with cable and fittings that look like they belong.
What we replace (the genuinely dangerous stuff)
Knob-and-tube is the obvious one — porcelain insulators and rubber-coated single cores running through the roof space. By now the rubber is perished, the brittle remains crack when touched, and any thermal load (downlights, ducted heating) brings the surface temperature up against what's left of the insulation. We strip it out. The same goes for VIR cable (vulcanised India rubber, common in the 1920s–40s) once the sheath has gone hard, and for any cloth-sheathed run where the insulation has crumbled inside the wall. Older asbestos-sheathed cable — common in the kind of period meter boards you'll find around east Melbourne — gets removed under controlled conditions.
What we keep and restore
Original ceiling roses are almost always salvageable. We pull them down, replace the cable inside them, and refit the original fixture. Period pendants, picture lights and decorative fittings often just need a rewire of the flex and a new earth — the brass or porcelain bodies outlast their cabling by decades. If we genuinely can't save a fitting we'll source a like-for-like reproduction rather than substituting a modern one, and we'll talk you through the options before ordering.
Switchboards in old houses
The default when rewiring an older home is to move the switchboard out of the kitchen or front hall during the upgrade — laundry, pantry, internal cupboard, or a hallway recess all work. A modern board with safety switches on every circuit is non-negotiable for safety, but it doesn't have to be the first thing visitors see. Where the consumer mains are also undersized — common in homes built for a single light circuit and two power circuits per floor — we resize them at the same time and coordinate the metering reconnection with the distributor.
Heritage overlay considerations
Heritage overlay rules are about exterior visibility. Internal rewiring isn't restricted. Solar conduit on a heritage-significant elevation, external lighting visible from the street, or relocating the meter to a more visible spot — those are the touchpoints, and we flag them in the quote so there's no surprise at certificate-of-occupancy time. Inside the house you can put a modern switchboard, run new circuits, and install LED downlights without engaging council at all.
Standards the work meets
Every job is wired to AS/NZS 3000 (the Wiring Rules) — the same standard new builds work to. There's no separate "heritage exemption" in the Australian electrical code, which means a Federation home with a tasteful new board is held to exactly the same safety bar as a 2026 new build. Hardwired interconnected smoke alarms per AS 3786 go in during any major work, and a Certificate of Electrical Safety is lodged with Energy Safe Victoria on completion.