I bought a house with a few newer built rooms and I know the wiring is new but for the rest of the house which was built in the 40's it has old braided looking type of wiring. Instead of hiring an electrician to come in and completely rewire all the old stuff, I would like to run all the wiring myself to save some money and then have an electrician come in and put a new box in and hook it all up.
It will be cheaper to have it done right by a licensed electrician.No electric company is going to sign off on work that a unlicensed electrician worked on. Once an electrician works on the wiring such as replacing the breaker box he has bought the entire system. Second, the city will not pass the work done and therefore there will be no approval for the insurance company.
It depends on what value circuit breaker you install. For a 15 amp circuit, you use 14 gauge wire For a 20 amp circuit, you use 12 gauge. There's nothing that says you can't put the box in yourself, just make sure you get the required permits and get it approved. Heck, running the wire is the hardest part. Plenty of people do their own electrical without being licensed. Just get a decent book to understand the basic codes. I wired by entire basement based on the Electrical 101 book from Home Depot. Put in my own panel, wired it to the main, ran all the outlets. The people on here trying to talk you out of it don't like the competition.
Your best bet is to hire a electrician, willing to do the work. Inquire if they will allow you to do as much of the wiring as they will allow. Have the electrician help you, and instruct you in what to do. It is a big liability for a electrician to hook up your work. They can show you easy ways and legal practices. This would be your best bet get a real professional job, and save some dough. The technician will also have the proper tools and equipment for this kind of work. FYI Don't take on this kind of project without a lot of know how and/or experienced, first hand, advice.
I recently wired my basement, for basic plugs and switches 14/2 or 12/2 wire will do, that's what I used and no fires or electrical explosions yet. However, for a better answer and what to use on larger plugs you could ask someone at a local hardware or electrical supplies store where you'll need to go to buy the wires anyways. If you've never wired anything before i suggest you leave the actual hooking up part to an electrician, specially to the breaker panel/fuse box, if you are gonna RUN the wires but let an electrician hook them up make sure you leave enough extra at the ends for them to work with. Also, depending, if there were an electrical fire, and it came down to you wired your house yourself, your insurance may not cover you, at all.
