Should aluminum wiring in a house be replaced?

Aluminum branch-circuit wiring from roughly 1965 to 1975 should at least be remediated. The risk lives at the connections: old solid aluminum creeps and oxidizes at receptacles, switches, and splices, and that is where fires started.

Full replacement is the gold standard at 12,000 to 30,000 dollars for a typical house. Most owners choose the engineered fix instead: COPALUM crimps or AlumiConn connectors at every termination, roughly 3,000 to 8,500 dollars for a typical house.

Insurers generally accept the pigtail repair with documentation from a licensed electrician.

Aluminum service entrances and large feeders are a different animal and do not need replacing; the problem was small branch wiring, not the metal itself.

Planning circuits during remediation? The aluminum wire amps calculator shows what existing aluminum sizes legitimately carry.