Maplewood’s houses were built for a different electrical century. When these brick foursquares, bungalows, and frame two-stories went up along the streetcar lines in the early 1900s, “wired” meant a light in each room, a few outlets, and a service that would embarrass a modern toaster. A hundred years and countless partial updates later, many Maplewood homes are electrical archaeology — newer circuits in the remodeled kitchen, mid-century additions in the basement, and, in the attic and untouched bedrooms, sometimes the original knob-and-tube still quietly doing its job. Exceptional Electric has served the St. Louis area since 2004, with our Kirkwood office minutes down the road, and century-home electrical work is a specialty we take seriously.
The good news about old wiring is that it was often installed with real craftsmanship. The bad news is that no craftsmanship survives a hundred years of brittle insulation, buried junctions, insulation blown over live knob-and-tube runs, and generations of amateur splices. Add a 60-amp service that can’t carry a modern household, ungrounded two-wire circuits behind three-prong outlets someone swapped in, and you have the standard Maplewood inspection report. None of it is a reason to fear the house — these homes are worth every bit of the work — but it is a reason to have someone who knows century construction assess what’s actually behind the plaster. That’s us.
Need an electrician in Maplewood today? Call (636) 782-4170 or request an appointment online.
Electrical Services We Provide in Maplewood
Our licensed master and journeyman electricians handle the full range of residential and commercial work. Maplewood customers call us most often for:
- Knob-and-Tube Assessment & Rewiring — We identify where original wiring remains active, evaluate its condition, and plan rewiring in stages that respect both your budget and your plaster.
- Service & Panel Upgrades — Moving a 60- or 100-amp service to modern 200-amp capacity is the foundation every other improvement in a century home builds on.
- Grounding Corrections — Two-wire homes and three-prong expectations don’t mix. We add proper grounding or code-approved GFCI protection so your outlets are what they claim to be.
- GFCI Outlet Installation — Kitchens, baths, basements, and exteriors brought up to modern protection standards — and a code-recognized path for ungrounded circuits.
- Electrical Safety Inspections — A documented, room-by-room assessment of what eras of wiring your home actually contains — invaluable for buyers, sellers, and anyone facing an insurance or occupancy inspection.
- Code Corrections — Inspection report in hand? We correct flagged items — open junctions, missing protection, improper splices — and document the work for whoever needs to see it.
- Outlet Installation — Century homes were built with a fraction of the outlets modern life needs. We add them properly — no extension-cord archaeology required.
- Lighting Fixture Installation — From restoring character fixtures safely to adding recessed lighting where plaster ceilings allow, done with respect for the house.
- Whole-Home Surge Protection — Once the panel is modern, panel-mounted protection shields the electronics a century home was never planned around.
- EV Charger Installation — Yes, even here. Level 2 charging for century homes starts with a load calculation and often pairs with the service upgrade these houses need anyway.
Own a storefront or restaurant space in downtown Maplewood? We also provide commercial electrical service and tenant finish-out work for the shops and restaurants along the Manchester and Sutton corridors — spaces where century-old buildings meet modern kitchen and POS loads.
Rewiring a Century Home Without Wrecking It
The question every Maplewood homeowner asks is some version of: does it all have to come out? The honest answer is — usually not all at once, and sometimes not all. Knob-and-tube that’s intact, unmodified, and not buried under insulation can be in serviceable condition; the trouble is that “intact and unmodified” gets rarer every decade, and insurers increasingly decline to take anyone’s word for it. Our approach is triage, not demolition. First, a real assessment: which circuits are original, which are mid-century additions, what condition the insulation is in, and where the buried junctions hide. Then a staged plan — the attic runs under insulation and the heavily loaded circuits first, the sound and lightly used runs later or during future projects — routed through basements, attics, and closets to minimize plaster surgery. Every stage priced firm and itemized before work begins. The result is a house that keeps its 1910 soul on 2026 wiring, without the walls paying for it.
Why Maplewood Homeowners Call Exceptional Electric
Century homes are familiar territory. Two decades of St. Louis-area work means we’ve rewired through more plaster, balloon framing, and mystery junction boxes than we can count — and our Kirkwood office is minutes away.
Licensed, and it shows in the work. Every job is performed or supervised by electricians who meet Missouri licensing standards, with master and journeyman electricians handling service upgrades, rewiring, and code corrections.
Upfront, per-item pricing. You approve the price before we start — especially important in old-house work, where “we’ll see what we find” too often becomes a blank check elsewhere.
Rated 4.9 on Google. Hundreds of St. Louis-area homeowners have reviewed us, and the same themes keep surfacing: on time, clean work, and technicians who explain what they’re doing in plain language.
Financing available. A staged rewire or service upgrade doesn’t have to wait. We offer financing through Wisetack so the work can happen on your timeline.
Serving All of Maplewood & Shrewsbury
We cover Maplewood end to end — the brick streets around downtown, the neighborhoods off Sutton Boulevard and Big Bend, and the blocks running toward the Deer Creek greenway. We serve neighboring Shrewsbury just as thoroughly, where the housing story is much the same: early-century homes with the same wiring eras, the same 60-amp services, and the same rewards for doing the work right. Brentwood, Webster Groves, and Richmond Heights are all in our regular range as well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you offer emergency electrical service in Maplewood?
Yes. Electrical emergencies don’t keep business hours, and neither do we. Call (636) 782-4170 and we’ll dispatch a technician to your Maplewood home as quickly as possible.
How do I know if my house still has knob-and-tube wiring?
Look for white ceramic knobs and tubes along basement joists or in the attic — but absence there doesn’t mean absence everywhere, since original runs often survive only inside walls and ceilings. A professional assessment traces what’s actually live. We document every era of wiring we find, circuit by circuit.
Is knob-and-tube wiring illegal or automatically unsafe?
Neither, strictly speaking — but its safe operation depends on conditions that rarely survive a century: intact insulation, no buried junctions, no contact with thermal insulation, and no overloaded circuits. Insurers are also increasingly unwilling to cover it. We assess honestly and prioritize replacement where the risk is real.
Can I buy or insure a Maplewood home with old wiring?
Often yes, but expect the insurer or lender to ask questions — many now require an inspection, remediation timeline, or proof of replacement. A documented electrical assessment before closing tells you the real scope, which is negotiating leverage rather than a post-closing surprise.
Will rewiring destroy my plaster walls?
Not the way we do it. Most runs route through basements, attics, and closets; where wall access is unavoidable, we make small, strategic openings rather than trenching plaster. Some patching is part of any rewire — wholesale demolition is not.
Do you also serve Shrewsbury, Brentwood, and Richmond Heights?
We do. Shrewsbury, Brentwood, Richmond Heights, and the surrounding inner-ring communities are all part of our regular service territory, covered from our Kirkwood office minutes away.
Ready to get it handled? Whether it’s the knob-and-tube question your insurer just raised or the service upgrade your century home has earned, Exceptional Electric is the Maplewood electrician you can count on. Call (636) 782-4170 or request an appointment online and we’ll get you on the schedule.