Scarborough · Toronto Hydro service area
Wiring and rewiring for Scarborough homes
Scarborough's houses span three decades of wiring practice, from ungrounded post-war cable to the aluminum some 1970s homes received. We find out what's in your walls, then plan new wiring around the way the house is used now.
Scarborough's wiring, by decade
Three decades, three kinds of cable
Most of Scarborough was built after the Second World War, so true knob-and-tube is less common here than in the old city. The wiring questions are different. They depend mainly on when your street went up.
Bungalows from the 1950s in Wexford, Bendale, Birch Cliff and Cliffside were often wired with early two-wire cable that has no ground. That's why so many still have two-prong outlets in the bedrooms. The cable can be serviceable, but it limits what you can safely plug in, and insurers often ask about it.
Homes built from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s may have aluminum branch wiring. That window covers parts of Agincourt, L'Amoreaux, West Hill and Highland Creek. Aluminum isn't automatically unsafe, but its connections need devices rated for it and careful workmanship.
Later homes in Malvern and the north-east usually have grounded copper cable. Their needs are about capacity: more circuits, more outlets, and wiring for a basement that's becoming a home.
Split-levels
Wiring a house with five half-floors
Backsplits and side-splits are everywhere in Scarborough. Their half-levels make them pleasant to live in and awkward to wire. A single circuit may serve a bedroom on the upper level and a hallway half a flight down. The panel is often in the garage or the lowest level, far from the rooms above.
New cable has to climb between levels through closets, chases and the spaces beside stairs. We map those routes before opening anything, so the openings land where they're easiest to patch. In many cases the garage ceiling or an unfinished lower level gives us a path that avoids finished walls.
Two-prong outlets upstairs
Ungrounded circuits that can't take a three-prong plug without proper work.
Lights dimming on another level
One circuit shared across half-levels and carrying too much.
Warm switch plates or outlets
A connection that needs attention soon. Stop using it until it's checked.
Power bars in every room
The house needs more outlets, more circuits, or both.
Second suites
Wiring the lower unit
Turning a Scarborough basement into a legal second unit is one of the most common reasons we rewire here. The basement may have a few outlets, a laundry circuit and bare-bulb lights. The suite needs much more than that.
- Kitchen circuitsRange, counter receptacles, fridge and range hood
- Bathroom and laundryWith ground-fault protection where it's required
- Interconnected smoke and CO alarmsLinked between the units as the building code requires
- Exit and stair lightingIncluding the side or rear entrance
- Labelled circuits or a sub-panelSo each household knows what's theirs
New circuits need panel space. If yours is full or still on 100 amps, plan a panel upgrade in Scarborough alongside the suite.
The process
How a Scarborough wiring job runs
Look and listen
We check the panel and the wiring we can reach, and note what you want added or changed.
Plan and price
Routes, phases and any patching, in a fixed, written price.
ESA filing
The permit is filed before work begins.
Wiring
Cable fished between levels, floors covered, openings kept small.
Inspection
ESA inspects, and you receive the Certificate of Acceptance. Replaced wiring is left disconnected.
Questions
Wiring and rewiring in Scarborough: questions
How do I know whether my Agincourt house has aluminum wiring?
Homes built from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s are the ones to ask about. Sometimes the cable jacket in an unfinished basement is printed with "AL" or "aluminum", but the reliable way is an inspection. Aluminum branch wiring needs devices rated for it and careful connections.
We're converting our basement into a suite. Can the old basement wiring stay?
Usually only part of it. A second unit needs its own kitchen, bathroom and laundry circuits, interconnected alarms and exit lighting. We look at what's there, reuse what meets the requirements and plan the rest with your designer's drawings.
Our side-split has outlets on the upper level that keep tripping. Is that a wiring problem?
It can be an overloaded circuit, a failing breaker or a loose connection. In split-levels, one circuit often feeds rooms on two different half-levels, which makes it easy to overload. A diagnostic visit finds the cause before anything is replaced.
Do you take out the ESA permit?
Yes. In Ontario, the licensed contractor files the notification of work with the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) and books the inspection. We handle it on every job that needs one, and you get the ESA Certificate of Acceptance when the work passes. Keep it: insurers and home buyers often ask for it.
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